Cosmography

[philoso]phers testify. Receive, therefore, most eminent Prelate, this cosmographical work, faithfully calculated by us with that perfection which is accustomed to be read in the work of Ptolemy; which if the pious reader peruses with diligent study, he will profess with the greatest gratitude of mind that he has attained no small fruit of the geographical discipline. Here we have collected into a certain compendium those things which have been elaborated elsewhere in a scattered manner by the most learned geniuses. I therefore thought it would be worthwhile if the observation of the whole world were contained in one volume, lest on account of excessive prolixity and obscurity, the novice of the geographical profession be held back, entangled by some weariness; or rather, lest some poor man be deterred by the multitude of books and the magnitude of Ptolemy's work and its price. I boast of nothing here regarding my own erudition or genius: for the matter is of such a kind that it may either approve or reject itself. Indeed, I hope you will find nothing here that is foreign to the cosmographical profession. Certainly, I have tried to the best of my ability for the most absolute knowledge of cosmography, and thus I seem to myself to have done enough in this matter, according to that poetic maxim: In great things, even to have willed is enough. You, meanwhile, most praised Prelate, may suffer this labor, such as it is, to be dedicated by me to your piety with a good spirit. It is not new, but even the writers of old were accustomed (as is evident to all) to choose patrons for their new books, by whose auspices a certain strength and authority might be added to the books themselves; which in this matter I think I have done not at all improperly, according to the sentiment of Pliny,

Many things seem very precious because they are dedicated to temples.