The phoenix, the bird reborn, portrays Christ.

In place of a philosophical emblem: the author’s arms.

It has pleased the author to place here the arms granted and confirmed to his forebears by Maximilian II at the Diet of Speyer in the year 1570, for their merits and military services rendered for more than thirty years to his Sacred Majesty, to the Emperors Charles V and Ferdinand I, and also to King Philip of Spain—their Imperial and Royal Majesties—against the Turks as well as other enemies of the Empire and the House of Austria; particularly because of the phoenix incorporated in them, perhaps not without an omen.