TO THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS AND MOST EXCELLENT LORD

LORD PIERRE BOURDELOT,

First Physician to the Most Serene Queen of Sweden.

I believed that the nobility of the art whose precepts are explained in this work, and the merit of Leonardo da Vinci, who is its author, as well as the beauty and curiosity with which this book has been printed, could not be adorned with a more glorious name than that of his great Queen. I believed also that if Your Excellency would lend me your hands on this occasion A metaphorical request for Bourdelot to act as the intermediary to present the book to the Queen., my offering would be more welcome. And I easily persuaded myself that by entreating you, as I do, you would not deny me this service, as much for our long friendship as for the love you bear for painting. This taste was born in you and in me at the same time—that is, when we went about examining with such accuracy the beauties of both the one and the other Rome This refers to the study of both Ancient (classical) and Modern (17th-century) Rome.. Growing with continuous application, this passion has become, especially in you, ever more refined and exquisite.

In printing this treatise, I have made use of various manuscripts. One, which is most noble due to a great number of figures sketched by the learned hand of Monsieur Poussin Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), the preeminent French Baroque painter, provided the original drawings for the illustrations in this edition., belonged to Monsieur de Chantelou Paul Fréart de Chantelou (1609–1694), a major French collector and patron., who received it from the most virtuous Knight del Pozzo Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588–1657), a celebrated Roman scholar and secretary to Cardinal Francesco Barberini.. At the time when Monsieur de Chantelou went to Italy to conquer beautiful things, had our great Cardinal Cardinal Richelieu (1585–1642). not died for the glory of the kingdom, he would have brought Rome to Paris. The other manuscript, which is much more correct, was communicated to me by the courtesy of Monsieur Thévenot Melchisédech Thévenot (1620–1692), a diplomat and scientist known for his extensive library., a gentleman adorned with every kind of fine literature and knowledge.

But whether through the ignorance or negligence of those who copy books, or for whatever other reason, few chapters were found in which there was not some hitch—principally in those involving geometry, which, due to the absurdity of the figures, remained almost unintelligible. I hope to have restored everything to its original purity. However, many things remain that seem to desire the file A metaphor for further editing or polishing.: there are many useless repetitions, many truncated arguments, and the wording is irregular in several places. Although there is some order in the chapters, it is not yet such as is required in a perfect work; from this, one easily concludes that Leonardo da Vinci never gave it the final touch. Nevertheless, the work is significant and of marvelous utility; for Your Excellency knows well that a sketch by Michelangelo Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564), Leonardo's contemporary and rival. is worth more than four finished statues by any other mediocre sculptor.

Having therefore purged the text as much as possible, the figures were engraved with the diligence you see to further illustrate it. Monsieur Errard Charles Errard (c. 1606–1689), a founding member of the French Academy who supervised the engravings for this book., a most talented painter who, for his profound knowledge of drawing, can only be compared to the most excellent men of the last centuries, is the one to whom the completion and ornaments of this work are owed. A philosopher might say of him that, because of the true taste he has for ancient things, the soul of one of those first masters had passed into him. He has added several fi- original: "fi-" refers to "figure" (figures) on the following page.