JO. MATTHIAS GESNER

PREFACE.

For at last, by the grace of God, I am fulfilling a task that, though sweet, has long been desired by our prayers. We shall offer this to our rustic writers, or rather to you, READER, with all the more eagerness as the very end of a long labor, like a port reached after a difficult voyage, brings us greater pleasure. Indeed, so that we are not overwhelmed by the crowd of details, it is our pleasure to establish a certain order for what is to be said here. First, we shall indicate the fortunes that have befallen each of the writers we provide. Next, we shall pursue the luck by which these four leaders have been combined. Finally, we shall commemorate what help or adornment has been added to them in this edition after fortune interrupted the efforts of others.

I. Now, as for recounting the life of M. Cato the Censor, who first taught agriculture to speak Latin (Columella I, 1, 12.) or even that of the others, no one, I believe, expects it, especially since the Fabrician Library Refers to the Bibliotheca Latina by Johann Albert Fabricius, a standard reference work for classical scholars of the period. is in everyone's hands, which for students of that...