'How much labour and what diligence I rendered in collecting, searching, and compiling, no person easily believes but only God, who for my labour shall be my reward and whom I offer this book for the use and necessity of the convent and the whole community.' play.google.com/books/reader...

In another coincidence, the cat-out-of-the-bag idiom works in English and German, just like heraldry did in English and German cities of the later Middle Ages. ;)