LIFE

OF LEONARDO

DA VINCI

RAFAELLE DU FRESNE.

ince nobility of blood, which is an imaginary thing, creates such a distinction among men that it raises some above others, who is there who would not value that of the soul—which consists in effective virtue and resides in that part which draws its origin from heaven—as being capable of carrying men from the lowest state even to the boundaries of divinity? Adorned with this true and most resplendent nobility, Leonardo da Vinci was able to equal the greatest men of his century in glory and honors, and by rising above the lowliness of his birth, to live, associate, and die with kings and great princes; and, what is granted to few, to leave immortality to his name. He was born in the castle of Vinci, located in the lower Val d'Arno, not too far from Florence Original: "Fiorenza," the archaic Italian name for the city of Florence., and his father was Piero da Vinci. The latter, noticing the genius of his son—who among his other studies always applied himself to drawing—resolved to assist that natural inclination of his, and having brought him to Florence, decided to place him with Andrea Verrocchio, a painter of some reputation at that time. This man, admiring the talent of the youth, formed that judgment of him which time later proved very true; and having accepted him as his disciple, he promised all the more to Ser Piero to instruct him, as there was a close friendship between them, and because Leonardo, through his fine manners and character, seemed worthy of his care. In the school of Andrea, who not only applied himself to painting but was also a sculptor, architect, engraver intagliatore: a carver or engraver, often of wood or gemstones, and goldsmith, he learned not only the art of painting, but furthermore all those others where design disegno: a central concept in Italian art referring to both the physical act of drawing and the underlying intellectual structure or "design" of a work was involved. And such was the progress that he made there, that in a short time he left be-