The work of Eneas Silvius, poet of Siena, concerning the two lovers Eurialus and Lucrecia, happily begins for Marianus Sozinus.

Preface

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To the magnificent and noble knight, Lord Gaspar Schlick, Lord of Nový Hrad, Imperial Chancellor, and Captain of the territories of Eger and Albito, his lord. Eneas Silvius, poet and imperial secretary, sends warm greetings and offers his respects. Marianus of Siena, my fellow countryman, a man of gentle character and great learning, whose future success I await original: "cuius adhuc silet visurus ne sim heres", asked me a few days ago to describe two lovers for him. He did not ask in vain, saying that I should compose them in the poetic manner. You know what kind of man he is. I will be amazed if I can fully describe him to you. Nature envied him nothing except his status, and he is a man who, if he had been born into my own family, would have been its pride. He is a man of eloquence, an expert in both canon and civil law, and he knows all histories. He is skilled in poetry. He composes verse in both Latin and Italian. He is as knowledgeable in philosophy as Plato, and in geometry he is like Boethius. He is like Macrobius in his countless instruments. He is ignorant of nothing unusual. He understands agriculture like Virgil. He is ignorant of no civic matter. When he was still in the prime of his youth, he was another Entellus a legendary boxer from Virgil’s Aeneid, a master of wrestling. Neither in running, nor in leaping, nor in
he was a Demosthenes

advancement could he be surpassed. Sometimes precious things are contained in small vessels, as gems and small stones testify. Nor would it be out of place to apply to him what Statius wrote about Tydeus: "Greater virtue ruled in a small body." If you gods had granted this man form and immortality, he would have been a god. But no mortal is fortunate in everything. I have not yet known anyone who lacked so few things as he does. Why, he even learned the most minute details. He paints like another Apelles. Nothing is more flawless, nothing more luminous, than the codices written by his own hand. He sculpts like Praxiteles, nor is he ignorant of medicine. Add to this his moral virtues, which govern and guide others. I have known many in my day who were devoted to literary studies, possessing disciples in abundance, but they had no sense of civic duty, nor did they know how to govern the republic or their own households. A man of Pagliano was stunned and accused his tenant of theft, because he had only brought back one young piglet that he had bought, when the sow was pregnant and had piglets. A man from Milan thought himself pregnant, and for a long time he expected the birth, until he climbed onto a donkey. Yet these men were considered great lights of the law. In others, you will find pride or avarice. This man is most liberal. His house is always full of honest guests. He is hostile to no one. He protects orphans, advises the sick,
he confessed ...?