A True Recipe

full of virtues and good morals, whom I know will hold my work in esteem, even if it is written in a rustic and unpolished language; and if there is some fault, they will know very well how to excuse the author's condition. I know that some ignorant people will say that it would require the power of a King to make a garden according to the design I have put in this book, but to this I reply that the expense would not be as great as some might think. And furthermore, one must understand that just as in a book of medicine there are various remedies for various ailments, and each person takes what they need according to the nature of their sickness, so too in the case of my garden design, some will be able to draw from it according to their means and the convenience of the places where they live. That is why no one will be able to justly slander my garden design. I also know that many will mock the design of the fortress-city that I have included in this book, and will say it is a daydream; but to this I reply that if there is any Lord, Knight of the Order, or other Captain who is curious enough to know the truth, let them not consider themselves so subject or captive to the power of their money that they would not spare a little for the contentment of their spirit, so that I might convey to them, by portrait and model, the truth of the thing. I know they will find it strange that I have not included the portrait of the garden, nor of the fortress-city in this book, but to this I reply that my poverty and the occupation of my art have not permitted it. I have also found such ingratitude in many people that this has caused me to refrain from too great a liberality; however, the desire I have for the public good, and to perform service to the nobility of France, will incite me one day to take the time to make the portrait of the garden according to the tenor and design written in this book. But I would like to ask the nobility of France, to whom the portrait could be of great service, that after I have spent my time to serve them, it might please them not to render me evil for good, as did the Roman Ecclesiastics of this city, who wished to have me hanged for having sought for them the greatest good that could ever befall them: which is to have wished to incite them to feed their flocks according to the commandment of God. And one could never say that I ever did them any wrong; but because I had shown them their perdition in the eighteenth chapter of the Apocalypse, aiming to amend them, and because I had also shown them several times an authority written in the Prophet Jeremiah, where he says: "Curse upon you Shepherds, who eat the milk and clothe yourselves with the wool, and leave my sheep scattered upon the mountains; I will demand them again from your hand." Seeing such a thing, in place of amending themselves, they hardened themselves, and banded together against the light, in order to walk the rest of their days in darkness, following their accustomed voluptuousness and carnal desires. I would never have thought that they would have wished to take occasion from there to have me put to death. God is my witness that the harm they did to me was for no other reason than the aforementioned. Nevertheless, I pray to God that He may see fit to amend them. This will be the point where I shall pray to everyone who sees this book to become a lover of agriculture, following my first proposal, which is a just labor, worthy of being prized and honored. Also, as I have said above, let the simple be instructed by the Learned, so that we may not be reproved on the great day for having hidden our talents in the earth, as we know well that those who have hidden them thus will be banished from the eternal Kingdom, from before the face of Him who lives and reigns eternally throughout the ages of ages. Amen.