A Treatise on Painting

read by you than those that were in the first truncated editions. As for the question of whether this Treatise The Trattato della pittura, a collection of Leonardo's notes on art theory and practice can be called complete in this form, I would not know what to tell you; I can only affirm that, as far as I can conjecture, the copyist of the Vatican Codex The Codex Urbinas Latinus 1270, the primary source for Leonardo's treatise must have gathered everything the author ever wrote on painting. This is clearly proven by the quality of the text, which I explained to you above. Nevertheless, some books are cited in the work that do not exist here, and we must believe either that they were not written by the author, or they were drafts that he kept by him, or they are entirely lost. It is certain that such a great man would not have published his books in this form, but would have polished and ordered them; one perceives from the frequent repetitions encountered therein that this was a first form of the work he meditated upon, which he held as a collection of material he intended to use in a work he would have reorganized and corrected.

However, although these writings did not receive the final polishing from the author himself, they are greater in this subject than the most considered and polished writings of others. Even the repetitions with which they abound are advantageous rather than useless; by presenting things to us under different aspects, they are better imprinted on our memory, and they prove especially more profitable to youth. Indeed, it can be said of this man, as was once said of Socrates, that in whatever way and upon whatever subject his reasonings turned, they always resulted in the good and advantage of those who heard him.

Equal good and advantage will therefore be drawn from this golden Treatise by young painters; for from the diligent research that this divine genius original: "divino ingegno" knew how to extract from the nature of things, they will easily be able to learn in what way nature can be expressed and understood. This certainly cannot be provided by practice Prattica: mechanical or repetitive execution without theoretical understanding, which can serve no other purpose than—with the help of instruments and colors—to express what genius original: "'ngegno" dictates to us. This appears clearly in those who work only by practice; after having worked for an infinite time, they never produce a work of value or account. Then, by speculating on the doctrines that are enclosed in such great abundance in this book, and by each imitating what most suits his...