The Original Editor’s Afterword

After this little work had already come off the press, apart from the index, another manuscript was received, against which the printed sheets were then compared. We therefore wished also to indicate here the variant readings, or the places where its wording differed. We found, however, that not only a few lines but often half-pages and whole pages had been omitted from that handwritten copy. Indeed, the entire passage from page 66, line 9, to page 90, line 19, was missing from it, and most of the manuscripts belonging to their possessors are of this kind. The typographical errors are also to be appended here, although many would have belonged among the variant readings, so that the kindly reader can correct them and nothing that he might desire is left undone.

If good sales of this impression should lead to another edition, we shall translate the Latin so frequently interspersed here into German for the benefit of those unfamiliar with that language, and perhaps communicate something else of use as well. After the prefatory notice had already been printed, we also learned from a reliable friend that a certain prince of the Empire had offered thirty thousand thalers for this Golden Chain and had nevertheless been unable to obtain it. And when, recently, a thoroughly learned friend with a deep insight into nature received this writing from his brother to read, he declared that he owed him two hundred ducats for communicating it. He acknowledged that the author disclosed truths, and said that he would subscribe to everything except a single point. We wished also to record this here as it was truthfully reported.