Four Books on Conics (Commandino 1566)

fore you are not only decorated with the most ample insignia of military affairs—having been a General of the Venetian and Papal forces, and today being the General of PHILIP, King of the Spains, in Italy, and the Prefect of the bountiful city—but you have also earned for yourself such praise in this study of letters as no oblivion of posterity will ever obscure. For you have both augmented the ancestral library with the best books, and you never cease to embrace and foster men devoted to letters with all your zeal. Since your kindness has willed that I too should be among them, I would be almost ungrateful and impious if I did not honor you with all the monuments of my talent, as far as I am able, just as I cherish you with the innermost senses of my soul. Farewell.