An illuminated initial 'A' in blue on a gold background with red filigree. TO THE MOST HOLY IN CHRIST FA

THER AND LORD, LORD LEO

BY DIVINE PROVIDENCE POPE X, ON

THE BOOK OF SEVEN QUESTIONS

PROPOSED BY THE GREAT LORENZO DE' MEDICI,

ONCE LOST

AND RECENTLY FOUND, BY GEORGE

BENIGNUS OF SALVIATI, ARCHBISHOP

OF NAZARETH, A PREFACE BEGINS HAPPILY

Large illuminated initial 'O' containing a blue flower and a red strawberry on a gold background, surrounded by a floral border with white lilies.

It is established by nature itself that every man, most holy Father and most wise Pontiff, embraces what he has produced with a more tender and tenacious love. For this reason, we experience that parents love their children more, and that even if they are less loved by others, we find they are loved more by their own. We see poets also embrace their poems, and philosophers the books they have composed, as if they were their own children; and if (as sometimes happens) they lose them, they grieve as if they had lost their own offspring, and are affected by no small sorrow. To what end is this? That great man, Lorenzo, the father of such an illustrious and divine offspring, while he frequently attended my lectures and sermons in Florence, composed a poem for me in the vernacular language concerning seven of the most difficult questions in our faith, through

Coat of arms of the Medici family (six balls/palle, the top one blue with three fleurs-de-lis, the others red) surmounted by a papal tiara and crossed keys, enclosed within a circular floral wreath of roses and leaves on a red stippled background.