MOST SERENE AND MOST HIGH

PRINCE,

MOST MERCIFUL LORD,

Since Saint Jerome Hieronymus (c. 347–420 AD), a Church Father and the primary translator of the Latin Vulgate Bible. He was renowned for his immense learning.—of whom it was said that no one knew what he himself did not know—confessed that regarding his work on OBADIAH The shortest book in the Old Testament. Jerome wrote two commentaries on it: one in his youth and one in his old age. he had both toyed with the text as a youth and presumed too much as an old man, he did not hesitate to say: I was an infant, I did not yet know how to write, my hand faltered, my joints trembled; now, even if I have made no other progress, I at least hold that Socratic principle: I know that I know nothing original: "Scio, quod nescio." A famous philosophical paradox attributed to Socrates, emphasizing that true wisdom is recognizing the limits of one's own knowledge.; What courage, then, should I have when coming forward into YOUR August presence with my own notes on OBADIAH, where nothing ought to be brought unless it is refined in genius, elaborate in workmanship, and adorned in words? I can promise none of these things for myself, as I am both aware of and lament my own weakness.

But YOUR kindness, MOST MERCIFUL OF PRINCES, and the innate moderation of your divine character, raise me up as I tremble; for it is your custom neither to scorn the infancy of those speaking, nor to hate ignorance, but rather to encourage hesitation of your own accord. Relying, therefore, upon that kindness, I most humbly lay this work—whatever its worth—prostrate at YOUR feet. The most devoted piety pietas: a combination of religious devotion and dutiful loyalty to one's country or superiors of YOUR lowliest little servant could no longer contain itself, and preferred to bear the charge of some rashness or imprudence rather than the crime of an ungrateful soul, or to remain silent about those things which must always be remembered. Indeed, the Christian World knows these things, and all those with a sense of right mind admire them in YOU: sincere Piety,