Text.Penot.1595-01.F1v/Translation

Bernard of Port of Saint Aquitaine greets the Reader.

These rules, excerpted from the books of various authors by me, will allow any student of the art to understand the entire art briefly depicted, provided they are suitable and apt for it. However, those who do not feel called to these matters should rest: "Let the cobbler not go beyond his last." Therefore, let each walk in the calling to which they have been called. Otherwise, they will experience the avenging hand of God. For this knowledge is from heaven; it is not at the discretion of men. It never reaches the hands of hard-necked craftsmen, soldiers, or wicked men; rather, this art finds a holy man or makes him holy: therefore, learn righteousness, O you who are admonished, and you who are perverse, do good: for the sacred is for the sacred, and it is not permitted to give what is holy to dogs.