To the Reader.

Before the time appended to the end of those letters, I had never heard of the name of that man, and consequently of the various calumnies applied by him not only to me but also to others.

Meanwhile, however, I pray you (benevolent readers and most esteemed judges) that, every favor and partiality set aside, you may look into this little book of mine with sincere eyes and eyes directed by the virtue of justice, so that you may be able to judge rightly whether my ignorance, or rather the malice of that Monk, is the cause of such virulence and madness against me, with which he pursues me through almost the entire thread of his immense volume. Farewell and judge rightly, and I beseech you to pardon me for errors, if any should occur to your eyes in this inquiry of ours.