...all things created flow from numbers as if from their natural fount, and from the principles of mathematics, which therefore, with geometry, were always held in the highest honor and reverence by the ancient philosophers. For there cannot be found nor can there be, among the liberal arts, any science more noble or illustrious than that of mathematics, in which there truly appears to be present some indwelling power of unfathomable divinity.

Agostino Ramelli, The Various and Ingenious Machines