Hoc in volumine haec opera continentur

A decorative initial 'Y' at the beginning of the text.

Georgius Valla of Piacenza to the Magnificent Victor Pisanus, a noble patrician of Venice, eternal greetings.

The opinion of the Pythagoreans and the Platonists is that in all things, both those being produced and those being led, nature holds nothing more ancient than harmony, since there is nothing that guards and fosters the health of all things under a just ruler. This is true not only in guarding the motions of the heavens and those eternal revolutions from which these lowest and mortal bodies arise, are administered, and are transformed, but also in directing others greatly. For by the course of the sun first, then the moon, and the other stars, no one doubts that the changes of seasons, the growth, and the decay of these bodies occur. There is no other thing, by the proportion of things which is called harmony, that keeps individual things together in its healthy state and temperament. This is the source of health and permanence, by consuming redundant humors, correcting corrupted ones, supporting those that are languishing, ejecting foreign ones, digesting mixed ones, and finally, by keeping the duties and functions of all limbs, always and everywhere keeping the reason of the universe. Therefore, he who emulates the maker of the universe follows his footprints, and he alone will be justly said to have been produced in the image and likeness of the maker, as a leader of citizens in his own domain: keeping some of any kind of humanity in their duty, calling others back to gentleness from savagery and brutality through eloquence, rousing others from inertia and sloth, and warning and arming others with advice against the effects of these bodies, or subduing or appeasing the ferocity of their nature. Such was that Amphion in the founding of the Theban city, or the Thracian poet in the most ancient and ignorant rustic state, which found its name from mountains, trees, rivers, birds, and wild beasts. Since the talent for administering all of these things is seen in you, illustrious Victor Pisanus, I have judged that it is not without reason that the short work of Cleonides on harmony, most full of erudition and sharpness, should be made Latin by me for you. For just as harmony was sent down from heaven divinely to rule these lower bodies, so you seem to us to have been bestowed by those most famous ancestors of the Venetian state, by the best omen of that name, which, while the Venetian fleet was no less in reality than in name, went to meet all enemies who were Victor a pun on his name, 'Victor'. And just as harmony moderates all human bodies, so you in this flower of age are profound in the highest praise for your most severe magistracies. And there is still an inclination in you to accomplish much greater things, both by distinguished deeds and by a grave and sharp intellect. Just as the genius of your ancestors is your ornament, so the light of this very genius which shines in you promises such eloquence that you seem to us clearly to be a flower of this city, steeped in it, just as Ennius said of Cethegus. Therefore, illustrious Victor, act as you have begun, and embrace the liberal arts; for as much as one needs eloquence to claim and obtain authority, so one needs learning. Without this, even if something is well said by the help of nature, it cannot always be rich and manly because it happens by chance, and speech often necessarily flags unless an approaching age and industry, but also learning, makes it far more fertile and grave. Your character promises us that this will be most whole in you, and accordingly, you seem destined to attain the highest pinnacle of the Venetian state, God leading. Finally, as it delights you to know all other things, so now look upon this harmony of Cleonides.