Hyginus' Book of Fables and Poetic Astronomy

Then, because most of the words themselves were so hindered and disturbed among themselves, we had to divide some, and abolish others; the beginning of some predecessors had to be joined with the end of the following, and again, the end of some predecessors with the beginning of the next. To say nothing of how many things were obliterated, deleted, and corroded by age: some of which we restored following estimation and conjectures; others, where there was nothing certain that we could follow, we left entirely intact. Altogether, however, nothing was changed or moved from its place for which it was not certainly clear from either the Greeks or the Latin poets, to the extent that in some places I have deemed it sufficient to note a different reading alongside the other and the former. For the method of correcting original: "emendandi ratio" of some does not please me, who change things entirely rashly, and as each one seems capable, immediately, and subsequently substitute other things feigned for the truth. To whom, if we owe nothing else, we certainly owe this: that we have most authors less intact and more mutilated. Therefore, if you, most noble Otho, accept this labor of ours with a grateful mind—which I hope you will—and you will surely do that, so that what I desired from the very beginning, that I might be recommended to you, I might now seem to have achieved: and you should also add this, that for the remaining parts of these studies, you might subsequently render me more eager to take up and pursue them.