TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

AND MOST REVEREND

LORD, LORD LÆLIO RUINO OF BAGNOLO

Lælio Ruini (died 1621) was the Bishop of Reggio Emilia and a patron of the arts and sciences.

BISHOP OF REGGIO, ETC.

BERNARDINO BALDI

SENDS MANY GREETINGS.

The fields of Architecture are most fertile, filled with an abundance of the most beautiful things. For this reason, it is greatly to be lamented that in this, our unhappy age, there are so few who would devote useful—indeed, entirely necessary—labor to their most noble cultivation. Whether this happens through the fault of the era, or for some other cause, we shall not debate. This much we certainly know: that the good arts are nourished and spread by honors and rewards, and that many most brilliant minds perish everywhere through the greed or neglect of great men.

Toward such excellent and beautiful studies, beyond any controversy, I have been inclined since my very youth; and these I have not only ardently loved, but also diligently cultivated, as far as was permitted by most troublesome cares and constant occupations. Witnesses to this are those "little nighttime works" original: "lucubratiunculæ." A modest term scholars used for works written by lamplight. of mine, some of which the famous man Marcus Welser Marcus Welser (1558–1614) was a German banker, historian, and patron of the sciences who helped publish Baldi's work.—to whom I had dedicated them—most kindly saw to it that they were published elegantly, lest they remain hidden forever, overwhelmed by darkness.

Among my other late-night labors, however, I held in my hands the Manufacture of Artillery original: "Belopoeeca" of Hero of Alexandria, written in Greek, concerning the construction of ballistae, scorpions, and catapults. These works had been, as they say, "interdicted from water and fire" original: "aqua & igni... interdicta." A Roman legal phrase for exile, here used metaphorically to mean the text was inaccessible or neglected by other scholars. by even the most learned and famous men...