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PREFACE.

ON THE EXCELLENCE OF MATHE-

MATICS, WHEREIN IT IS DEMONSTRATED HOW MUCH THEY

are necessary to acquire all the liberal arts.

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If the traveler, passing through pleasant meadows, is accustomed to remain in doubt from the great beauty of the colorful flowers as to which among them all is the most noble and excellent, it is no wonder if the great Philosophers, walking within the cultivated gardens of the divine sciences and seeing them all directed toward this unique end and principal goal of fully seeking the truth and revealing it to the world, were of various opinions as to which of them they should give the first place. Nevertheless, having finally discovered through their clear judgment the excellence and divine treasure of the mathematical disciplines, they placed them above all other human sciences. Therefore, these the mathematical sciences not only attribute to themselves what they wish by their natural and proper gift, but—bringing, like the shining sun to the universal earth, a very clear light to all the others—they make our knowledge and understanding of them easier. This is because natural things are in themselves so obscure and rugged original: "scabreuses," meaning difficult or thorny subjects that the intellect is quite fortunate which, after long study, can clearly judge them.

And from this has come the variety of opinions and the great contention among Philosophers regarding the principles of natural things: from which, as from an inexhaustible fountain, arises that which is scattered beneath the rich heavens upon the universal earth. Thus, with great difficulty do three or four of them agree in one manner. The same also happens with First Philosophy Also known as Metaphysics, the study of the fundamental nature of reality and existence., the excellence of which extends only to the contemplation of God, most good and most great, and to the investigation of those divine Spirits who continually assist His eternal and most holy Majesty. This she Philosophy can neither do nor perform simply by irrefutable argument, without the sight of those things which fall—