Cornelii Valerii Ultraiectini In universam benedicendi [sic] rationem tabula, summam artis rhetoricae complectens

Marquess of Veere, Lord of Beveren, etc., Prefect of the Belgian Sea, Governor of the dominion of Holland, Zeeland, and Utrecht, Knight of the highest Order of the Golden Fleece, CORNELIUS VALERIUS from Auduatra of Utrecht, sends greetings.

Decorative drop cap 'A' featuring floral and scrollwork motifs.It has been eighteen years since I, as a young man, began teaching rhetoric to certain friends and peers of mine, doing so more out of a desire to learn and to grasp the art more easily, which they wanted me to teach, than because I trusted myself greatly. For their benefit, I proposed certain most necessary precepts of speaking well, contained in a few pages within a table. Once that table, having been copied in many examples, had come under the eyes of many, other friends besides those acquaintances of mine dealt with me to publish it. When I firmly refused this, they began to urge me, and even threatened that what I had dictated would be published by others. Since they did not cease to demand an edition, I finally replied briefly that a table which I had not written with such diligence that I would judge it worthy of reading would never be brought into the light by my own will.