Treasury of Optics

P R E F A C E.

...was our labor; which was by no means equal or similar in the words. For in these, I judged that nothing at all needed to be changed, except to replace others for those things which seemed to bring obscurity and ambiguity to the subject; and so that I might name the work "Optics" in the inscription of the book (which is "On Aspects" for the author) with a Greek, more concise, and shorter name. But, most illustrious Queen, I might seem to many urban people perhaps not unmindful of my plan, but certainly not sufficiently mindful of your Majesty, because I dispute so much and so scholastically here in this preface to you, if I did not bring such a singular, and such a popular and royal gift to all schools and scholars in your name. For although there can be many benefits and gifts of distinguished kings and queens to their peoples, certainly nothing more magnificent or royal can be given than virtue and learning. And indeed, if there were a place here for some rhetorician to declaim on the use of optics, a certain Marathonian field would rightly seem to him to exist, whether one looks at those things above the world or these things below. For whatever has been opened and revealed to men concerning the matter, number, and order of celestial bodies, and the infinite variety of celestial motions, optics has largely opened and revealed; meteors; miracles in the rainbow are distinguished especially by optical rays; optical skill detects and convicts false opinions about the number, motion, and place of the elements. In the life of men, however, many things are attributed to the illusions of demons: such as representing images movable everywhere in the air; viewing an army separated by a long distance as if before one's eyes; consuming a fleet of enemies with fire; all are accomplished by the power and faculty of the optical art: so that I might be silent about painting, architecture, and mechanics being nothing at all except optics. Therefore, that Alhazen, the most ancient and copious writer of optical doctrine, brought out from such long darkness, with the squalor, rust, and dust wiped away, comes forth into the public light: that he enters the mathematical schools: that he communicates his inventions to public studies: let this be to the immortal fame and glory of Catherine de' Medici for posterity.