1.
[33] Ep.Caus.

1030.
[34] De Hist.Lat.lib.

3 XI.

The same year, 1599, Grotius published another work which discovered as much knowledge of the abstract sciences in particular, as the edition of _Martianus Capella_ did of his learning in general.
Stevin, Mathematician to Prince Maurice of Nassau, had by his orders composed a small treatise for the instruction of pilots in finding a ship's place at sea.

He formed a table of the variations of the needle, according to the observations of Plancius, a famous geographer, and added directions how to use it.
Grotius translated into Latin this work, which he could not have understood without knowing the Mathematics, and particularly Mechanics; Statics, and the art of working a ship, and of finding her place at sea, being branches of that science.
This translation he dedicated to the Republic of Venice by a letter dated April 1, 1599; in which he says, that having been in France about a year before, with the Ambassadors of the States, he there saw Signior Contarini, Ambassador of Venice; that a comparison happening to be made in conversation between the Republics of Holland and Venice, he immediately resolved to dedicate to the Venetians the first work he published that might be agreeable, or worthy to be presented to them; that an opportunity now offer'd of fulfilling this resolution, and that he dedicated to them the translation of Stevin's work because Prince Maurice had recommended it to the colleges of the Admiralty to be studied by all officers of the Navy; and as the Republic of Venice attentively cultivated Navigation, this book might be as useful to her as to Holland.
XII.