Commentarii in sacram Actuum Apostolicorum historiam, facili et perspicua methodo conscripti a Benedicto Aretio bernensi theologo. Cum indice rerum et verborum memorabilium quae in hisce continentur.

It remains, most distinguished sir, that I recount the causes why I thought these commentaries of our D. Aretius, of pious memory, should be offered to your name: which came to me by hereditary right along with his other writings. The outstanding gifts with which God has adorned you with singular piety, great authority, and generosity of spirit are well known, and, having adorned you, He co-opted you into the secret and supreme Council of this most ample Republic: from there He called you to the Tribunician power: then recently raised you to the office of Treasurer with the applause of all citizens. But on the condition that you use all these divine gifts primarily for His glory, the propagation of the Church, and the amplification of the schools which are committed to your faith. For schools are the seminaries of the Church, indeed the armories, from which weapons are drawn and soldiers are called to defend the citadel of the Church and to repel enemies. Since you know this very well, you not only labor in restoring from the foundations the renowned building of the Lausanne College: but also, following the footsteps of your father of pious memory, Antonius Dillerius, also treasurer of the city, you perpetually nourish two students in foreign Academies, not without great expenses, and dedicate them to sacred uses. I also know how grateful the memory of our Aretius is to you: who, if he had lived longer, would undoubtedly have dedicated a part of some of his labors to you as a testimony of his love toward you. I also know how much I owe to your most distinguished father of pious memory and to your Greatness: who have heaped me with continuous benefits from the beginning of my age. Therefore, what it was not permitted to pay to him must be paid in the memory of the parent, since I am bound to him by the perpetual memory of benefits. But to you, since I cannot exhibit another testimony of my observance toward you at this time, it seemed best to me to commit this remarkable offspring of D. Aretius, orphaned of his parent, to your faith and guardianship, so that it may come into the hands of men more recommended. Nor did I take this gift by chance from the most wealthy literary treasury of D. Aretius, but with judgment and selection: if indeed you hold History and geography geography in delights, and you adorn both in such a way that you are famous among foreigners even by this name. I therefore thought I would do conveniently if I dedicated to you something of that kind from which you are accustomed to take utility and pleasure. Thus