"Never mind that," Lowrich continued, "we haven't finished yet. Let's get on to the second foolish thing you said: it isn't true that the drawings in this book can be attributed to Raphael, whether the edition dates back to 1467, or was only published in 1499, as has just been proved to you. Raphael was born in Urbino in 1483 and even the greatest admirers of this sublime painter cannot imagine him drawing so correctly and elegantly sixteen years before his birth. It must have been a different Raphael who drew these fine things, and as to him, my good Apostolo, there's only me who knows who he was. Wait. I've only counted up to two so far. Now we come to your third glaring error of fact: it isn't true that the author of this book has been till today a mystery to scholars. On the contrary, all scholars know, and the majority of non-scholars are not ignorant of the fact that it is the work of Francesco Colonna or Columna, a Dominican monk in the monastery of Treviso, where he died in 1467, whatever some scatterbrained writers of life stories have to say on the matter, who confuse him with Doctor Francesco di Colonia, whose name is almost homonymous with him and who survived him for all of sixty years. Both of them are buried only a few hundred paces from your shop, Apostolo. In view of what I've just said, I do not need to show you that you have made a fourth huge mistake, worse than the other three, by imagining that I did not know of the existence of your splendid tome, and I really don't know what's stopping me from proving to you that I know it by heart."
"Just this once," Apostolo replied smartly, "I dare you to recite it, for it is written in a language so heterogeneous that none of my friends from Treviso, Venice or Padua has dared to undertake to decipher a page of it, and if, as you say, you know it by heart, I'll give it you for nothing, a sacrifice besides I would be more than willing to make by reason of the excellent information that you have just given me, for I was on the point of announcing this volume in the Adriatic Literary Gazette in a misleading way and there was enough scope to make me lose forever the good and high flying reputation I enjoy as a bookseller."