An ornate decorative headpiece features three main vignettes separated by scrolling acanthus leaves and floral patterns. The central vignette shows a winged figure (possibly Mercury or Fame) flying over a landscape containing classical architecture, including a prominent dome. On the left and right are seated female allegorical figures amidst dense ornamentation.

TO THE MOST NOBLE MAN

WILLIAM

Lord CRAVEN

Baron of Hampsted Marshal

I present to you Justin Martyr, my great friend, the most ancient of Christian writers after the apostles and their immediate followers, the most weighty in authority, and once corrected and illustrated by me with no small diligence,

I do this, to tell the truth, more for the sake of boasting of my own work and displaying our friendship than because I consider him worthy enough to appear under your name; for he surely would have lain neglected and forgotten in some corner of my library along with my other trifles and the plays of a wanton youth, had he not long ago been released from my control by a rash promise.