An ornamental woodcut headpiece featuring elaborate leafy scrolls and two reclining human figures at the outer edges facing inward towards a central circular design.

TO A NOBLE, VIRTUOUS AND PRUDENT LORD;

SIR Barnabé Brisson, Knight, Lord of Gravelle: Counselor to the King in his Privy Council; and His Majesty’s Advocate in the Court of Parlement in Paris. Barnabé Brisson (1531–1591) was one of the most learned jurists of 16th-century France. The "Parlement" mentioned here was not a legislative body like today’s parliaments, but the highest judicial court in the kingdom.

A large decorative drop cap 'I' intertwined with floral and vine patterns.

I bring you nothing new here, most learned and excellent personage; nor could I in any other matter bring anything so little new: for can anything be hidden from you of all the most hidden sciences and disciplines that human understanding can reach? Nor could anything steal or withdraw itself from your diligent vigilance; from the careful and continual course of your so laborious studies; from the quick liveliness of your divine spirit; and from the solid resolution of your most mature judgment? You, who having hardly reached the middle of your life, possess in the first place a most perfect knowledge of languages; which is to humane letters The "bonnes lettres" (humane letters) refers to the Renaissance study of classical literature, rhetoric, and history, which formed the core of Humanist education. the very same as the key to some treasure, the riches of which it places before us: or like the instruments and tools of a craftsman, without which he could execute nothing of his art. You are precisely versed in the doctrine of Holy Scripture; in every kind of philosophy; in the science of divine and human law This refers to the study of both Canon law (the law of the Church) and Civil law (Roman and secular law)., your primary profession, with such a rich and eloquent speech; a facility so flowing for expressing your ideas well; of saying all that you wish; so that you seem to be a closed field A "camp clos" was an arena for a tournament or duel; here, it is a metaphor for a space where two great virtues—eloquence and erudition—meet and contend. where eloquence and erudition must