The page is framed by a large rectangular decorative border of floral and leaf-like typographic ornaments. The main text begins with a large square decorative woodcut initial 'T', showing a figure in a garden landscape with trees and a building in the background.

TO THE MOST CHRISTIAN KING.

TRULY GLORIOUS and Royal was the response of the most renowned Themistocles the AthenianA famous Athenian general and politician (c. 524–459 BCE) known for his wisdom and leadership during the Persian Wars., who, when asked what singular prize or excellent voice was most pleasing for him to hear in the theater praising his worthy and illustrious life, let out from his wise mouth: That the voice which was equal and conformed to his merits and virtues had pleased him above all others. By this, he tacitly suggested to the world that just as false praises unjustly attributed to unworthy men infinitely darken their lives, so too does well-merited glory—manifested among men by illustrious spirits—add a most brilliant splendor to the unconquered and heroic courage such as that of your Most Christian MajestyThe traditional title for the Kings of France, here referring to Henry III..

For this reason, I am persuaded that Your Majesty will permit me to admire and revere the generosity of your Royal courage, your most clear prudence, your affable benignity, and the terrifying force of your divine valor. These flourishing gifts, in order to acquire the palm of so many sublime virtues and honorable qualities divinely assembled in you, strive particularly to hold the greatest dominion in your most lofty spirit.

From this, it has come to pass that, following the laudable style of illustrious writers—who are accustomed to consecrating excellent works and the glorious fruits of their most noble understandings to the supreme monarchs of the earth, as if to true divinities and their singular Gods in this present life—I also, having regard for this divine conformity by which celestial favor has shaped Your Most Christian Majesty in the likeness of the eternal God to rule and give laws to the most powerful and magnanimous Great Kingdom of France; I shall not take the boldness (so as to avoid the notoriety of Timagoras near DariusTimagoras was an Athenian envoy to the Persian King Darius; he was later executed by the Athenians for his excessive and submissive flattery of the foreign monarch., or of Aristippus near DionysiusAristippus was a philosopher who was often criticized for his sycophantic behavior at the court of the tyrant Dionysius of Syracuse in order to maintain his comfortable lifestyle.) to enter into the spacious fields of your royal pomps and triumphant glories. This is all the more so because their height prevents not only the smallness of my understanding, but even the most elevated spirits, from being able to reach the shadow of these unheard-of merits, which at all hours, with great...