TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS

AND MOST ADORNED PRINCE

WILLIAM THE YOUNGER, DUKE OF CLEVES,

Jülich, Berg, Count of Mark and Ravensberg, etc.

Iohannes Nouiomagus sends greetings.

A decorative woodcut initial 'Q' features a classical figure within a circular frame, surrounded by floral and architectural motifs.

Since, most illustrious Prince William the Younger, the magnitude of the affairs and councils you conduct together with your most distinguished parents solicits your mind toward greater cares and weightier thoughts, I did not think I would be acting in a manner worthy of a prince if I were to call back your mind, encumbered by many great tasks, to lighter studies by this prosphonei address or dedication. This is especially true at this time, when, having just emerged from adolescence, you have been imbued with the liberal disciplines and the precepts of action (which your excellent parents ensured you were formed in by the best tutors with singular prudence) and have begun to perform something worthy of a man and a prince, and to bring into the light more clearly those things for which your past age has been a preparation.

But this matter also caused me to have less hope of reaching you with favor, because I knew (for I shall speak frankly and freely what I feel with modesty) that access to princes is difficult, and that those are ill-received by courtiers who are not illustrious by birth, fame, or fortune, nor dear through favor or recommendation. Although I am destitute of all these supports, and I easily understand that you are also burdened by difficult affairs, I did not think I should cease. Instead, I took the confidence to write, because I perceive that you judge very differently regarding honest disciplines and those who cultivate them than those who, without knowledge of literature and the precepts of philosophers, think that the amplitude of birth, fortune, and dominion is sufficient to maintain the dignity of a prince.

Although you received these things most abundantly from your ancestors, it has happened to you by the singular and divine providence of your excellent parents that you were able, from childhood, to join the praise of knowledge and virtue with your royal lineage. In this matter, just as you have learned excellently from Plato, there is the first and greatest nobility: namely, to act as a prince with greatness of mind. Reinvigorated by this virtue and humanity of yours, I took confidence not only to write these things to you, but also to hope that your greatness would hereafter think our trifles to be of some value, and would not bear them with a spirit other than that with which we trust you are affected toward good studies and the liberal arts. For I discovered an argument and testimony of this matter in Cunradus Heresbachius, a man worthy to be involved in the formation of a prince’s character, whose faith and dexterity I perceived some years ago in Cologne during several familiar meetings; so I then persuaded myself that you would not only be a prince worthy of having the care and administration of domains and public affairs committed to you, but also a most noble Maecenas of the Muses and of men of talent. Nor, as the outcome has shown and still shows daily, did this persuasion deceive me, when I see your court and that of your most laudable father celebrated as a kind of public oracle of the whole region, with the best and most learned men sought out from everywhere. So much so that this Plato might think himself clearly satisfied, who believed that philosophers ought to be the rulers of cities, or that their kings should philosophize; both of which you have fulfilled most beautifully, while you yourself are imbued with the precepts of wisdom and delight in such advisors. Trusting in these supports, and especially in your kindness, most illustrious prince, I allowed myself to be overcome by the urging of some friends who pressed me to dedicate to your name something of my studies, which I sometimes write or rather pour forth during my leisure time, and also because this kind of service is not displeasing to you, as shown by several examples.