Theses medicae de divina et admiranda hominis in utero formatione

TO THE GENEROUS AND MAGNIFICENT LORDS, Johann Wilhelm, free Baron of Rogendorf and Mollenburg, hereditary Lord of Sitzendorf and Midlerngraben, and supreme Marshal of the court of Lower Austria, Privy Councilor to His Sacred Imperial Majesty, and Land Marshal: Vita Albert, Baron of Puechaimb, Lord of Horne and Vuiltperge, hereditary cupbearer of both Austrias, Privy Councilor to His Sacred Imperial Majesty: Ruediger, Baron of Starhemberg, Lord of Efferding and Schonbuhel, Privy Councilor to His Sacred Imperial Majesty, my most humbly revered Lords and Patrons.

A decorative drop cap letter P features floral and scrollwork motifs.PYTHAGORAS, that most serious philosopher, most generous Barons, most merciful patrons, when asked by what reason men could be considered similar to the gods, replied: If they embrace the truth and do good to all. This divine sentence of the divine philosopher, even if it can be understood concerning that double end which philosophers have established for all our actions, and in which they have placed all blessedness, namely, the Good and the True, the former of which we attain by acting, the latter by contemplating, it seems not inconveniently to be referred also to those who, having embraced the truth of the celestial doctrine, provide by doing good a clear and remaining testimony of their faith. In the number of these, you too, most generous Barons, are to be placed; you who, together with other nobles of Austria, compelled by the love of celestial truth, not only embrace the more sincere doctrine of the Gospel yourselves, but also endeavor with pious zeal to communicate it to others who are held by the desire for it, and even to transmit it to posterity, which is to be considered in the place of a supreme benefit. You have most abundant witnesses of this matter in the theologians, whose services you have happily used in teaching, and in widely scattering and propagating this doctrine, and in extirpating the Papists a reference to those following the Roman Catholic Church; but especially in the most Reverend man, Lord Laurentius Becherus, whose faith, dexterity, and constancy (to be silent about his other virtues and rare gifts of mind, especially the study of deserving well of others, which indeed, if this place allowed, I would most gladly proclaim, since his merits toward me are so great that I could not attain any part of them by thinking, let alone by expressing gratitude) you have sufficiently and more than sufficiently perceived in governing and instituting in piety the congregation of the pious, both at Vienna and at Horn. Therefore, it is with merit that one could attribute this praise to you, that you are most constant assertors of divine truth, and that you leave nothing undone so that it might become known to as many as possible; which, indeed, for attaining the immortality of a name, and as Pythagoras thought, for being snatched toward a likeness of the gods, is nothing more excellent, nothing more useful,