shall not, commonyng with friendes, and to dispute of thynges, and not
to condemne them. How much better thei should have doen (be it spoken
without displeasure to any man) to have sought to been like the
antiquitie in thinges strong, and sharpe, not in the delicate and softe:
and in those that thei did in the Sunne, not in the shadowe: and to take
the true and perfecte maners of the antiquitie: not those that are false
and corrupted: for that when these studies pleased my Romaines, my
countrie fell into ruin. Unto which Cosimo answered. But to avoide the
tediousnesse to repeate so many times he saied, and the other answered,
there shall be onely noted the names of those that speakes, without
rehersing other.

Then COSIMO saied, you have opened the waie of a reasoning, which I have
desired, and I praie you that you will speake withoute respecte, for
that that I without respecte will aske you, and if I demaundyng, or
repliyng shall excuse, or accuse any, it shal not be to excuse, or
accuse, but to understande of you the truth.

FABRICIO. And I shall be very well contented to tell you that, whiche I
understand of al the same that you shall aske me, the whiche if it shall
be true, or no, I wil report me to your judgemente: and I will be glad
that you aske me, for that I am to learne, as well of you in askyng me,
as you of me in aunswerynge you: for as muche as many times a wise
demaunder, maketh one to consider many thynges, and to knowe many other,
whiche without havyng been demaunded, he should never have knowen.

COSIMO. I will retourne to thesame, that you said first, that my
graundfather and those your Princes, should have doen more wisely, to
have resembled the antiquitie in hard thinges, then in the delicate, and
I will excuse my parte, for that, the other I shall leave to excuse for