Compendium of All Natural Science

CONRAD GESSNER

to Jakob Gessner, his most

dear kinsman, sends heartiest greetings.

Decorative initial 'N' featuring a winged putto or angel at the top and a human figure (possibly a scholar or saint) seated within the frame of the letter.The Compendium of Natural Philosophy, which Ermolao Barbaro—a man most perfect in every respect and never to be named without a preface of honor—composed with the greatest learning and elegance alike, I recently corrected in passing for the sake of our friend Johannes Oporinus (second to none among printers today), while I was skimming rather than truly reading it for the sake of my professional duties. For that edition, which first came out in Venice three years ago, was so shamefully corrupted by the negligence of the printers that almost as many errors were to be found in the entire work as there were lines, not only in the orthography and the punctuation of the periods (which was more lightly to be borne, although it is commonly said that a book well written and punctuated [is half explained] by commentaries