CAROLUS JO: A JESU

OF THE CLERICS REGULAR

There finally comes forth into the light of the Republic of Letters the book by JO: ALPHONSI BORELLI, On the Motion of Animals, expected for so many years. Its one misfortune is that it could neither gladden the eyes of its Begetter, nor receive from his own hands the final polishing—a task that, as I believe no one is unaware, confers so much perfection and refinement upon a work. It has, however, both that for which to rejoice, and that which it owes to Virtue, which has been supplied even to the point of envy. For this posthumous offspring has been granted the Auspices of the most fortunate QUEEN CHRISTINA, the Guardian Deity of men of letters. Just as she embraced the Author with such great kindness that she wished to relieve his needy fortune with generous stipends and revenues, so too did she pour herself out with Royal Munificence upon his work, as if it were the heir of his genius. Since, however, our students of Mathematics, whom the Author labored to educate for two years—partly by rewriting, partly by lecturing, and partly by adding to the work, as they say, the bricks and mortar—had fully grasped the mind of their Teacher, she did not disdain to entrust to our fidelity (which he had also bound to himself by hereditary right) those things which were still unpolished, or not yet expressed in the tables of Figures, or added or changed in the papers scattered here and there, lest they deceive the eyes of others.

Thus, we intend to satisfy three types of people: the Author, by securing the fruit of such great labor, which an altogether immortal name will follow; the MOST MERCIFUL QUEEN, by exhibiting testimony of Her Munificence toward the Author and of Her Love for Virtue; and finally, the Republic of Letters, so much...