TO THE MOST DISTINGUISHED AND DESERVING HERCULES GONZAGA, CARDINAL OF THE HOLY ROMAN SEE, FROM IOANNES BAPTISTA EGNATIUS OF VENICE.

cAlthough there are many great things that usually distinguish men of high rank and those like you, nothing is greater or more honorable than when they adorn students of the fine arts and strive with every effort to bring good literature to light. Whether it is because the spirit of literature has always been such that it is rightly judged most noble, or because if you neglect the discipline of learned men, you have effectively removed the sun from the sky, and all human life would remain in darkness.

In the memory of our fathers, the elder Alfonsus Alfonso V of Aragon, King of Naples did this with the highest praise. After having acquired the Kingdom of Naples for himself through his own courage in war, he turned to the study of peace and embraced in a wonderful way all the men of that age who showed some talent for learning.

Not long after, Nicholas V, Supreme Pontiff, followed this same inclination to foster literature. It is incredible to say how much good literature progressed during his brief pontificate, such that if you wish to speak the truth, we owe more to this one Pontiff than to all others who flourished many years before him, or who have lived as Pontiffs in the Roman See to this day.

Furthermore, Laurentius Medices Lorenzo de' Medici, the perpetual dictator of the Florentine Republic, almost eclipsed this generosity of the most famous Princes. Emulating the ancestral and paternal praise of promoting ancient disciplines and arts, he ordered, with great study and expense, the preparation of a very copious library. For without these silent teachers, as they say, we achieve little or nothing. He also took care to call to himself all the most learned men that the land of Italy harbored at that time, whom he invited with the greatest rewards and inspired to this literary leisure, allowing them to lack nothing.

And since the examples of Princes and Kings have great weight in either direction, there did not lack at that same time a Prince most famous for military glory: Fridericus Vrbinas Federico da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino. When he was inflamed by the splendor of his neighbor and very dear friend Lorenzo, he emulated the same praise, acquired a large supply of books, especially those regarding sacred matters, and often turned away from the sun and dust of Mars i.e., from the battlefield to the spaces and walkways of philosophers. Whatever leisure he had from military arts, he gladly devoted entirely to familiar conversations with learned men.

But indeed, your Gonzagas have always devoted no less effort to this single thing than to military affairs, in which they flourished most. For...