The Polyhistor

JULIUS SOLINUS TO ADVENTUS, GREETINGS.

1571 year...?

Since I perceive that you excel others both in the gentleness of your ears and in your studies of the best arts, and having experienced this very much, and having perceived nothing rashly concerning your benevolence, I thought it best to give the examination of this little work to you, whose industry promised a more prompt judgment, or whose kindness promised an easier pardon. It is a book prepared for brevity, and as much as reason has allowed, it is so moderately restrained that there is neither profligate abundance in it, nor damaging conciseness: if you direct your mind more closely to it, you will find that it contains more of the leaven of knowledge than the tinsel of eloquence. For, having examined a few volumes, I confess that I have studied extensively, so that I might turn away my foot from the more common things, and linger more largely on the remote.

B The commemoration of places holds the most, into which part the whole material is almost more inclined: of which it seemed necessary to make mention, so that we might render the famous sites of the earth and the distinguished tracts of the sea, with the distinction of the world preserved, each in its own order. We have also inserted many things that are differently congruent, so that if nothing else, the very variety itself might remedy the weariness of the readers. Among these, we have expressed the natures of men and of other animals. A few things have been added about exotic trees and stones, about the forms of extinct races, and about the discordant rite of hidden nations: also some things worthy of remembrance, which it seemed injurious to omit, and whose authority (which I would like to be insinuated primarily to your industry) flows from the most received writers. For what of our own could there be, since