TO THE READER

What are you doing, you will ask, bringing owls to Athens original: "γλαῦκας εἰς Ἀθήνας", a Greek proverb meaning to provide what is already abundant? To what purpose are these Exercises on this Title of the Digest, explained and illustrated by the commentaries of so many others? Since the individual Laws of this Rubric have been so lucidly and eloquently exposed by the monuments of both ancient and modern Interpreters, this work of yours appears to many to be superfluous. To whom is this Hylas original: "Hylas", referring to the myth of the youth stolen by nymphs, used here to suggest a topic everyone is tired of hearing not sung? It is as if it makes no difference whether you issue a Discourse Tractatum treatise to the public or write down a Disputation; whether you draw out and execute the material profusely and at length, or compress it into brief Aphorisms, destined for the polemical Elenchticis refutatory pulpits of the Academy.