PREFACE OF THE SAME

TO THE READER.

I shall not detain you with many words, Reader, to set forth the reason for my undertaking. I have always loved, as he deserves, the great Dionysius—most ancient in years, supreme in religion, the leader in the assembly of the Fathers, and among writers πετεινὸν θεοῦ [God’s winged one], as the most sweet Chrysostom used to name him: that is, the swift Eagle, who would approach more closely the sun of divine intelligence. His abundance and divinely exalted loftiness of speech—wonderfully occupied in the exposition of sublime matters—is able to seize and inflame the mind. To reveal the feelings of my own soul, his piety and religion first captivated me deeply, along with many other great virtues that shine throughout the whole work. For he not only thinks and speaks divinely concerning God and, with most happy effort, lifts himself above all visible things even to the splendid throne of the Deity, but he also carries others away with him, enticed as if by his song and sweetness, like a leader in a blessed dance—a most true Ἑρμητικὴ σειρὰ [Hermetic chain], by which mortals may be joined with the choirs of celestial minds and with God, the Maker of all.

Indeed, I was grieved when I heard most learned theologians complaining quite openly that, when they encountered his interpreters—various in style, disparate in nature, and dissimilar in knowledge—they saw some covered with the grime of barbarism, and who, while unwilling to proceed πόδα [foot-for-foot] in their translation, spoke as if in a foreign tongue; others, meanwhile, were indeed more polished and had sounded a loftier note than the ancients, but nevertheless, by their very antiquity—as if with white lead and smeared pigment—they often masked and obscured the author's meaning. I thought I would do something worthwhile if, from such an abundance of Latin interpreters, and with the addition of the commentaries of St. Maximus and Pachymeres, I should (to the extent that my mental strength and talent allowed) fashion the native and genuine countenance of St. Dionysius and place him in a good light. I took into my hands Johannes Scotus, Saracenus, Vercellensis, Marsilio Ficino, St. Thomas, Hugh of St. Victor, Dionysius the Carthusian, Ambrogio the Camaldolese, Faber Stapulensis, and Perionius; I also perused the most elegant French translation, which the Reverend Father Jean de Saint-François published.