Persée voltigeant, le heros Lathmien,
Cephee, & sa familhe, & cil qu'á son lien
Une mute de chiens encor la haut promeine,
M'invitent á voler d'une plume hautaine
Par les dorés Lambris qui planchent ce grand Tout
Pour nous rendre du Ciel savans de bout en bout.
When in 1583 the young French poet and savant Jean- Edouard du Monin included these lines in introducing the second book of his Uranologie, he was but paraphrasing, with the same classical allusions, both the aspiration and the intention expressed at the corresponding point in the text of his model, a manuscript version of the Sphera of George Buchanan.