GUGLIELMO MANZI

LIBRARIAN OF THE BARBERINI LIBRARY The Barberini Library was one of the most significant private collections in Rome, eventually incorporated into the Vatican Library.

TO THE READERS.

The discourse of reason was granted by God to men so that they alone might understand the secrets of nature, and according to its causes, might then philosophize; so that Aristotle does not wrongly instruct us at the beginning of his Metaphysics original: "metafisica" that by natural instinct we desire wisdom. From this, therefore, it follows that our souls, being drawn to the admiration of the marvelous works of nature and art, give ourselves over to seeking their various causes. This research then leads us to possess wisdom, which according to Plato—a philosopher who raised his concepts higher than any other—is nothing other than the knowledge of things divine and human. This was divided by the ancient philosophers into two parts: namely, into speculation and operation, or rather into theory and practice. The goal of the first is the knowledge of truth, and of the second, the completion of the work. For this reason, we must consider as arrogant those who, paying no regard to these philosophical principles, attribute everything to their own judgment—not only in matters pertaining to civil life, but even in the contemplative considerations of the sciences. They oppose the most approved and wisest opinions, and lead themselves to believe that in the fine arts, and especially in painting, practice alone is sufficient to reach excellence. For besides this being manifestly contrary to the aforementioned principles, which are the primary foundations of every science and every art, it is also denied for other specific reasons by the wisest men; it appears, according to them, that the nobility of every science arises above all from two things: first from the subject, and then from the certainty of the demonstrations; meanwhile...