TO THE MOST SERENE AND MOST HIGH PRINCES

AND LORDS.

To the Lords Large opening curly brace enclosing the names in the following three lines

George William

John Frederick

Ernest Augustus

Large closing curly brace Brothers.

BY THE GRACE OF GOD, DUKES

of Brunswick-Lüneburg,

etc. etc. etc.

To his Most Clement

Lords and Princes.

Decorative woodcut initial "M" at the start of the paragraph.

As I reflect frequently and ever more deeply in my mind, Most Serene and Most High Princes, Most Merciful Lords, upon the vast heaps of Alexandrine original: "Alexandrinæ" — a reference to the legendary generosity of Alexander the Great, a common compliment for royal patrons generosity with which you have most mercifully and often fulfilled and blessed me, and by which Your Highnesses original: "Cel: V." abbreviating Celsitudines Vestrae have bound me to you until my final breath, the thought occurred to me: with what veneration, or with what industry of my intellect I might...