TO THE MOST CLEMENT, AND

MOST INVINCIBLE HENRY THE EIGHTH,

BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF ENGLAND, OF

FRANCE, AND OF IRELAND, ETC.

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The questions, inquiries, or interrogations, Most Serene and Illustrious Majesty, made by wise and prudent questioners, often make the one interrogated consider many things, and also know many others, which without being asked he would never have known or considered. I say this for myself, who never made a profession of, nor delighted in, firing any sort of artillery, arquebus, bombard, or musket (nor do I intend to fire them), and a single question put to me by an expert bombardier in Verona in the year 1531 made me at that time consider and investigate speculatively the order and proportion of near and distant shots according to the various elevations of such tormenting machines war engines, to which things I would never have paid attention if such a bombardier had not provoked me on such a subject with his question. But sensing more in the year 1537 with what great preparation Soliman, Emperor of the Turks, was moving to infest our Christian Religion, I composed with great speed a small work on such a matter and published it. This was so that such particular inventions of mine might be tested, seen, and considered to see if some good construction could be drawn from them for the benefit and defense of that religion. And although nothing else followed from such a thing (due to various accidents, nor did I care, because such a war resolved itself in the end), nevertheless, such a small work of mine has provoked various types of persons (and for the most part not common, but of supreme and high intellect) to trouble me anew with other various questions or interrogations. And not only on such a matter of artillery, balls, saltpeter, and powder, but they have also made me consider not only those particularities asked by them, but also know and find (as is said) many others which, without their questions or interrogations, perhaps I would never have known or considered. Thinking then among myself that not little blame is deserved by that man who, whether through science, or through his industry, or by chance finds some notable particularity, and wants to be the only possessor of it, because if all our ancients had observed the same, we would at present be little different from irrational animals. Therefore, not to incur this blame, I have decided to send all these questions or inventions of mine into the light. And to give a beginning to executing such good will of mine, I have for the present collected a part from a memorial of mine in which I always noted down for good memory all the notables that were presented to me by my own hand, and this part I have distributed into nine books, distinguished according to the quality of the matters in accordance with such questions. Then, remembering that by reasoning one day with our honorable companion, Messer Richard Wentworth, a gentleman of your Sacred Majesty, who, preaching to me of the Magnificence, Magnanimity, Liberality, Generosity, Humanity, and Clemency of your Highness, also told me how your Celsitude delighted greatly in all things pertaining to war, thinking on this gave me boldness (although in me there is not that eloquence and ornate speech that would be required for the hearing of your Serenity) to offer and dedicate to you such questions or interrogations of mine, with their resolute answers, not as something convenient for your Sublimity (because in truth, things of the most profound doctrine, narrated and explained with elegant and terse style, could not reach the first degree of your Highness, let alone these of ours, which are mechanical and plebeian things, and similarly said and pronounced with a rough and low style). But I offer and dedicate them to you only as things new, as is customary to do with the first fruits that are found at the beginning of their season, which (even though they are somewhat immature, and of little substance, and less flavor) are always accustomed to be presented to Magnificent and lordly persons, not for the quality of the matter, but for the novelty of it, because new things are naturally accustomed to please the human intellect. And this has given me to believe that our inventions should not altogether displease your Clemency, but rather please you somewhat. If that is so (as I desire), it will give me courage to attempt more in the future. At the feet of which, prostrated on the ground with hands joined and head bowed, I humbly commend myself.