E P I S T L E.

in these works, that esteemed method of teaching is seen to be present, and also because I judge it right and just to set forth of my own accord that which all students can claim from me by a certain hereditary right. For that best and most learned man published so many interpretations and so many commentaries, and gathered so many treasures of wisdom, with the intent that a copious and ample inheritance might fall to lovers of letters—an inheritance which they themselves could not yet enter upon, because the time for making the testament public had not yet sufficiently matured. But now, when with the help of the gods and by my own industry the goods of Ermolao are publicly set forth, I have chosen you, most illustrious Prelate—in order that the matter may proceed most favorably—as the one to whose authority and trust this whole business may be committed. For you harbor no doubt as to how many bonds of intimacy existed between your father, that most distinguished Senator, and Ermolao. Nor is it unknown that the patronage of letters has been undertaken by you with the greatest care, such that no defender of good men, no parent of the finest arts, is known in these times to be equal to the most illustrious and most deserving Cardinal Bembo. Finally, I know with what love and with what devotion you have always embraced me. Wherefore I understood that I would clearly incur a heavy and shameful mark of an ungrateful mind, unless I had preferred your trust and dignity alone above all others: that trust, I say, sincere and uncorrupted, which you have most abundantly displayed in all matters and confirmed with incredible dignity.