To the Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord, the Lord Hieronimo Rusticucci, Most Ample Cardinal.

Being about to bring my Herbal to light, on whose long treatise I have laboured with great study for many years, and which (if I am not deceived, and if I have not been deceived by many learned and judicious persons) is to bring very great use, and no little delight, to the world, I have resolved to put it forth under the shadow and the protection of your Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lordship, and to dedicate it to the greatness of your name. And this resolve is caused by the singular obligation that I, with all my house, owe to your admirable courtesy; and at the same time it proceeds from your infinite merit. For who does not know that you, as you have enriched your mind with the rarest and most prized virtues, so show yourself magnanimous in protecting and raising up the virtuous? All peoples know that your Most Illustrious Lordship is a generous minister of liberality and of magnificence, and they see that Temperance always goes with you, and that Justice and Fortitude never depart from you. It is plain to everyone that Prudence is your faithful counsellor, that Goodness dwells with you, and finally that you are an example to be imitated of the Christian religion; to which your glorious and never sufficiently praised deeds bear the fullest witness, and above all those that were seen to come from you in the most happy pontificate of Pius the Fifth, a true mirror of gratitude and of holiness. Whereby you deserved that that most holy pontiff, besides the most singular graces and favours that he did you, should honour you in your freshest age with the rank of the cardinalate, and set you over the government of the Ecclesiastical State, and the business of states, and the gravest affairs of the Apostolic See and of all Christendom; making you sit also at the private audiences that he ordinarily gave to the ambassadors of princes, which was a mark of favour such as no other pontiff is remembered ever to have shown to any other person. And in all these things your Most Illustrious Lordship always acted with such piety, such justice and prudence, as is very clear to the whole world, so that the fame of it sounds, and will sound perpetually, with the clearest cry. But to return to the purpose of my dedication, from which I have strayed somewhat, more to satisfy myself than because I believe that one could hold within a few words what could not be said even with the greatest abundance of your many deeds and singular merits: I beg you, regarding the most devoted affection of my mind, to deign to receive these labours of mine, such as they are, with your accustomed humanity and kindness. And as I shall hold myself singularly favoured and honoured by you in this, so I shall not cease to pray for you from Our Lord God, the giver of every good, that highest fullness of felicity which the wise foresee, the good hope for, and I in particular, as your most devoted and most obliged servant, desire for you; and meanwhile I bow to you most humbly, and kiss your most sacred hands. In Rome, the 27th of March, 1585.

Of Your Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lordship

Most humble servant

Castore Durante.