BARTHOLOMEW

AMBROSINI

GREETINGS TO THE BENEVOLENT READER.

Ornamental woodcut initial H featuring a landscape with a building and foliage.

I believe it is acknowledged by all that man is born for the benefit of others; therefore, I cannot help but assert that those who strive to bury knowledge—acquired with the utmost study and gained through diligent labor—sin gravely, since they clearly misuse this noble gift of the mind. Conversely, countless heralds of praise are deserved by those who, filled with an admirable power of reason and intelligence, and recognizing this divine gift of nature, leave nothing untouched so that they may daily advance the cause of letters. Among these, the most distinguished and immortal in fame, Ulisse Aldrovandi, seems rightly and deservedly to be counted; endowed with so great and powerful a gift from God, by teaching and writing (for thus is the society of civil life reconciled among men), he was of no small assistance to the students of his time and to posterity. For he not only entrusted to the living air the works he wrote while alive, but also bequeathed to the most illustrious Senate of Bologna the woodcuts for the works to be written, so that, under the protection and guidance of such men, all the illustrations of natural things, adorned with their respective histories, might at last come into the hands of men. Therefore, the curious reader will understand the number of books promulgated by him, with their titles briefly explained. He taught, first, the nature of insects, crustaceans, and soft-bodied animals; then he published his Ornithology, divided into three volumes (though the books on fish, as well as those on solid-hoofed and cloven-hoofed quadrupeds, were posthumous). But subsequently, the task of composing the remaining works having been entrusted to me by the most illustrious and prudent Senators of Bologna, two years ago I put together—with the help, however, of my brother Hyacinth—the history of digitated quadrupeds, prepared with vigilant labor and supplemented with illustrations found in the Museum. Likewise, at present, I bring forth into the public the illustrations of serpents and dragons, graphically adorned with descriptions, so that, God willing, I may be able to proceed to publish not a few other works. Farewell, candid reader, and easily forgive any errors, as you will discover that they have emanated not from intent, but from a rushing pen or the carelessness of the printer.