Ocellus Lucanus: On the Nature of the Universe

...ought to be offered to your most illustrious name by one who professes to owe everything to you? To whom could a Pythagorean philosopherA follower of Pythagoras; here referring to the author or the subject of the text who blends mathematics, music, and mysticism. more rightly approach than to you? For you, being well-versed in Greek literature, have happily penetrated the inner sanctuaries of both human and divine wisdom with a wonderful sharpness of mind, and in you, one may venerate an ancient purity of character. To whom could he more justly come—he who has most learnedly joined the secrets of physical and political discipline—than to you? Your robust mind, fashioned for both the stateoriginal: "respublica" and the sciences, has fulfilled all parts of these with equal success. You have always so elegantly occupied the intervals of your business with the study of letters, that your mind, though pulled in different directions by the mass of such great burdens, seemed to be free for this one pursuit alone. From this source, you were able to govern the most difficult works with counsel, protect them with skill, and perfect them with virtue. While you were in charge of the Ecclesiastical jurisdictionReferring to the administration of Church territories or legal authority., you always tempered your command with kindness and mercy. Steadfast in difficult matters, with the highest vigor of soul and a noble endurance of dangers, you—fortified by a mature virtue—so corrected the times of uncertain fortune that you set aside the princely pride of your most noble Family to defend the dignity of the Apostolic SeeThe authority and jurisdiction of the Pope., which URBAN VIII...