The Books on the Family

Leon Battista Alberti - The Books on the Family

Page 7

...[to endu]re, original: "re", completing the verb "durare" (to endure/last) from the previous page. suddenly all these vices dared to burst into the very midst of your most holy breast, Italy, even to the point of setting fire to the nest and the ancient seat of the empire of all empires.

And now—since other nations have usurped it through our negligence and sloth, or since we Latins Alberti uses "Latins" to refer to the Italians as the direct heirs of the Roman Empire. have abandoned and forsaken so much glory owed to us—who is there who ever hopes to recover our lost imperial scepter? Or who judges that they will ever again possess or see the purple and diadem in its original, most holy, and most happy home and seat here in Italy, which for so long, by our own fault, has remained stripped and naked? And who, then, would think that our incomparable and marvelous Latin greatness and glory was driven out and lost from its true receptacle and nest by anyone other than ourselves? What multitude of people could ever have stood against those whom the whole world obeyed? And who could have failed to obey us, had we not willed or permitted it?

Thus, one can establish that fortune Alberti uses the term Fortuna (luck or fate), which the humanists believed was a fickle goddess who could only be conquered by human effort. is invalid and most weak in snatching away even our slightest virtue; and we must judge that virtue is sufficient to ascend to and occupy every sublime and exalted thing: vast principalities, supreme praises, eternal fame, and immortal glory. And it is fitting not to doubt that whatever thing you might seek and love, nothing is easier to have and obtain than virtue. Only he who does not want it is without virtue. And if virtue is thus recognized—as manly customs and deeds, which belong to mortals as much as they desire them—then excellent counsel, prudence, strong, constant, and persevering spirits, reason, order and method, the good arts and disciplines, equity, justice, diligence, and the care of things fulfill and embrace so great an empire, and against insidious fortune they rise to the ultimate supreme rank and height of glory.

O young Alberti, Leon Battista Alberti addresses the youth of his own family, who were living in exile from Florence at the time of this writing. who among you, because of this volubility and inconstancy of fleeting and fragile things that is often seen, would ever think it easy to persuade me that—

Literary works of Italy, Einaudi edition

Key terms in this section: Italy, Latins, virtue, fortune, Alberti, empire, prudence, justice