[All]: Sts 56-7 paraphrase the preface to Book II of the Disticha. The present st. corresponds roughly to the two opening ll.: (Praefatio Libri II/1-2) Telluris si forte velis cognoscere cultus / Vergilium legito; quodsi mage nosse laboras... ‘If by chance you want to learn about tilling the soil, read Virgil; but if you seek to know rather...’; and l. 10: Ergo ades, et quae sit sapientia disce legendo ‘So come closer and learn by reading what wisdom is’. The reference to Virgil is to his treatise on agriculture, the Georgics. Finnur Jónsson (Skj B) has two sts here, with the second (his st. 58) incomplete and based on 624: [þvít] á fornum bókum | stendr til flests ráð, which he translates ti i gamle bøger står der råd for alt ‘for in old books there stands advice for everything’.