We read in the account of the creation of the world that man was created in the image and likeness of God and was given life by the breathing-in of the Divine breath; that by the excelling quality of such distinction he was preferred above all other living creatures, so that, capable of reason, he might participate deservedly in the wisdom and skill of God's design, and that, endowed with freedom of choice, he should respect the will and revere the sovereignty of his Creator alone. But, although he lost the privilege of immortality through the sin of disobedience, being pitifully deceived by the cunning of the devil, nevertheless he transmitted to the generations of posterity his distinction of knowledge and intelligence, so that whoever devotes care and attention to the task can acquire, as by hereditary right, the capacity for the whole range of art and skill.

Holding this purpose before it, human ingenuity, in it's varied activities in persuit of gain and pleasure, brought this purpose through the waxing of time eventually to the predestined era of the Christian religion. SO it came to pass that a people devoted to God converted to His worship that which His own ordinance had created for the praise and glory of His name.

Wherefore the pious devotion of the faithful should not neglect what the ingenious foresight of their predecessors has transmitted to our present age, and man should embrace with avid eagerness the inheritance that God bestowed on man and should labor to acquire it. Let no one after acquiring this glorify himself in his own heart as though it had been received from himself and not from elsewhere. but let him be humbly thankful in the Lord from whom and through whom all things are and without whom nothing is. Let him not hide his gifts in the purse of envy nor conceal them in the storeroom of a selfish heart but, thrusting aside all boasting, let him simply and with a cheerful mind dispense to those who seek. Let him also fear the judgment in the Gospel on that merchant who failed to return the talent to his master with interest and went without thanks, and by the evidence of his own mouth deserved the epithet, "thou wicked servent."

Fearing to incur this judgment, I, an unworthy human creature, almost without name, offer freely to all who desire in humbleness to learn the gifts that God, who gives abundantly and undemandingly to all, has deigned to grant freely to me. I admonish them to see exemplified in me the blessed kindness of God and to wonder at His ample generosity. I urge them to beleive unquestioningly that the same is there for them of they will add their own efforts. For just as it is wicked and hateful for a man through evil ambition to grasp at a forbidden thing that is not his due or to take possession of it by theft, so also it must be ascribed to laziness and to folly if he leaves without trial or treats contemptuously a rightful inheritence from God the Father.

Therefore whoever you are, dearest son, whose heart God has inspired to investigate the vast field of diverse arts and to apply your mind and attention to gather from it whatever pleases you, do not disparage and costly or useful thing just because your native soil has spontaneously and unexpectedly produced it for you. For he is a foolish merchant who suddenly comes across a treasure while digging the soil and neglects to gather it up and save it. If your common shrubs should produce myrrh, fankincense, and balsam, if your local springs should pour forth oil, milk, and honey, if spikenard, cane, and various aromatic herbs should grow in place of nettles, thistles, and other garden weeds, would you despise all these as cheap local products and travel over land and sea to procure foreign ones that are no better and perhaps of less value? Even in your own judgment this would be a great folly. For although men normally accord highest rank to, and guard with the greatest care, every precious thing that has been sought after with much sweat and acquired at extreme expense, yet if now and then similar or better things turn up or are found for nothing, they are guarded with similar or even greater vigilance.

Therefore most gentle son - whom God has wholly blessed in that there are freely offered to you things which many obtain only after intolerable effort, plowing the waves of the sea at the greatest danger to their lives, constrained by the necessities of hunger and cold, or wearied by long servitude to the professors, and yet remain unflagging in their desire for learning - gaze covetously and avidly upon this treatise on diverse arts, read it through with tenacious memory, and embrace it with ardent love.

If you study it diligently you will find here whatever kinds of the different pigments Byzantium possesses and their mixtures; whatever Russia has learned in the working of enamels and variegation with niello; whatever Arab lands adorn with repousse or casting or openwork; whatever decoration Italy applies to a variety of vessels in gold or by the carving of gems or ivories; whatever France loves in the costly variegation of windows; and whatever skillful Germany applauds in the fine working of gold, silver, copper, and iron, and in wood and precious stones.