The Pneumatics

cheerful countenance with which you were accustomed to receive Commandino, by receiving this gift, console his sorrowing and grief-stricken daughters, kinsmen, and fatherland. Nor let it be a burden to you, having occasionally set aside the weightier studies of theology, to give your attention to this most ancient philosopher and mathematician. For just as those philosophers who teach the sciences under the veils of fables delight the ears of the young in a wonderful way; so the writings of this man, drawn from a more profound philosophy, even though they may appear to be certain trifles and inventions only for delighting the senses, greatly refresh and captivate our soul. From here you will be able to learn many things by which those most pleasant gardens of yours, both in the city and at Fossombrone, might be made much more delightful and ornate, so that they will not envy those of Tivoli. I hope that you will soon command them to be decorated not only with the wonderful inventions of this writer, but also, such is the subtlety and sharpness of your wit, that you may add more elegant things to them. Thus may God, Best and Greatest, grant: that you may long be happily refreshed by them, and take from them such pleasure that you may be able to conceive what that pleasure is which the pleasant, verdant glades of Paradise provide; which, after you have steered the helm of the Christian Commonwealth for many years, awaits you most joyfully.

TO THE READER.

If by chance, fair reader, you find anything in the figures or the translation of this golden little book of Hero which does not savor of the diligence and wonderful erudition of the translator, know that it was printed after his death. Therefore, if anything lacks the finishing touch because it was not polished by his hand, blame death; which always snatches away those talents which are most elegant and most highly to be esteemed. But give thanks to Almighty God that, by His favoring will, He restrained death from raging against him for so long that, through his own writings, the bites of envious teeth need not be feared.