Natural Magic

What shall I say of the Magi kings who came to adore Jesus Christ, and of the others also excellent in this art, the names of whom are left to us by memory through the writings and monuments of our ancestors?

It will therefore please your majesty to think by what labor and vigilance I have employed myself to research this most excellent science, not without loss of my own, and this for the occasion, Lord, of honoring you with some gift and present worthy of your majesty, and as I have taken many things from our predecessors, so also have I added something of my own.

I offer and dedicate to you, King Philippe, most excellent, these books of Natural Magic, although they are far too inferior to your majesty and highness, for I cannot do so much toward you, but your good pleasure will be to content yourself with the good will, and to this end I have made you a present of this my small labor, to you alone, I say, O King Philippe, so that this science, so well exercised and practiced by our ancient kings, might take ornament and decoration from your name and favor,