Obeliscus Aegyptiacus

...required certain expenditures; the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Johann Friedrich, Count of Waldstein of the Holy Roman Empire, the most worthy Chamberlain—as they call him from his honor—to Pope Alexander VII, who possesses a mind most richly furnished with virtues and always intent upon performing arduous and supreme tasks for the sake of the common good, just as he possesses this, so also, out of his zeal and solicitude for promoting the Republic of Letters, he supplied the aforementioned expenses with a liberal hand.

Following him, the renowned and, in the study of wisdom, especially famous Carlo Antonio Magnino offered for my use whatever he possessed in his Museum that was rare and unusual among Egyptian antiquities, not to mention James Alban Ghibbes, the Englishman, Professor of Rhetoric at the Roman Athenaeum, known throughout the world for his all-encompassing erudition, who, by the elegance of his genius, illustrated in verse not a few things pertinent to our undertaking; mention of the others will be made in the context of the book. Finally, I protest that in this little work I shall bring forward nothing according to my own opinion, but rather according to the mind of the ancient masters of wisdom; and just as I act as their mere interpreter, so also I have deemed it a labor worth the effort to contribute my own work, such as it is, to the elucidation for the Republic of Letters of the rationale of this hitherto unknown discipline. May all things thus be to the glory of the Divine Being and the emolument of the public good.

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