DEDICATION

DEDICATION.

To investigate the origins original: "natales," literally "births" or "lineage" of wisdom, to demonstrate the fates it has suffered among mortals, to praise its followers and those who spread it, and to mark its enemies or those who corrupt it with a black pebble original: "atro notare lapillo," a classical idiom referring to the ancient Roman custom of using black stones to cast a vote for condemnation or to mark an unlucky day—anyone will readily admit that these tasks are of such importance that whoever treats them as matters of the smallest concern, or convinces himself and others that they can be safely ignored, should rightly be judged to have declared war on wisdom and true scholarship original: "eruditioni" itself.

But since wisdom has never established a fixed home in any one place, but has wandered through every part of the world—finding folly as its companion everywhere—whoever wishes to discover its sure tracks must travel through the annals of every nation and the records original: "monumenta," referring to historical texts, monuments, and the intellectual legacy of the past of both the ancients and the moderns.

These traces, unless I am entirely mistaken, are found nowhere more clearly than among the Hebrew people, with whom the chronicles original: "fastos," a term originally referring to the Roman priestly calendars, here meaning the recorded history or "hall of fame" of philosophy ought, not without merit, to be seen—