Letter 8001: Full of the best hopes for you, and wishing you every good fortune, I reach for the pen of letter-writing.

Full of the best hope, to you for whom I wish good fortune, I aspire to the duty of correspondence. For it is fitting that your magistracies be tasted with this preface, and that, among the purple robes of an owner growing in distinction, one should not abstain from conversation of whatever quality. Is love recognized only by the benefits of learning, and must it be thought unlawful for the desires of a rustic fellow to come forth into the open? Wishes become known more simply when veiled by no trickery of skill. Therefore we are with our mouth what we are in our breast: we cannot change the bitter feelings of our heart by flattering speeches. He is a modest praiser to whom, in the artful contriving of a compliment, his own mind supplies what must be said. Thanks therefore to Almighty God, who in you, while He guards the old blessings of your family, multiplies new ones, and-what is greater than the summit of dignity-makes you worthy of the heights. This glory is indeed rendered to your origin, but-what is more illustrious-with the merit of the person obtaining it. It may have been the custom for the ancients to purchase the loftiness of the curule chairs by the sweat of the field, and, with contempt for life, to shine in the sun of honors: but another kind of virtue is sought, after Rome was made the prize of the victors. Our candidate, after a manifest contest, obtains his due triumph, though he has never seen wars. By judgment he claims the laurels, and has thought it unnecessary to engage with armed men. Among the swords of Cicero and of Demosthenes he has shone, and he has gathered the keen points of each man's aim as though born in the very peace of the arts. Let no one fear the discord of Attic perfection and of Roman, nor doubt that the chief goods of the nations come together in fellowship. You are the one man who embrace both, and, greedy for the greatest things, you include within yourself whatever, distributed piecemeal, could have been enough. The eloquence of the ancients, while you imitate it, you surpass: you bestow upon the most learned a model of speaking, even while you seek it. There is with me a venerable composition of your letter, which may give proof of this matter. Would that the things directed from you were as frequent as they are charming! You will say, perhaps: it was fitting to praise a kinsman laboring for the common increase, since it is not one's own to confer, as if singly, what seems to be the palm-embroidered honor: there came to me indeed a portion from the curule chair. But, if you believe me, I am more uplifted by your genius and your sublime studies. Sometimes those former things have come to men by chances: those latter befell virtue alone. He is brought almost destitute to the staff of consular suffrage who boasts only of his parents. To you both are in your private store, the knowledge of Latium and the vein of the purple. Oh, if only the consideration of the epistolary style did not oppose to me a hand drawn out at too great length! What others enrich with full narration, I would unfold raw, even if in confused order. I return to the trustworthiness of the tablets. I announce that I am well, and I implore whether you are well, asking as the height of a favor that your esteem may raise me up with reciprocal conversation, and begging this also, that the house which both your abundance and your neglect have by now almost abandoned in the city of Milan, you would grant to me in whatever manner you wish. For it is just that your kinsmen should have something that comes down from the mass of the patrimony. Believe me, with God as witness, that, if I shall have deserved to obtain it without loss to your estate, I shall, as though bound by a gift, respond with more devoted services. About this matter-so may all things turn out happily for us-if I ought to be free of care, send me the assurance of a full document.

I. BOETIO ENNODIVS. Optimae spei plenus cui faustum cupio ad curam officii epistularis adspiro. decet enim uestris fascibus hac praefatione delibari et inter purpuras possessoris luce crescentes qualicumque non abstinere conloquio. numquid solius doctrinae beneficiis amor agnoscitur nec fas esse credendum est prodire in medium desideria rusticantis? simplicius innotescunt uota nullo peritiae uelata praestigio. ergo nos hoc sumus ore quod pectore: non amara praecordiorum delenificis possumus mutare sermonibus: pudens laudator est cui in concinnatione blandimenti dicenda mens suggerit. deo ergo omnipotenti gratias, qui in uobis, dum uetera familiae uestrae bona custodit, noua multiplicat et, quod plus est apice dignitatis, dignos facit esse culminibus. redditur quidem uestrae gloria ista origini, sed, quod est clarius , merito inpetrante personae. fuerit in more ueteribus curulium celsitudinem campi sudore mercari et contemptu lucis honorum sole fulgere: sed aliud genus uirtutis quaeritur, postquam praemium facta est Roma uictorum. noster candidatus post manifestam decertationem debitum triumphum, dum numquam uiderit bella, sortitur. iudicio exigit laureas et congredi non necessarium duxit armatis. inter I. 3 fantom LTV dupio B at ad L 4 dicit Bb 5 delib.ari (e uel er eras.) L porporas Bl poBsessionis T arescentis Bb 10 non] nec LTV delinificis Bb 11 concinnatione B (ro. ree.) b, concenatione B, condempnatione LTV 12 siigerit Bl gratias omnipotenti LTY 16 morem LTY 18 sole] luce Sirm . 22 exiget B; exegit fort . Ciceronis gladios et Demosthenis enituit et utriusque propositi acumina quasi natus in ipsa artium pace collegit. nemo dissonantiam Atticae perfectionis metuat et Romanae nec praecipua gentium bona in societatem dubitet conuenire. unus es qui utrumque conplecteris et quicquid uiritim distributum poterat satis esse auidus maximarum rerum possessor includis. eloquentiam ueterum, dum imitaris exsuperas: dicendi formam doctissimis tribuis, dum requiris. est apud me epistulae uestrae, quae huius rei fidem faciat, ueneranda conpositio. utinam quae a uobis diriguntur tam essent crebra quam suauia! dicatis forsitan: par fuit propinquum laudare in commune augmentum laborantem, quia non est proprium quod quasi singulariter uidetur palmata conferre: uenit ad me equidem portio de curuli. sed, si mihi creditis, plus erigor de genio et studiis sublimati. interdum accesserunt ista de casibus: soli contigerunt illa uirtuti. prope inops ad scipionem adducitur suffragii consularis qui tantum de parentibus gloriatur. tibi utrumque in peculio est, Latiaris scientia et uena purpurarum. o si mihi non stili epistularis consideratio in longum equidem producta manus opponeret! quod alii relatione ditant ego crudum etsi confusis ordinibus explicarem. redeo ad tabellarum fidem. ualere me nuntio et utrum ualeatis inploro, ad summam beneficii postulans, ut dignatio me reciproci sermonis adtollat, hoc quoque deprecans, ut domum, quam in Mediolanensi ciuitate et abundantia uestra et neglectus propemodum iam reliquit, mihi quo uultis genere concedatis. iustum est enim ut parentes 1 gladius B demostenta SLTVb 9 ipso a. apice fort. colliget B 3 atticae (cae in ras.) B, antioe L profecttonit L 5 destributum B 7 enpenw LT 8 tribnes Bb reqaires B 9 fidem Bb, fidaciam V, fidutiam LT 11 propinquam B in T 8. 1 . agmentam T1 13 aequidem B 14 curruli T a 17 tibi est T 18 est otn. T largiaris L 19 epistolaris * B ANuidem B producti fort . 20 dicant (c s. I. m . rec.) B, dictant b st si. (n ? cras.) L 22 ntio et utrum T 23 dignatio me L* 25 habundantia BT reliquid BL 26 genera L concidatis B uestri habeant quod de patrimonii mole descendit. credite mihi deo teste, quia, si inpetrare sine detrimento census uestri meruero, quasi dono obligatus obsequiis potioribus respondebo. de qua parte, sic nobis feliciter uniuersa contingant, si securus esse debeo , plenarii mihi documenti dirigite firmitatem.