THE PRINTER

TO THE READER.

A decorative woodcut initial 'C' features intertwined foliate and floral motifs.

Since in these times, most candid Reader, I have taken care to newly print the works of Julius Hyginus and the treatises of certain authors deemed highly necessary for the reading of all poets—such as Palaephatus on Fabulous Narrations, Fulgentius on the interpretation of ancient terms, Phornutus on the nature of the gods or the allegories of poetic fables, Albricus on the images of the gods, the fragments of Aratus’s phainomena appearances of the stars, and the books of Proclus on the sphere in Greek and Latin—it occurred to me that Apollodorus’s Library (or, on the origin of the gods) and L. G. Giraldi’s treatise on the Muses are of the same subject matter, and could be of great benefit to students and those especially fond of poetry. For that reason, after I had handed these authors over to certain learned men to be examined, corrected, purged of many errors, and amplified with commentaries, I wished to join them together so that I might in some part lighten the labor of students. Therefore, I beg you, if I have consulted for your benefit and that of posterity, may this be pleasing and acceptable to you. Farewell. The day before the Ides of November November 12th.