TO THE MOST SERENE

LORD,

LORD FRANCESCOMARIA

FELTRIO DELLA ROVERE

A large woodcut decorative initial 'S' featuring a figure, possibly a scholar or saint, holding a staff or measuring tool, with a cityscape and church spires in the background.

Even if those same reasons that moved the great Hannibal? the Carthaginian to consider the Peripatetic Phormio A reference to the philosopher Phormio who lectured on military strategy to Hannibal as a man who raved greatly; I could believe that they would have perhaps caused it to be judged no less an impertinence for me to dedicate this translation to Your Serene Highness. Since to you, not only are the subjects of Philosophy and Mathematics, upon which this present book by Hero is founded, very well known; but also the Greek language, in which it was composed by its first author. Nevertheless, reflecting in my mind that Commandino Federico Commandino, a renowned mathematician and humanist of blessed memory was the first who, in these parts, revived the Mathematical sciences, and by drawing them from those shadows that...