TO THE READER.

...which will undoubtedly be most welcome to sound judges of affairs and to all students of antiquity. Moreover, merchants, chemists original: "chimici"; in the 16th century, this included both alchemists and early chemical practitioners who often used secret notations to protect their recipes, and others whose heart’s desire is to shroud their affairs in veils of darkness, will find here a far more abundant harvest of such secrets than ever before.

But since these books will sufficiently recommend themselves, we shall now say a few words regarding the title, which has been changed by us. In this matter, we do not deny that it was pointed out to us from how many serious authors Master Porta original: "D. Porta"; Giambattista della Porta took the opportunity to establish his work. However, since the translation of "furtive" original: "furtiui"; a reference to Porta's original title, De Furtivis Literarum Notis ("On Secret Characters of Letters") is less pleasing to readers, and the title of Ciphers original: "Ziferarum"; a Latinization of the term for ciphers or numerical codes seemed hardly necessary, we have taken care to substitute in its place the one that pleased us, which appeared to be both more acceptable and more comprehensive.

Regarding errors, we can affirm this: a great number have been removed in this edition of ours. This will be easily discovered by those who compare it with the previous edition.

As for what we stated in the third place—that we would advise on certain examples—the situation is as follows: the author is accustomed to provide examples of two kinds, those of others and his own. As for those belonging to others—namely, the ancient writers—he seems protected by the common right of all interpreters original: "interpretum"; here meaning translators, commentators, or those who explain ancient texts. For in whatever condition they found such things, they also...