Letter 9003: King Athalaric to Bergantinus, Vir Illustris [Most Illustrious], Count of the Patrimony.

III. King Athalaric to Bergantinus, Vir Inlustris [a man of illustrious rank], Count of the Patrimony. [1] If all unremitting labor yields fruits so diverse that, by the customary exchange, it purchases gold and silver, why do we not ourselves diligently seek out those very things for the sake of which we seemed to demand other things? Let wealthy Italy bring in for us golden fruits as well. Every kind of revenue is acquired where the tawny metal is found. For what need is there to exhaust the earth with manifold fecundity, if the prices themselves can rather be found within it? Nature, with industry lending its aid, grants us grain for ordinary use; wines pour themselves forth on every side; metal is yielded up but rarely, so that it may be sought after the more zealously. [2] Wherefore we command Your Magnitude to dispatch a chartularius [record-keeper] to the Rusticianan estate of our jurisdiction, situated in the province of the Bruttii, and if, as is asserted by Theodorus, a craftsman skilled in these matters, the land is rich in the things mentioned, then, with workshops solemnly established, let the bowels of the mountains be searched through: let the inmost recesses of the earth be entered by the benefit of art, and let nature, rich as if in her own treasuries, be explored. For, the vaulted galleries being turned back by ingenious daring, men, imitating the mole-creature, dig out passages that lay open to none before. Thus ambition leaves nothing hidden, nor anywhere where it might at times restrain its furthest reach. [3] Men enter the deep darknesses, they live without the upper world, they are exiled from the sun, and, while they seek gains beneath the earth, they not seldom abandon the joys of light. Sometimes their own road is their ruin, and they cannot secure their return, who with toiling hands have made paths for their own feet. But for those whose art is more cautious, life is more fortunate: they enter needy, they come out wealthy; without theft they seize riches, they enjoy to the full the treasures they desired without envy, and they alone of men seem to acquire prices without any trafficking. For as soon as they have been restored to the light above, they separate from their mother earth, by means of waters that distinguish the heavier from the lighter, all the fine particles, and, stored away in earthenware, they refine them in a vast furnace until they are usefully dissolved into liquid, and they purify the streams coming from the flame with so great a fire, until they bring forth their own beauty, which the earthy bowels had hidden away lest it be coveted. [4] Nature is conquered, while industry improves her. It is fairer once it has burned, more excellent once it has been smelted, because it grows in worth as much as it has been cleansed in purity. Its origin indeed is noble, yet from the flame it receives the force of its color, so that you would rather believe it to be born from that whose likeness it seems to be adorned with. But since it bestows a splendid redness upon gold, and confers the whitest light upon silver, it is a wonder that one substance should impart what can be fitted to dissimilar things. Accordingly, whatever you recognize as pertaining to the exercise of skill in this art, let your arrangement bring it to completion, so that the land of the Bruttii may find within itself a tribute that it can render, that land which luxuriates abundant in fruits. For it is fitting that, amid so many good things, those too should not be lacking which are thought to be the most excellent. For why should that lie without use which can be an honorable gain? [5] For to seek gold through wars is an abomination, through the seas a peril, through falsehoods a disgrace, but within its own nature it is justice. Honorable are the gains by which no one is harmed, and that is well acquired which is taken away from no previous owners. Griffins are continually reported to dig up gold and to delight in the contemplation of this metal; and since in them there is no ambition for gain, they are not said to be inflamed by the crime of cupidity, namely because every act lies in the quality of its intention, and that is not to be censured which was wanton by no act of will. Let men therefore, by diligent labor, be unceasing in their pursuit of gain; let them not dread envy: what is called art is freed from crime.

III. BERGANTINO V. I. COMITI PATRIMONII ATHALARICUS REX. [1] Si labor omnis assiduus adeo diversos exigit fructus, ut aurum argentumque solita commutatione mercetur, cur non ipsa diligenter exquirimus, propter quae alia poscere videbamur? Italia dives inferat nobis et aureos fructus. omnis proventus adquiritur, ubi metallum fulvidum reperitur. nam quid necesse est terram multiplici fecunditate lassari, si ipsa magis pretia in ea potuerint inveniri? frumenta nobis usualiter natura industria suffragante concedit: passim se vina profundunt: metallum raro proditur, ut studiosius expetatur. [2] Quapropter ad massam iuris nostri Rusticianam in Bruttiorum provincia constitutam magnitudinem tuam iubemus chartarium destinare et si, ut ab artifice harum rerum Theodoro dicitur, memoratis rebus terra fecunda est, officinis sollemniter institutis montium viscera perquirantur: intretur beneficio artis in penetrale telluris et velut in thesauris suis natura locuples inquiratur. cameris enim ingeniosa praesumptione revolutis, talpinum animal imitantes, itinera fodiunt quae nullis ante patuerunt. sic ambitio nil relinquit absconditum nec ubi interdum sustinere possit extremum. [3] Intrant homines caligines profundas, vivunt sine superis, exulant a sole et, dum sub terris compendia quaerunt, nonnunquam lucis gaudia derelinquunt. est illis aliquando ruina via sua et reditus procurare nequeunt, qui pedibus suis semitas operosis manibus effecerunt. sed quibus cautior ars, vita felicior est, intrant egentes, exeunt opulenti: sine furto divitias rapiunt, optatis thesauris sine invidia perfruuntur et soli sunt hominum qui absque ulla nundinatione pretia videantur adquirere. mox enim ut supernae luci fuerint restituti, minuta quaeque graviora discernentibus aquis a genetrice terra separant ac fictilibus recondita vasta fornace decoquunt, donec solvantur utiliter in liquorem, rivosque de flamma venientes tanto igne depurgant, quousque pulchritudinem sui prodant, quam terrena viscera, ne cuperentur, absconderant. [4] Vincitur natura, dum eam meliorat industria. pulchrior est dum arserit, potior dum decoxerit, quia tantum crescit ad pretia, quanta fuerit sinceritate mundata. origo quidem nobilis, sed de flamma suscipit vim coloris, ut magis credas inde nasci, cuius similitudine videtur ornari. sed cum auro tribuat splendidum ruborem, argento confert albissimam lucem, ut mirum sit unam substantiam tradere, quod rebus dissimilibus possit aptari. proinde quicquid ad exercendam huius artis peritiam pertinere cognoscitis, ordinatio vestra perficiat, ut et terra Bruttiorum ex se tributum quod dare possit inveniat, quae fructibus copiosa luxuriat. decet enim ut inter tanta bona nec illa desint quae putantur esse praecipua. cur enim iaceat sine usu, quod honestum potest esse compendium? [5] Aurum si quidem per bella quaerere nefas est, per maria periculum, per falsitates opprobrium, in sua vero natura iustitia. honesta sunt lucra per quae nemo laeditur et bene adquiritur quod a nullis adhuc dominis abrogatur. grypes aurum iugiter leguntur effodere atque huius metalli inspectione gaudere: quibus quoniam non est ambitus lucri, cupiditatis crimine non dicuntur accendi, scilicet, quia omnis actus in qualitate propositi est et non est vituperandum quod nulla fuerit voluntate lascivum. sint ergo sedula operatione continui quaestus, invidiam non pavescant: quod ars dicitur, a crimine liberatur.