PREFACE.

The author has written a general work on Ornithology.

Why the author begins with a specific enumeration of birds.

Commemoration of the costs and expenses incurred in this work.

Why Pittacus is poorly regarded among the learned.

Praise of Solon and Lycurgus.

Democritus's saying regarding truth.

The author's diligence.

The illustrators of birds.

The craftsmen who contributed their labor to completing this history.

...into that field of plants and fossils. Since I have also written a general history of birds—a remarkable and entirely philosophical work, if I may say so—to be printed at another time if it pleases God, someone might say I am inverting the order of nature if I prefer this specific Ornithology over the general one. To such a person, I would reply that I am led to this by various and most serious reasons, which I now turn to list. For when I consider the dignity, beauty, and utility that this particular history offers to other sciences (as can be seen in its own chapter), and the immense costs which have nearly exhausted my coffers, how, I ask, could I—consulting both the interests of all students and my own affairs—not rightfully prioritize this specific work? For it provides us with the path to better understand the universal. Indeed, no one can estimate the magnitude of the expenses I have poured into it, unless they have undertaken a similar province themselves.

For I discovered that Pliny, Avicenna, Averroes, Albertus Magnus, and several other approved writers often passed down many things from the reports of others, and poured them into posterity as if they were true and "from the tripod" original: ex tripode; a reference to the Delphic Oracle, meaning spoken with absolute, unquestionable authority.—for instance, the nonsense that a viper is killed by its offspring, that the female bites off the male's head during mating, that the beaver castrates itself, and other similar trifles which have been held as true by many. Therefore, I deemed it absolutely necessary for those who wish to pass down to posterity a history of these sensible things—which are created in this greatest hemisphere of the ancients—that they be seen with one's own eyes, handled with one's own hands, and finally, that they perform the anatomy of these creatures themselves.

Just as those who study the writing of books on the republic and its governance are often gravely deluded and lead the reader into great labyrinths of error unless they are skilled in governing a city through their own practice—as we once heard of Pittacus the lawgiver, who, transcribing much from the reports of others, was poorly regarded among men—so those who write about the same subject at their own peril tell the truth and are extolled with the greatest praise by all, as is evident with Solon and Lycurgus. Therefore, since I saw nothing more fitting for the duty of a philosopher than to ignore everything else and apply oneself assiduously to the truth—since truth is placed so deep, as if buried and hidden in darkness, that nothing is as difficult as investigating it through tracking and knowing it once investigated—it was not said rashly by Democritus that "truth lies in a deep well."

We also see that these views of the ancient philosophers agree with the views of Christians, who assert that in all of life, nothing is more grand or better than to come under the protection of divine truth and to rest in its majesty. Hence, in almost every history of our birds, so that I might make known both their internal and external parts and be an eyewitness to them, I have spent a vast sum of money. This was spent both on various travels undertaken to different regions of the world—primarily for the sake of birds, but also for other natural things—and in describing them, painting them in their true colors, and in sketching, carving, and finally printing them on blocks made of pear-wood. Pear-wood was the preferred medium for high-quality woodcut illustrations because of its fine grain. For this reason, I paid a yearly salary of two hundred gold pieces for more than thirty years to a painter unique in that art. I also hired at my own expense the most celebrated illustrators, Lorenzo Bennini of Florence and Cornelius Swint of Frankfurt; furthermore, I occasionally made use of the work of Jacopo Ligozzi, the exceptional painter to the Most Serene Duke of Tuscany, so that these birds might be depicted with the greatest possible skill. Finally, I had, and still have, the distinguished engraver Cristoforo Coriolano of Nuremberg, and his nephew, who have carved them so gracefully and elegantly that they seem to be made not in wood, but in copper.

The painter's fraud.

The liberality of the Senate of Bologna.

The beneficence of Pope Sixtus V.

To these so great expenses, other reasons are added, among which this one especially must not be shrouded in silence: that my painter, to make a greater profit for himself, secretly sold many images to many nobles and students. I feared that they might eventually commit them to print, as has happened to me before. Indeed, some people published as their own many plants which they either learned from me in this most celebrated Academy of Bologna (where I have taught publicly for forty-six years) or received as a gift; they forestalled me, who had decided to bring them to light, so that they might "make a harvest from my crop." An idiomatic way of saying they claimed credit for his hard work.

Furthermore, I knew that among the Italians (I speak of those who wrote professionally) there was no one who had treated these subjects; among the French, only Pierre Belon, but in his own language; and among the Germans, only the Ornithology Likely referring to Conrad Gessner's Historia Animalium: Liber III qui est de Avium natura (1555)., but everything was confused and without any method, using alphabetical order and providing images of only a few common birds. Finally, I add to these the hope for a monument that will help me publish other works, and the prayers of many learned men, and the authority and encouragement of our most illustrious Senate (whom I both must and wish to obey because of the many benefits conferred upon me, and because of the help provided to me in this work, both of its own accord and by the command of Pope Sixtus V). After seeing these labors, they strongly urged me to publish what they recognized as pleasing, useful, and fruitful for the literary Republic. In explaining these things, I shall mix the useful with the pleasant, not unmindful of the Horatian rule, for he says:

The method of treating the work.

In the Art of Poetry.

The utility of this work.

The order to be observed in treating the work.

For those things which have utility joined together with pleasure gladden the mind of the reader, are more conveniently committed to memory, and cling more tenaciously. For this volume contains many ethical, economic, political, and even military lessons, drawn from the monuments of ancient literature, which are extremely useful for informing and ruling both private and public life. You will find in the same work many healthy and medical precepts for protecting and preserving health; moreover, students of various languages will have a variety of synonyms expressed in almost every tongue.

Many other uses may be seen here, which I do not commemorate now, as I shall deal with them abundantly in their proper place. All these things are delivered in a very lucid and clear method (unless my mind deceives me). Those things which pertain to physical speculation—such as Equivocations, Synonyms, Genus, Differences, Habitat, things named with it or from it—are brought forward first. Then follow those things which usually produce pleasure for readers, such as Morals, Uses, Mystical meanings, Hieroglyphics, History, Symbols, Coins, Images, Emblems, Myths, and Fables.

The utility of the pictures.

To further serve the interests of students, I have included images of all the birds I could obtain, including many of both external and internal parts, carved with such skill that they appear alive rather than dead. These not only delight the spectator by sight, but lead to the knowledge of the birds to which they belong (for pictures are [mute]...