THE DEDICATORY EPISTLE OF LEONHART FUCHS.

...those who have recorded the great deeds of the Princes of Germany for posterity, so that there is very little need for me to discourse further upon them now. I return, therefore, to Your Highness, of whom it can most truly be said that the seeds of virtue are propagated from good parents to their descendants. For you are so far from falling away from the standard of your ancestors—those most excellent Princes—that you have even surpassed many of them in talent and virtue.

Virtues worthy of a great Prince

For I shall pass over your many distinguished virtues, all worthy of a great Prince: your justice in government, your care for maintaining peace, your magnanimity, integrity, modesty, clemency, and exceptional goodness.

Supporting the study of letters is a royal virtue.

Is it not a truly royal virtue in you that you strive so greatly to help and adorn the study of lettersoriginal: "studia literarum." In the Renaissance, this referred to the "humanities" or general scholarship, including the study of classical texts, science, and philosophy., which the common run of Princes today hates worse than a dog or a snakeoriginal: "cane peius & angue." A classical Latin idiom used to describe an intense or visceral loathing.? That you pursue these studies with immense favor is proven by the fact that you keep not only your schools, but even your royal court, beautifully adorned with the most learned men. You employ their efforts in the governance of both studies and state affairs, and you delight in their conversation. In this—that you love, observe, and protect learning and its practitioners, and increase their standing with the most ample honors—your singular wisdom shines forth. For you understand that through the pursuit of wisdom, and indeed through the flourishing of learning itself, all things that constitute human society are preserved.

The benefits of learning.

For it is to letters that we owe the fact that today we enjoy the purity of heavenly doctrine and other disciplines. To these same letters we must give credit that something of value still remains, and that not all things are overwhelmed and buried in the same dust along with our bodies. For what else has rescued the virtues and the famous deeds of our ancestors from destruction and oblivion, if not letters themselves? What has preserved the memory of all other things down to our own times, if not letters? But let us demonstrate this briefly with one or two examples. No one today would have the natures of living creatures explored and known, had not Aristotle wished to write those most excellent books on their history.

Alexander’s generosity toward Aristotle.

In order to achieve this, he was helped in no small way by the generosity of Alexander the Great, who sent him eight hundred talentsAn ancient unit of weight and value. Fuchs is emphasizing the staggering cost of scientific research in antiquity.—that is, four hundred and eighty thousand crownsoriginal: "coronatorũ." A gold coin used in 16th-century Europe; Fuchs is calculating the ancient talent into the currency of his own day.—for the hiring of hunters and the feeding of wild beasts. Furthermore, no skill in plants would be found today among any nation, if Dioscorides, Theophrastus, Pliny, and certain others had not committed to writing the marks by which they are identified.

In the present day, the greatest contempt for learning.

Rightly, therefore, must we many times proclaim this truly royal virtue in you, especially at this time, when the greatest contempt for all learning has crept not only into the cottages of peasants and the shops of craftsmen, but even into the houses of the great and the courts of Princes. For how many Princes are there today who are touched by this concern for preserving studies? Indeed, we must fear that, unless they are aided by the patronage and generosity of Your Highness and a few others (though few they are, alas!), learning may soon slip from our hands, and that ancient, truly Scythian barbarismThe Scythians were traditionally viewed by Europeans as the ultimate archetypes of the "uncivilized" or "savage" person. Fuchs is warning of a new Dark Age. may return.

Therefore, I not only exhort you, but even pray through CHRIST, that you may perpetually love, cherish, and preserve letters, just as you have begun.

The benefits that follow the preservation of learning.

For so long as you strive to help and adorn them, you simultaneously protect religion (which must be our first priority), the knowledge of nature, the laws, and everything necessary for preserving the peace and tranquility of the state. Accordingly, there is no reason for Your Highness to regret the generosity you use in the preservation of learning; for while you aid its practitioners and ensure they press on vigorously in their course, you also prepare everlasting praise for yourself. Even if they have nothing with which to repay you for such great benefits, they will provide this in return: that your memory shall endure forever among posterity. For although all other human things, however firm and solid they may appear, fail and decay with the passing years, the praise that the preservation of learning produces is alone immortal. Therefore, you could prepare no greater or more splendid fame and glory for yourself—and indeed for your whole most distinguished family—than through the preservation of doctrine and study. To ensure that you continue to do what you are doing now, let necessity itself (which I explained just before) encourage you; then also let the divine command, which requires this very thing from you...