Compendium of All Natural Science

TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND REVEREND

Cardinal Pietro Bembo,

Daniele Barbaro sends greetings.

Ornamental woodcut initial P featuring a figure playing a stringed instrument (lute or viol) within a square frame.

It is a noble thing to apply oneself to letters, nobler to make progress in them, and noblest of all to teach them easily to others. And just as nothing is more difficult, if I may say so, than this facility of teaching, so do men feel themselves most greatly aided when they have found plain, easy, and accessible teachers. Indeed, there is now no more effective sign of acquired learning than that a man should be able to set forth clearly to others those things which he himself knows. But truly, this utility ought to pertain not only to the present time, but also to the model of studies. Wherefore, those best provide for posterity who commit to writing what they have acquired with laudable care and the greatest zeal, whence they themselves may reap praise, and others the most ample fruit. For we men live not so much by this life and breath as by praise and glory. Praise reveals the magnitude of virtue; indeed, each man is elevated by the great and esteemed commemoration of those things which he recognizes in someone to exist with the highest dignity and glory. This consideration daily spurs me to bring forth for the common utility the great labors, vigils, and works of my uncle Ermolao, of which I possess a great part, both because