Magneticum Naturae Regnum

Preface to the Reader.

SINCE, in the course of many years, I have had frequent dealings with our Fathers arriving here in Rome from India regarding various and rarer things which India is accustomed to produce—as much in precious stones as in plants and animals—it happened that from that mutual exchange of literary discourse I obtained things that were truly rare and unusual. Among others, indeed, who enriched my Museum with the offering of such gifts were Father Franciscus Dorville and Father Joannes Gruberus. The former, journeying from China through the hitherto unknown nations of Tartary—which we have described in our China Illustrata—and arriving in the Kingdom of the Great Mogul, broken by the immense labors of his travels, met his final day at Agra, the metropolis of the Mogul Empire, a man worthy of a longer life for the integrity of his life and character. The latter, however, the inseparable companion of that long journey, having enjoyed prosperous and sound health, arrived here in Rome together with Father Henricus Roth, an incomparable laborer in the Christian mission of the Mogul Kingdom; and those things worthy of admiration which he had brought with him, he communicated to me with the proper fidelity, genuine sincerity, and truly generous hand. To these, in the following years, succeeded Father Sebastianus d'Almeida, a Portuguese from the East Indies.