The System of Saturn

or humanity has a place, and where your fame has spread widely, to dedicate this book to you—that is, as if to place it in an elevated spot visible to everyone. Furthermore, I was not unaware of how much weight would be added to this discovery of ours—by which I have attempted to explain the tangled mysteries of Saturn Saturn's mysteries: Before Huygens, the planet's appearance changed so strangely that astronomers called it "three-fold" or "armed with ears." Huygens used better telescopes to solve the puzzle: a flat ring.—if it happened to be approved by your most exacting judgment; a hope which I trust will not be in vain.

But above all, I rejoiced that I had found an occasion, and I decided not to let it pass, to publicly commemorate how much the best arts and disciplines—and especially Mathematics original: "Mathematicae" among them—owe to you, Most High Prince Prince Leopold de’ Medici (1617–1675) was a primary patron of the "New Science" and a founder of the Accademia del Cimento in Florence.. For you prove yourself a patron and defender for them against a barbarism original: "barbariem" — Here, Huygens likely refers to the intellectual resistance and dogmatism that opposed the astronomical discoveries of the 17th century. that grows stronger every day; and by cultivating these studies so familiarly and admitting them, as it were, into your inner circle original: "contubernium" — This implies a close, personal companionship or "sharing a tent," highlighting the Prince's hands-on involvement with scientists., you win for them the greatest dignity. Finally, that [you...] of the most excellent things from all antiquity