Ornate horizontal headpiece featuring a central mask or face flanked by symmetrical scrolling foliage and grotesque figures.

TO THE MOST SERENE

FRANCESCO MARIA II

DUKE OF URBINO.

Small decorative ornament featuring a central face or mask within a scrollwork frame.

Large decorative initial 'E' featuring a seated figure (possibly a scholar or saint) holding a book, set against a background of classical architecture and foliage.

Among the many works which my father-in-law, Federico Commandino of Urbino, had written with such excessive care and diligence—who always acknowledged you, Most Serene and excellent Prince, as a father and lord, and offered you the benevolence due to you—the Mathematical Collections of Pappus of Alexandria alone remained: translated into Latin by him, filled with commentaries and corrections, and adorned with various figures. For whatever he could achieve by the strength of his genius or by assiduous labor was brought to bear on the illumination and emendation of the writings of this most celebrated author, so that they might be thoroughly cleansed like the stable of Augeas A classical reference to the labor of Hercules, implying a massive cleanup task.; for he foresaw that he would earn great merit from all students of this discipline. He therefore wove this work together so excellently, save for a few things which he left unfinished, that it was his firm intention, within a span of three months at most, to bring it into the light, publish it in print, consecrate it to your name, and establish you, as he had most desired for his other works, as its patron and guardian.