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PREFACE

Gregory of Nazianzus Gregory of Nazianzus (c. 329–390 CE) was a Fourth-century Archbishop of Constantinople and a foundational theologian. praised without end the great Basil Saint Basil the Great (c. 330–379 CE) was a Greek bishop and influential scholar who studied under Gregory. his teacher, who was highly skilled in Astronomy, Arithmetic, Geometry, and the other Mathematical sciences. These were taught to children along with their mother's milk original: "col latte da fanciulli" — an idiom suggesting these subjects were foundational and nurtured from the earliest age. with the greatest consideration, knowing that these subjects not only awaken the mind to the contemplation of higher things but are a ladder to the acquisition of the other liberal arts, which cannot be perfectly learned without them. And this was the occasion that prompted Plato to forbid entry into his school to anyone who was ignorant of Geometry, for which he had written in prominent letters above its door: "Let no one enter here who is not a Geometer." Similarly, on this subject, Xenocrates of Chalcedon Xenocrates (c. 396–314 BCE) was a student of Plato and later the head of the Platonic Academy. drove away one who was unskilled in Geometry, saying to him, "Go with God, for you do not possess the supports of Philosophy." And Plato in the Philebus A late Socratic dialogue by Plato focusing on the relationship between pleasure and knowledge. dared to affirm that without the Mathematical sciences, all other sciences were in vain. In the sixth book of his Republic, he commanded that the Mathematical sciences should be learned before all other sciences, as they not only facilitate the path to understanding the other liberal faculties but also reveal the way to know how to rightly govern the State. And in the seventh book of the same work, Plato likewise said that just as the eye of our intellect becomes clouded by the study of other sciences, so it is refreshed and restored by the Mathematical sciences, through the sweetness that the soul feels in their contemplation. I, therefore, who by the great favor of Heaven have spent almost all the flower of my years in the honored service of the most happy memory of the never-fully-praised Lord, the most illustrious and excellent Marquis of Marignano Gian Giacomo Medici (1498–1555), a famous Italian condottiero (mercenary leader) and military commander known for his tactical brilliance., a great leader of war, or rather the right hand of that magnanimous and most invincible Emperor Charles the Fifth Charles V (1500–1558) was the Holy Roman Emperor and King of Spain, ruling over vast territories in Europe and the Americas.—who was in his day, as both the East and the West well know, a tremendous and formidable thunderbolt of arms original: "tremendo & formidabile folgore dell’ armi" — a poetic description of the Marquis's devastating military might. by sea and by land—and having been raised and trained for a long time under the observance and incomparable virtue of this glorious Knight; in whom (to say nothing of the others) there shone among his many divine gifts and qualities, with the highest valor and judgment, the supreme light of the military art, I have forced myself with every study and diligence...