On the Syrian Gods

OF THE FIRST EDITION

...to have [followed], (which might seem to someone of weak judgment to be the case), I have altogether and deservedly rejected; instead, I have used only those things which are either like original testimonies of antiquity, or those which especially deserve trust due to their age. And as that judge Varius Quintus Varius Hybrida, a Roman tribune; the author cites a famous rhetorical line regarding the sufficiency of evidence said: either this is enough witnesses, or I do not know what would be enough for you. Nor have I failed to acknowledge any benefit received from any of the more recent writers. Whatever errors the typesetters original Latin: Operæ may have committed, let that not be turned into a fault against me. Indeed, such care was taken that no sample of their work, even when frequently repeated, emerged without diligent correction.

I thought this must be looked after with even greater care so that I would not now be struck by almost the same domestic misfortune I suffered a year or two ago at the Frankfurt fairs nundinis Francofurtensibus: the Frankfurt Book Fair, the most important international trade fair for books in early modern Europe. For that work, which was my first (and not so unworthy of my youth), written more than twelve years ago and given at that time to a distributor original Latin: institori to be printed, has now at last emerged from the Palthenius workshop officina Paltheniana: the printing office of Zacharias Palthenius, a prominent printer known for scholarly editions in Frankfurt and Hanau. Through the negligence of the typesetters, it has been so corrupted, frequently shortened by mutilations, and so often tampered with—not only in the endings of words but in their complete removal The author uses a play on words here: terminatione (endings) and exterminatione (banishment or total removal)—that it has emerged...