BOOK ONE

[Signature a ii]

BOOK ONE OF THE CAMALDOLESE DISPUTATIONS BY THE FLORENTINE CHRISTOPHORO LANDINO, ADDRESSED TO THE ILLUSTRIOUS FEDERICO, PRINCE OF URBINO. CONCERNING THE CONTEMPLATIVE AND ACTIVE LIFE. BEGINS HAPPILY.

OF ALL THE STUDIES, most illustrious Federico, through which the human race is exercised—varied and deeply different from one another as they are—this one especially is approved by the consensus of all in whom even a moderate prudence shines, and is preferred by the judgment of the wisest men as the best: that in which we investigate that final end of all things, which the Greeks call the Goal original: "Telos" — the ultimate purpose or "supreme good" of human life.. To this goal, as if arriving at the final marker of a racecourse, it is permitted for us to rest in safety and tranquility. Indeed, unless a certain and predetermined end were set before us by the highest God, I cannot find what I might imagine more miserable than the human condition. For if nature has established something ultimate and final for all other things—whether they have souls or lack them—whereby when they reach it they may rightly be called blessed, should we not think we have been dealt with most unfairly if man alone has nowhere to find that toward which he may direct his gravest and almost infinite labors, all his thoughts, and finally the course of his entire life?

But truly, just as a target is set out in the distance for archers, at which they aim and direct their arrows, so too has this ultimate end—which I have spoken of—been set before man by that Nature which never fails in any thing. If he neglects this, man will always be miserable. But if all his ways of living tend toward that point, we shall achieve the highest happiness. Therefore, what could be imagined more foolish than we, who spend such constant vigils, endure such intolerable labors, and rush into such manifest dangers for things that will be of no benefit, and rather often do harm? Yet, of those things by which alone we might be armed against the various assaults of fortune, and by which we might know the difference between what is empty and shadowed and what is solid, distinct, and truly good—of those things we take not even the slightest care.

Leo B.

As I was often turning this matter over in my mind, it seemed not out of place if I were to commit to writing those conversations which I remember Leon Battista Alberti 1404–1472; the famous Renaissance "universal man," known here for his immense learning and eloquence.—a man most practiced in every kind of learning of all those I have ever seen, and distinguished by the highest eloquence—held regarding the two-fold way of living which is proper to man, and concerning the ends of good and evil things, even drawing from the divine poetic allegories of Maro The Roman poet Virgil (Publius Vergilius Maro), whose works humanists often interpreted as philosophical allegories.. Since it pleased me to honor our book with the authority of that prince who...