To this end,
most acceptable in the sight of God, our attention has long been
unweariedly devoted. This ecstatic love has carried us away so
powerfully, that we have resigned all thoughts of other earthly
things, and have given ourselves up to a passion for acquiring
books. That our intent and purpose, therefore, may be known to
posterity as well as to our contemporaries, and that we may for
ever stop the perverse tongues of gossipers as far as we are
concerned, we have published a little treatise written in the
lightest style of the moderns; for it is ridiculous to find a
slight matter treated of in a pompous style. And this treatise
(divided into twenty chapters) will clear the love we have had
for books from the charge of excess, will expound the purpose of
our intense devotion, and will narrate more clearly than light
all the circumstances of our undertaking. And because it
principally treats of the love of books, we have chosen, after
the fashion of the ancient Romans, fondly to name it by a Greek
word, Philobiblon.
CHAPTER I
THAT THE TREASURE OF WISDOM IS CHIEFLY CONTAINED IN BOOKS
The desirable treasure of wisdom and science, which all men
desire by an instinct of nature, infinitely surpasses all the
riches of the world; in respect of which precious stones are
worthless; in comparison with which silver is as clay and pure
gold is as a little sand; at whose splendour the sun and moon are
dark to look upon; compared with whose marvellous sweetness honey
and manna are bitter to the taste.
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