PREFACE.

    Da Vinci revealed a grand idea; the good
reputation he already enjoyed in Lombardy A region in Northern Italy, of which Milan is the capital. for
some of his works, which were perhaps not unknown; the
fact that he was a pupil of Verrocchio Andrea del Verrocchio (c. 1435–1488), a prominent Florentine sculptor and painter; Leonardo was his most famous apprentice., whom the statue
of Colleoni The bronze equestrian monument of Bartolomeo Colleoni in Venice, one of the most celebrated sculptures of the Renaissance. was then making famous, led him to
be chosen for this fortunate occasion over other
artists. He thus presented himself in Milan;
he gave the Duke Ludovico Sforza, known as "Il Moro," the ruler of Milan. a most beautiful
lyre in the shape of a horse’s skull, perhaps
also in the name of Lorenzo de’ Medici; and
he wrote that famous letter in which, by
manifesting his own multiple practical apti-
tudes, he was already, in a veiled manner,
revealing the grand theoretical progress of
his mind.*

    But even in Milan, his life was a
slow rebellion against his times. At first
he painted with activity, composed and dis-
mantled models for the equestrian statue,
produced designs for the domes of the cathedral,
devoted himself to the construction of public and pri-
vate buildings, and imagined instruments of war and
hydraulic works: but inexorably his in—

* L. D. V., The Literary Works (ed. Richter). Vol. II,
pages 395-396.