Apo kōpēs eis to bēma

...in the genre of writing requiring panegyric, through the powers of my wit, I would choose to pursue and study the magnificently performed deeds and clearly generous virtues of your family, as much for the dignity of the subject as for the august fame of the name, above many others. For all those things are so significant and almost royal that one who praises you and yours cannot be judged a flatterer, but one who does not praise them can, not unjustly, be judged malevolent. Finally, descending to where I intended, I ask that you receive these Theses, dedicated to your Illustrious and Magnificent name, O MOST EXCELLENT HEROES, in the same spirit with which I wrote them, and that you embrace not so much the gift—which, if you look at the thing itself, is small—as the intent, by reason of which it is very great, according to your kindness and vigorous magnificence. I pray to God the All-Good and All-Great that you and yours may be most happy and august in the favorable success of affairs. From our Basel Museum, the first day of April, 1582.