Though some of the people involved in the writing and production of the book may never have met each other, they are part of a web created by politics, economics and religion.
Christopher Plantin, who printed and published the book, was official printer to king Phillip II of Spain, who had possesion of the part of the Netherlands that included Antwerp, where Plantin had his press. The work is dedicated to Pope Sixtus V., who supported the Catholic Phillip in his attempted conquest of England via the ill-fated Spanish Armada. The translator/editor of the text, Consalus Ponce de Leon, was "cubicalurum secriti" to Sixtus. The introductory poem was written by Petrus Angelo Bargaeus, who was also involved with Sixtus.
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