On Love (Commentary on Plato's Symposium)

A small ornamental floral printer's mark precedes the text. and Antonio Manetti, his most virtuous friends, as is shown by his own Epistle. An intention truly benign and holy, but which had not yet reached that goal where he himself had directed it, as this treasure of his remained almost hidden until our own times, or truly enjoyed by few. For which reason, having considered together the benign intention of Marsilio and the utility that might result if it could be read and understood with that faith and integrity with which he himself wrote and translated it: having had the convenience of a text copied from the original itself, I wished to share it with all those who understand our language, but under the most honorable name of your Excellency, as it belongs to the one to whom I must return not only that which belongs to you as an hereditary thing, but also everything else that I am or could ever be. May your Excellency receive it therefore with a happy spirit, and as printed with the greatest diligence possible. And do not be surprised if, before this Commentary, you do not find the text of Plato: for I have preferred to follow the judgment of Marsilio, with some burden of having avoided the fatigue of translating it, rather than giving occasion to unlearned persons, who