THE LIFE OF LEONARDO

DA VINCI.

Keeping alive in the world's memory those men who were excellent, whether through virtue or other qualities, is undoubtedly of the greatest benefit to human life. For by portraying their remarkable appearances and manners upon paper, everyone is able to recognize and admire them; and the most elevated spirits, moved by their example, easily become desirous of virtue and set themselves to follow the path that these well-born souls have already traveled. Induced by such reasons, and having had the good fortune to publish more completely than what we previously had in print the Treatise of Leonardo da Vinci on Painting original: "Trattato di Lionardo da Vinci in sulla Pittura", I have undertaken here to describe his life anew, in the best way I saw fit. And although I distrust myself not a little in this task, not being ignorant of the fact that Master Giorgio Vasari of Arezzo, that most diligent historian of the Lives of celebrated Painters original: "Vite de' celebri Dipintori", has already done so with a display of supreme eloquence and learning, and that some modern authors also deserve praise for having narrated in greater detail many things concerning this supreme genius; nevertheless, seeing some things left silent by the first, and others discussed with too much tedious abundance by the second, I have resolved not to flee from this labor.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in Vinci, a small Tuscan land in the Val d'Arno, in the year 1452. His father was named