On the Movement of Animals, Part One

You, however, LADY, after having enriched your mind with the treasures of the sciences through the keenness of your intellect and assiduous study, also possess

The serene temples of the wise, established by doctrine,
Whence you may look down upon others, and see them wandering
Here and there.

You wished that I (though unworthy), while holding the torch and pointing the way, should peer into the sanctuary of the divine volume exposed to our eyes; indeed, you wished to geometrize the creation and contemplate the Geometry that the divine hand delineated in the sensible and animal world, which declares the existence, excellence, and goodness of the divine author. If I have subsequently been permitted to perceive some small part of those Geometric reasons which are expressed by Divine Wisdom in the structure and operations of Animals, the Republic of Letters should acknowledge this from your beneficent and Heroic hand, of which I am, with my lucubrations, a most obedient client and servant. Farewell. Rome, from the House of the Pious Schools of Saint Pantaleon, the Kalends of December, 1679.