MARIANO LENZI

TO THE VALIANT LADY AURELIA PETRUCCI. The Italian Valorosa Madonna implies not just courage, but a noble excellence and intellectual strength highly praised in Renaissance women of status.

It was a most ancient custom of the writers of Egypt to address the most holy books written by them to Mercury original: Mercurio. Here referring to Hermes Trismegistus, the legendary syncretic figure of the Egyptian god Thoth and the Greek Hermes, credited with the invention of writing and science., because they estimated that all the arts, all the sciences, and all beautiful things had been discovered by Mercury, and that to him, as the inventor of every thing, it was fitting to render thanks for whatever man learned or knew. And for this reason Pythagoras, and Plato, and many other great philosophers went to Egypt to learn philosophy, and for the most part they learned it from the columns of Mercury, which were all full of wisdom and of doctrine.

I likewise, Valiant Lady, judge that whatever can be done by those who have known the highness of your soul is fitting for you, and that their beautiful thoughts, nourished by your divine spirit, should return to you, and strive as much as they can in honor of your name. For they learn true virtues original: uirtù. This term encompasses moral excellence, intellectual power, and the classical concept of "virtù" or effective character. no less from the example of your life than those ancient philosophers did from the columns of Mercury. For if one considers the nobility, the highness, and the refinement of your soul; if one regards how much honesty, courtesy, and grace are present; if one considers what prudence, discernment, and wisdom are there; and finally, if every one of your virtues is gazed upon part by part, it is certainly seen by refined minds original: gl'ingegni purgati. Literally "purged wits," referring to those whose intellects are cleared of common prejudices and are capable of perceiving higher truths. that your life is nothing other than a mirror, and an Ideal original: Idea. Used in the Platonic sense of a perfect, divine archetype or pattern. of the way in which it is fitting for others to live. And those who, mired in earthly things...