A Treatise on Painting

poor and neglected in his own homeland, had taken refuge with Your August Ancestor, so too a portion of the present Treatise, neglected and ignored in Italy, was honorably brought to light there Referring to the first printed edition of the Treatise on Painting, published in Paris in 1651.. Now this Work, reordered and made whole through my care, comes into France and presents itself to Your Majesty; it can be said that in this alone, after such a long period of oblivion, has it experienced favorable fortune: that it is given to come to light under the powerful name of a philosopher King, a lover of pleasant studies, and a protector of every science and every art. Receive it, O Sire, with a benign disposition of soul, and grant also to me the supreme honor of giving you this public testimony of my true and profound veneration for Your Sacred Person, excited in me by nothing other than the fame of Your merits and Your virtues. And here I make an end, wishing to Your Majesty perpetual glory and happiness.

The Most Humble, Most Devoted, and Most Obedient Servant
GUGLIELMO MANZI. Guglielmo Manzi (1784–1821) was an Italian scholar and librarian who discovered the "Codex Urbinas," the most complete manuscript of Leonardo's Treatise, in the Vatican Library.