Translation:Disquisitiones Arithmeticae/Dedication
TO THE MOST SERENE
PRINCE AND LORD
CHARLES WILLIAM FERDINAND
DUKE OF BRUNSWICK AND LUNEBURG
MOST SERENE PRINCE,
I consider it my greatest good fortune that YOU allow me to
adorn this work of mine with YOUR most honorable name. I am
bound by a sacred duty to offer it to YOU. Were it not for
YOUR favor, Most Serene Prince, I would not have had my first
introduction to the sciences. Were it not for YOUR unceasing
benefits in support of my studies, I would not have been able to
devote myself totally to my passionate love, the study of mathematics. It has been YOUR generosity alone which freed me from
other cares, allowed me to give myself to so many years of fruitful
contemplation and study, and finally provided me the opportunity
to set down in this volume some of the results of my investigations. And when at length I was ready to present my work to the
world, it was YOUR munificence alone which removed all the
obstacles that continually delayed its publication. Such has been
YOUR bounty toward me and my work that I can only contemplate it with most grateful mind and silent wonder; I cannot pay it
the tribute it justly deserves. For not only do I feel myself hardly
equal to such an office, but also everyone knows YOUR extraordinary liberality to all who devote themselves to the higher disciplines.
And everyone knows that YOU have never excluded from YOUR
patronage those sciences which are commonly regarded as being
too recondite and too removed from ordinary life, YOU YOURSELF in
YOUR supreme wisdom are well aware of the intimate and necessary
bond that unites all sciences among themselves and with whatever
pertains to the prosperity of the human society. Therefore I present
this book as a witness to my profound regard for YOU and to my
dedication to the noblest of sciences. Most Serene Prince, if YOU judge it worthy of that extraordinary favor which YOU have always lavished on me, I will congratulate myself that my work was not in vain and that I have been graced with that honor which I prize above all others.
MOST SERENE PRINCE
Your Highness' most dedicated servant
Brunswick, July 1801C. F. GAUSS