"THE AGE OF COSIMO DE' MEDICI" "EPISODE THREE:" "LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI" " HUMANISM" "I have already taken many new measurements." "Of many, many people." "Children, women, men, city men and country men." "Come on, behave." "Forgive me, Leon Battista, but this project seems to be an extravagance." "Do you think that drawing, painting sculpting statues is possible without assiduous study?" "I say it is indispensable for every artisan, every sculptor - Donatello for instance - for every painter to try to discover the universal model of reality, which is to say, the model that lives in nature." "The different parts that make up a body have fixed and symmetrical proportional relationships." "Discovering the mathematic and geometric rules that govern these relationships means capturing the very essence of the archetype, of the universal model on which nature is based." "How long will you have to work to discover this archetype?" "I shall begin immediately to write that which is clear to me about painting and about the sculpture of statues." "And then I will seek some more." "How long will I take?" "Who can say?" "Certainly all the time I can take away from my job as a scribe of useless letters and boring documents." "I hope the architect who is charged with the completion of the facade of Santa Maria Novella will respect this base." "I think we should always help what has been done before, not ruin it with what has yet to be done." "The old and the new can be connected by a relationship of continuity." "Yes, Ciriaco, you are right." "This is what we should aspire to." "You too are here to admire the work of Masaccio." "I do not understand what people find in such paintings." "God must not be depicted with the same dimensions as the saints, who are men." "Only that arrogant young man would take such liberties." "Masaccio's liberty is the liberty of man." "His is a new form of expression." "He has freed himself from the slavery of habit." "If you don't understand this painting, it means you are still its slave." "No, Ciriaco, that alone does not explain his painting of the Trinity." "Here Masaccio, with great simplicity and great ability gives us the result of geometric laws that he has applied to the new science of perspective." "And no one can ignore these rules, in this day and age, be he a painter, a sculptor or an architect." "Perspective, you say?" "I do not understand you, but I do not see the magnificence of Christ, I do not see divine power." "The artisans have always depicted a glorious, immense and infinite God in accordance with a holy tradition." "But Masaccio has painted the body of Christ like that of a man." "There is nothing divine about it, it does not inspire devotion." "The figures of Masaccio dismay us, of course, we who have seen different images of divinity from childhood, solemn images, as rigid as the dogmas of faith, made to comfort human fragility." "Masaccio, on the other hand, with great courage, has erased these ancient images and put the rules of geometry, the observation of reality at the service of his art." "He looked at men as the center of human becoming." "It is true." "What a pity that he died at 27." "This was his last work." "It is like the representation of a long spiritual journey starting from the death of man and taking us first toward Christ, the man God, and then higher still, to God the Father, who is the opposite of death." "What need was there to give Christ the dimensions of a man?" "But Christ made himself man and Masaccio looked at his humanity." "And by means of this reality made flesh he helps us adore his divinity." "This is why I say that he did, rightly, give the human figure its proper dimensions and rightly gave the same dimensions to the figure of Christ." "What is important to me in that painting is that art and knowledge have met." "Today one cannot be a good artist if one is not also a good scientist." "Well then, Mr. Alberti?" "Yes, you are right, Toscanelli." "The text is too full of fantastic ideas, but the calculations seem precise." "The Arabs are still the greatest mathematicians in the world." "I went over the calculations again and again and I perfected them." "Come and see my map." "I have consulted all the known Arabic codices and questioned innumerable travelers and merchants who have crossed Africa and Asia and expert navigators who have sailed their ships beyond the Pillars of Hercules." "I have deduced that the circumference of the earth can be calculated at 28,000 miles." "Your calculations are precise, it is a perfect hypothesis." "Not perfect, I must still complete it." "But I now know that I will be able to show navigators new routes to reach the most faraway lands." "Not only does Toscanelli draw maps for the ships that sail the seas, he also traces the routes of the stars in the heavens." "Have you seen this, Alberti?" "Cardinal Niccolo da Cusano must be exaggerating." "Look." "He is trying to trace and foresee the path of a comet." "This one is from 1 433." "According to Toscanelli, we will be able to see this same comet again in 1 445." "I used the observation method of the Egyptians which I integrated with my calculations." "Each time I pay a visit to Toscanelli, the same thought comes to mind more and more clearly:" "that the universe is a multiple unity." "It is difficult for us to understand it, but although the universe is composed of a thousand parts" "it has the same awesome unity possessed by God, who lives in it." "And it appears clearer and clearer to me that in this unity, opposites coincide." "Hot and cold, light and darkness, high and low." "Realities that in thought appear contradictory coexist in the universe and each one is the cause and continuation of the other." "In the universe, as in God, opposites are reconciled by reason of their existing and their contrasting." "The truth is this one, the one of the universe, something without limit." "I believe we cannot deny the fact that all human knowledge is instead partial, manifold and limited and only an approximation, all science a conjecture." "God and the universe are unknowable and for the man who loves the truth there is nothing but a knowledgeable ignorance, the organic and constant study of conjecture." "It is only in God that the ultimate science is realized because its infinite simplicity" "contains within it the multiplicity of things." "He is the eternal form in all things, which is the potential that wondrously gives each thing its essence." "A scholastic could object:" "If God is the eternal form of all things, he lives in man as in all things, then God could not be distinct from man." "Consequently, he could not be an absolute and eternal being." "To affirm this is to affirm that God is not God, a heresy." "God is supremely simple and eternal unity, intelligence and mysterious perfection, a whole and not a part." "He is the cause of everything." "He is present in everything that is in the universe." "And we can say that man, in his fashion, is himself a god, but not in absolute terms." "Man is a microcosm and in him lives the world." "A human god, a unity within which potential and action, distinct moments of reality according to Aristotle and the thought of the scholastics, coincide perfectly." "I am convinced that just as to the eye of man, if it looks through a red glass everything it sees will appear red, and if it looks through a green or a yellow glass everything it sees will appear green or yellow," "so also to our mind, which is limited," "God appears constrained by the limits within which the human mind lives." "If the lion were to attribute a face to God, it would be a lion's face." "The ox would give him an ox's face and the eagle an eagle's face." "I say that the mysterious face of God must be wondrous indeed if the young man wishing to imagine it must imagine it young, the man, male, and the old man, old." "All creatures can look upon God as having their own face, but he is one, one and unique, and above everything and everyone." "What you say is fascinating and at the same time obscure, difficult to penetrate." "In yourself, clarity and obscurity seem to meet, as you have said yourself, they are opposites that coincide." "To understand better what I have said you could read a text that I am sure is in the library of your friend Niccoli, The One by Plotinus." "Reading is my greatest pleasure." "You know, I have also read your De docta ignorantia, which you wrote" "during your mission in Constantinople when you earned the admiration and gratitude of the Pope." "He likes those who, like him, work toward the unity of the Latin and Greek churches." "And I have listened carefully to you." "Your arguments are very subtle, but they take us farther than the clarity of Aristotelian logic." "They are arguments that perhaps take us into the fog of a dream." "F is the point from which the eye looks toward infinity, that is, the vanishing point." "D is the distance point, that is the point that acts as perspective reference to all the lines and points that are constructed inside the figure." "Which is to say that if one wants to paint a painting one must be a geometer." "Exactly." "The artisan cannot know merely how to use a brush or the colors or the chisel." "He must be at once an architect, botanist, zoophile and geometer." "To sculpt the face of a man one must be a sculptor and a surgeon." "Nature is the great model of the artist, and to make it live again one must analyze each of its parts and recompose its unity into the work one wishes to make." "Knowledge arrives that much closer to the truth the more it penetrates man and the universe which exist in the highest harmony and in perfect unity." "It is the search for the One, as the Platonic Plotinus wrote." "Of course, it is the search for the great model and from it the painter and the sculptor will cull the grace of the body, the harmony of things, the divine strength which is the source of beauty." "Art can give new life to dead men and their possessions centuries later." "Plutarch says that Cassandre, one of Alexander's captains, shook from head to toe when he beheld the image of his king." "It is a teaching that we find in the Roman and Greek texts and in the precious ruins that with piety and devotion the scholars of our century are trying to bring to light." "Thank you." "Come, let us assemble it right away." "There." "The box needs to be higher up so as to better capture the light." "I will show you a trick of perspective that is marvelous." "Look." "Leon Battista." "Leon Battista." "Do you need me?" "Mr. Andreolo of Lecce and Dositeo of Cyprus." "Welcome, gentlemen." "Make yourselves comfortable." "They have some business with my company and I need your advice on how to set the best terms for the contract." "Thirty lengths of embroidered silk from Flanders, three bales of calfskin tanned in our tanneries and four suits of armor with helmets, silver spurs and very fine swords." "Good." "This contract does not take time into consideration, Carlo." "No." "If these gentlemen were to pay right away, in cash " "They would like to pay half now and the rest in a year's time, when they return to Florence." "Sir, I do not see why you would like to account for time." "You wish to trade in something that belongs neither to you nor to me, but only to God." "For centuries no one dared bargain over time or account for it, ever." "Time belongs to God, it is true, as does everything else." "But the Lord has given man the ability to make his gifts profitable and time is one of these gifts." "Therefore, he who is not prudent in the use of the seasons of his life wastes this gift of the Lord." "Where we come from and eveeywhere else no one charges for time." "We are in Florence now, sir." "And a year's wait to receive half of the agreed price should be compensated with at least 1 0 extra florins." "Otherwise, I shall have to advise my brother and owner of the company not to complete this transaction." "If you paid the entire amount today, we could use the money for another trade and consequently, we would make a new profit." "I assure you that you will not find another merchant in Florence who will give you different conditions." "And you will never find merchandise as fine as ours, in terms of quality, in the entire country." "We are obliged to accept." "Otherwise, after such a long journey we would have uselessly..." "Wasted time, as I was saying." "I was told that you are a man of letters, but I realize that you are also an excellent merchant." "You do not belie the fame of your family name." "But please grant me one small request:" "What precious treasure is contained in this box that you were laboring over when we came in?" "Look through this hole." "What do you see?" "I see a landscape with hills and trees blowing in the wind." "It's marvelous, but how is it possible?" "It is incredible." "It is marvelous." "I have never seen anything like it." "Take a look at this one." "Amazing, I see the sea and some ships that are approaching the shore." "What is this magic?" "It is a secret of the doctrine of Leon Battista who is studying it, and he can tell you nothing." "In fact, you are among the few to have seen this prodigy." "And that is enough for us." "We take our leave full of admiration for your doctrine, but also for your ability as a merchant." "Thank you." "Let us go." "Look." "There is nothing magic about it." "In the box there is merely a system of mirrors." "By moving them I provoke the movement of the image of certain figures hidden to the direct view of the eye." "This image is reflected multiple times on the mirrors that are placed in the bottom and on the sides of the box." "It is almost a game." "No." "It is a way to discover the truth of the images of nature, to evaluate the ability of the eye to see and at the same time, to be fooled, in order to establish how it can better guide the hand" "when it must depict nature and capture its movements, its colors." "You have gained a world of knowledge in Florence." "Luca." "Here is the marvel I wanted to show you." "It is a codex with Sappho's verses." "But Niccoli, where did you find this?" "How I obtained it is not important." "I can tell you only that it comes from Crete." "And what is it about?" "Read a few verses." "Some say the most wondrous thing on this black earth, is an army of horsemen, others, instead, of troops, yet others, of ships." "But I say, that which one loves."" "Cosimo, I did not realize you were here." "Listen, Niccoli, come here." "Tell me, for what do you need the 50 florins you requested this morning from my bank?" "Yes, my debt to you is large, I realize it, but this also comforts me." "It seems clear to me that 50 florins more or less will not make much difference." "I am merely curious to know why you need them." "I found Statius' Silvae in Bisticci's shop." "It belongs to a Flemish merchant." "And then there is this other thing, which I have mentioned to you." "A Greek has offered me a very old codex." "You have mentioned it, but not just one." "You mentioned 30 volumes brought to Venice by Aurispa." "I do not think you will be able to get them for a mere 50 florins." "All of them?" "I never thought so for a moment." "A ship full of spices would not be enough." "Come now, Mr. Niccolo." "I know you well." "You must have calculated the cost at least a hundred times." "How much would it cost?" "Well, at least... let us say..." "I have made an exact calculation, it will take 620 florins." "Send a servant to the bank tomorrow with a note from you, and I will make out a letter of credit in your name for the Venice branch so Giovanni Portinari can take care of the purchase for you in Venice." "I must go now." "You are truly magnificent, Cosimo." "You must go to Livorno." "There is a Portuguese ship with a load of merchandise for Mr. Ridolfi to whom we loaned 3,600 florins." "Get the register." "Last year, Mr. Ridolfi imprudently committed his money to conclude other trades, hoping to make it back in short order and maybe counting on the chance that the ship would be late." "But now he is not in a position to pay cash and you may have to wait up to a year to recover the necessary funds." "What do you want us to do?" "You must go to Livorno with Mr. Ridolfi, make an inventory of the merchandise on the ship and take possession of it all." "Unless, of course," "Ridolfi is able to come up with the money in the next six days." "Let me see the date on the note." "Yes, you have to leave this evening." "The Ambassador of the Venetian Republic." "In you I salute the Republic of Venice and its excellent doge." "It is in the name of the doge, Francesco Foscari, that I am here to see you and inquire after your health." "Thank him on my behalf." "I have been asked to bring you some news." "Speak, I am listening." "Four fugitive Florentines of those who had caused your exile showed up at the border of the Republic of Venice." "Our authorities immediately captured them and handed them over to the magistrates of the Republic of Florence so they can be dealt with as you see fit." "I had already been informed of this." "As far as I am concerned, I have nothing to ask, other than that they be judged according to the law." "We have also been informed that you have persuaded the Signoria to summon to Florence Francesco Sforza, the famous militia leader and son of a peasant from Romagna." "Francesco Sforza was born in San Miniato, however, and his mother was a Florentine, so he is no stranger to Florence." "If you wish to know why he is coming to see us, you must ask the Signoria, not me." "You know well that I am a merchant and I do not intend to occupy myself with armies or war." "When this Francesco Sforza moves around Italy he strikes fear into everyone's heart." "He is now crossing Romagna and in Venice they are worried, and rightly so." "Filippo Maria Visconti, Duke of Milan, was so frightened that in order to save himself, he promised Francesco Sforza his daughter Maria's hand though she is still a child." "As I have told you," "I have no experience in these matters." "If, however, you are seeking my personal opinion " "That is precisely why I am here." "If Venice maintains its ties with Florence and Florence makes friends with Sforza, then certainly Venice will have nothing to fear." "It is well known that Sforza is recruiting soldiers, though." "What could be the reason for arming himself if he did not design to wage war?" "And if, as it seems, he has such designs, against whom?" "You are asking me two questions that in good conscience I cannot answer even with conjecture." "Dear Michelozzo, I have reason to believe that Mr. Cosimo is more than satisfied with the palace you are building for him in via Larga." "He must have had his reasons for hiring you rather than another for this job." "Gentlemen, everyone in Florence knows that Brunelleschi is the greatest architect in the city." "His design for the palace is stupendous, but Cosimo has chosen over his magnificence a more simple, useful and comfortable residence." "My design was realized using some ideas that I had been mulling over for some time." "Ideas based also on his teachings." "You see, Michelozzo, your great skill has been to reconcile utility and grandiosity with your simple lines." "Cosimo's bizarre decision to build his palace far from the center of the city was a very shrewd one." "The man needs space and light." "Bernardo Rossellino." "You know, I met your brother Antonio in Donatello's workshop." "That boy has a very vivacious intelligence." "He was able to explain to me Donatello's work and teachings." "Yes, it is true." "He has a great love of sculpture and I believe that Donatello is the best of teachers." "And he is an excellent pupil." "I have been away from Florence for over 1 0 years and I can assure you that in comparison" "London seems like one of our villages, with roads that are barely traced, covered in mud, the houses all made of wood." "How many changes I have found here in Florence." "I have even seen the lantern on top of the cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore and your admirable doors, Mr. Ghiberti." "I should have done the lantern, as well." "Ghiberti, you are never satisfied." "You deservedly won the commission for the door panels of the Baptistery." "But equally deserved was the commission for the lantern by Mr. Pippo Brunelleschi, admit it." "Florence is rich in florins and generous men." "This is why there is work for all the artists." "The prosperous trade of the city has allowed the artisans to graduate from the simple mechanical arts to the practice of the liberal arts." "It is true, the Medicis and other families have helped many artisans and artists." "Cosimo has commissioned great works in almost all the workshops." "He has restored the beauty of palaces that were worn by use and time." "Yes, it is as if the splendid Maecenas has been born again here in Florence." "I am aware of the worries of the great doge." "I am also aware of the danger to which the Duchy of Milan exposes your trade along the roads of the Po Valley." "But today I believe that I can reassure you completely." "Sforza is here, in the republic." "As long as he stays in Florence," "Venice will be able to trade in peace." "What you say gives me comfort, and I am certain that the doge, too, given your guarantee, will have no objections to this new situation." " With Sforza at your service " " At the service of the republic." "It is certainly less dangerous than if he were with the Visconti." "Rest assured." "I have only one word." "The magnifiicent captain, Mr. Francesco Sforza." "I welcome into my home the greatest military leader in Italy, who is also a Florentine on his mother's side, to whom the Republic of Florence has entrusted its army, so that whoever the enemy may be," "upon hearing the name of such an expert leader, will lose hope and give up entirely on the idea of a battle." "We in France think that Cosimo is very ambitious." "With great cunning he has been able to build a very fine and extended trade network which makes him one of the most powerful men in Europe." "I do not think he could ever accept living in the shadow of another man." "Mr. Cosimo." "Come in." "Cosimo." " How is your family?" " Well, thank God." "What has happened?" "Antonino, I have come to bring you this money which you are free to dispose of in God's name." "And then I will send you the 40,000 florins you need to complete the restoration of the convent of San Marco." "Your attentiveness fills me with glee." "I will give these florins to the poor and needy, without hoarding them to gain interest from them, without expecting them to yield profits, as you bankers so ably do." "I brought them to you for you to use them as you see fit." "How are your affairs and those of the republic?" "From what I hear, peace has been restored eveeywhere, trade has increased and the populace is happy." "Yes, it is true." "I have also heard that the ambassador from the Republic of Venice has been to see you about four prisoners brought here from Venice." "I see that you are well informed." "Yes, I cannot deny it." "But there is one thing I do not know, and that is what you intend to do now." "I?" "Nothing." "The Signoria will judge them." "Then I beg you to remind the Signoria that leniency for the rebels was promised." "And I would also like to remind you that it was only thanks to the intercession of Pope Eugene IV that the Albizi were convinced not to take up arms and overwhelm the Gonfalonier and the priors." "Well, that promise of leniency was not kept." "Do not forget, though, that more than 1 ,000 exiles led by Albizi, are prepared to go to war against me and to seek my death and the death of my entire family." "But I also know that you have no reason to fear any of that." "You are the holy and worthy Archbishop of Florence." "You know well the city's customs." "You know its ancient history." "You must therefore admit that though the leniency that you were Christianly hoping for was not shown, since my return, there have been no inequities or wickedness." "The law has been respected because - and you know this well - cities cannot be governed with prayers alone." "In the name of the law it is possible to commit the most atrocious acts of injustice and to multiply the seeds of ancient discord, creating motives for future vengeance." "Of what crime are the prisoners accused?" "They plotted a rebellion against the republic and outside the borders conspired against it." "No, Cosimo, we all know the real charge, even though we publicly pretend to ignore it." "Three years ago, they insisted on your exile." "I ask you again." "What do you intend to do with these prisoners?" "Zanobi de' Belfratelli, sentenced to death for treason." "Mr. Gemistus Plethon." "Here is Gemistus Plethon, here for the council." "Mr. Gemistus Plethon." "Welcome to my home." "Peace be with you and all those who live in your house." "I thank you." "I am grateful to you, Cosimo de' Medici, and not only to you, but to your brother, Lorenzo, to your family and to Florence." "Not because you have received us in your city with a procession of 500 horsemen, but because you have received us as brothers." "You truly are our brothers." "You Greeks in particular, among the peoples of the Orient, have given new life to the voices of ancient knowledge here in our city." "Having traded in all parts of the world, we have been able to collect in Florence almost all the texts of the ancient doctrine that are known." "You have given new life to something that seemed to have died, but that has been revived from the bowels of our time after a long obscurity." "However, in these our times, overly contented by so much love, the ancient classics are made to say things which cannot be read in any of the texts known to us." "That is, provided that you Greeks have not selfishly hoarded certain volumes that you do not wish the rest of the world to see." "We should ask you, further, how it is possible to choose Plato as the ultimate teacher of the world after his disciple, Aristotle, proved his errors and revealed the identity of the four principal causes of the world." "We all know that Aristotle freed the intellect of man from Plato's fables." "To deny this would be like locking all man's knowledge in a dark cave." "I seek unity and not discord, this you know well." "Nor do I intend to wrong the scholastic thinkers of today." "And as long as I am in Florence," "I shall be glad to listen to them." "You perhaps can help me understand what constitutes real knowledge." "Gemistus Plethon is a real master." "I am not so sure." "Yes, of course, he is an accomplished philosopher." "And perhaps he also knows the course of the stars." "But he would remake the world with the science of philosophers, which is sometimes made of subtleties and quibbling." "A painter told me that in observing the shapes of bodies and the reality of nature he had discovered more things than have been imagined by all the philosophers exploring the heavens." "Listen." "One day, Jupiter was walking on Mount Olympus, complaining that there was much confusion among men, when he met a poor man who had lost his way and now found himself on that mountain." "The latter, hearing his curses against men, asked Jupiter:" "To whom did you assign the task of putting order in the world?"" "To the philosophers," answered Jupiter." "Oh, I understand," the man replied." "Now I understand why there is so much confusion down there." "You made a mistake, Jupiter." "You should have assigned the task of ordering the world to an architect, who in his profession does not resort to subtleties and quibbling."" "Are you on the side of the architects now?" "I am not an architect." "You could be, with your knowledge." "Cosimo, you have given Florence what it never had." "You gave the people freedom and just governors." "For the merchants, you set a good example." "You gave the Pope a place where he could rest his cathedra and gather the most illustrious fathers of the churches of the East and West." "You, Cosimo, are like salt for the city of Florence, for the Church you are a support in its moments of weakness." "We owe it to you if the legacy of the Byzantine Empire and the Western Roman Empire will be gathered by the council, which will reestablish the unity of the Church as well as the splendid heritage of Athens and Rome." "Florence can rightly be proud of you." "A city and a civilization are great when they open up to the world and are not closed in on themselves." "The Florentines have wanted this ever since they became merchants, men of letters, artists." "The credit for the greatness of Florence goes not to me, but to them." "Look, they are covered in gold." "Not even the Pope wears such rich and sumptuous vestments." "The fashions of the Orient are so different from ours that the eyes are dazzled by such pomp." "In Ravenna, the saints' clothing in the church mosaics are very similar to these in their colors and decorations." "Byzantium has preserved the pomp that we have lost, but I do not think this has been a bad thing." "The patriarchs of Jerusalem." "The patriarch of Antioch." "That is Gemistus Plethon." " The emperor." " Which one is he?" "The one with the pointed hat with the splendid jewel on top." "The mass is over." "Now they are reading the agreement." "Is the Pope reading it?" "No, Cardinal Cesarini." "He is reading the document." "These are important words, the words of peace." "Brother, you who understand Latin, tell us what they are saying." "But, I " "They are saying that the wall that divided the Churches of East and West has fallen, and finally unity has been found again." "The Holy Spirit is in the eternity of the Father and the Son and takes its existence from each as from a single principle." "And this truth of faith must be believed and accepted by all Christians." "The Holy See and the Roman Pope hold first place before the entire world." "Placet, placet, placet." "Now they said, Placet, placet, placet." "This much I understand." "Finally they all agree." "Florence is great, but not great enough to hold a Pope forever." "Especially now that the council is over." "My brother, who is a soldier, told me how Cardinal Vitelleschi entered Rome." "First the mercenary militias entered the city and then those of the Republic of Florence, and finally his retinue." "The merchants and shopkeepers received him with great enthusiasm and told him where the enemies of the Pope were hiding as well as the other brigands from Abruzzo and Lazio who were hunkered down in Rome." " Who are you looking for?" " Pope Eugene's curia." "You will find the Pope in Rome." "We are the only ones left in Florence, and we shall soon be gone." "Three more days' journey." "The antipope Felix has retired to Lausanne to save money." "The rebellious cardinals who rejected the transfer of the council to Florence are now few." "Moreover, they have chosen to set against the Pope a Savoy prince who was not even a priest." "There is not a Christian in all of Europe who considers him Pope." "And now we shall take to Rome 1 0 years of history, our history." "When we arrived in Florence, Cosimo was still in exile." "Then Pope Eugene IV took back the reins of the Church and from a fugitive then became the recognized head of the reunited Church." "Thus Florence became the center of Europe." "And we..." "We are still members of the curia who follow our Pope wherever he may decide to go pulled along by our halters like horses." "But do not forget, Ciriaco, that you found your family again, as did I." "And though you and I have not inherited much from our families, we did receive our names, and with our names, a place in the city." "The city is not made of individual men, but of families." "My greatest comfort in Florence has been my brother Carlo, good provider, good husband, and excellent father." "For his sake, I hope that our name will always be remembered with praise and honor." "Let us go." "We have squandered a great heritage." "Where is the ancient splendor of Rome?" "Florence, Venice, Ferrara, Milan, Genoa are alive and splendid." "Rome seems dead." "What is left?" "Ruins, goats, abandoned shops and brigands." "Just think, Master Rossellino, a text by Zacharias Rhetor, quoted in a chronicle by Michele Siriaco, describes what was once here, where you now see ruins and goats." "Good morning." "There were two large capitols, 80 golden and 64 silver idols." "There were more than 1,700 houses belonging to rich and powerful families and 46,000 houses of citizens, more than 3,000 bronze statues, circuses and theaters, and 56 baths." "The circumference of the city was 40 miles long, and it measured 1 2 miles from east to west." "It is impossible to revive cities from their tombs." "It would take a miracle." "A miracle." "Pope Eugene died too soon." "After his return, he did not have the time to do for Rome what she has needed for centuries." "But it would not take a miracle to revive a city." "All we need is a prince, an architect and citizens who are faithful to the ancient virtue." "This will be the task of the new Pope." "But who will that be?" "A man of letters, an heir of the Colonna?" "A man of the Church or a man of the world?" "The papal conclave will decide." "Only the Pope can give back to Rome her ancient prestige." "A Pope who can banish the goats and the brigands and who gathers architects in his court." "We need only dig under this earth to see the old city flourish again." "We would uncover precious buildings from which the builders of the new cities would certainly have much to learn." "Come, Bernardo." "You speak like an architect, yet you are not one." "But I could very well be." "I would like to see you build a house, trace a road." "I will have you read what I have written on architecture." "Lost theories about which no one, since the great Vitruvius, has reasoned." "Writing and building are two different things." "Not always, Bernardo." "Not always." "My dear Leon Battista," "I have inherited this ancient city from the hands of Providence, and I wish to remedy the wrongs that time and the evils of men have done her." "Rome is a pile of rubble." "It has been neglected for centuries." "It is often the lair of thieves, brigands and wretches." "In the evening, decent people are afraid to walk the streets." "And what I find most disturbing is that in addition to the walls, tombstones, statues and monuments, a great civilization may also be destroyed." "I summoned you so that you could help me take care of Rome." "You will suggest the correct remedies." "You want me to take part in a huge undertaking." "You should instead hire great architects if you wish to save the city." "In Bologna, I was your teacher and had the honor of your trust." "At that time, you called me Brother Thomas from Sarzana and willingly accepted my advice." "Do you think perhaps that I am no longer able to judge you now that I am Pope and the Church calls me Nicholas V?" "Do you think I have forgotten what you told me in Florence, when you fretted because you were just an employee of the curia while others were painters, sculptors and architects?" "I have read with care and wonder the first three books of your treatise on architecture." "I have read them and I have had others read them." "We have concluded that you are among the greatest of architects." "But I have built nothing." "I have written, but I have done nothing." "You will continue to work for the curia by becoming one of my architects." "You have written - these are your words " "An architect is not he who squares stones for a palace with the masons and directs them as they work." "An architect is he who knows how to conceive and design and to have realized by the carpenters and master builders, with a sure and perfect method, works that are best suited to man's most important needs."" "You have also written how this should be done by the architect." "If you know all this, you can be an architect." "Now I await from you a report on the state of the palaces, the monuments and the roads of Rome." "This is the design for an aqueduct in the Roman countryside." "Oh, you are done." "Good." "Let us see the design for the villa." "Tell me, is this a villa or a fortress?" "It is a villa." "You told me to design a villa." "And do you think that a villa could have windows like these?" "These look like the loopholes of a fortress." "While you were designing this house you thought that the worst enemies of man were the sun and the wind." "I see that I have to remind you that every architectural form originates in necessity and develops as a function of its use." "So, in a residential building, each room must be provided with large windows so that there is an abundance of light inside, and the wind can flow through it at anytime to banish the noxious air." "And there must be a difference between city houses, country villas and the houses of those who rely on their work in the fields for sustenance." "In city houses, we must pay attention to a great many details." "I believe that we should always consider the structure of the buildings that exist alongside them, and we must not forget that they must be inhabited also during the winter and they must house both the life and trade of the families living in them." "Country villas, on the other hand, are made for rest and pleasure and should boast all the pleasantries and seductions of loveliness, so that he who conducts his business in the city might thereby be pleasantly refreshed." "Whereas the abodes of those who work in the fields should be built with care to avoid sacrificing utility to pleasure." "Great care must be taken in the housing of the oxen and the sheep, as well as that of the wife." " Where will this house be placed?" " Behind the hill of San Saba." "But on which side, you did not mark the points of the compass." "Mr. Rossellino, I took the points of the compass into account." "The facade faces south, in fact, toward the countryside." "The back looks to the mountain." "There is no need to make such marks explicit." "Everyone is familiar with the rules we must follow when building a house." "Give heed to Bernardo Rossellino's observations." "He is an expert architect." "Go and see his drawings for the palace of Venice that he is building for the ambassador of the Most Serene Republic." "Yes, of course." "You must get on your horse and go and spend at least a day at the construction site." "And you must return there several times and speak to the peasants in order to find out the directions from which the winds blow and what winds they are." "The winds are not all equally healthy or noxious." "Even Pliny says it, on the authority of Diophantus and Hippocrates." "I will give you an example." "The Chione from the north, brings good health." "The Auster, on the other hand, is dangerous even for stock." "And the Maestro, that blows out of the west, causes a cough." "The positioning of the house must be done bearing in mind the health of he who will reside in it." "But the owner of the house, Mr. De' li Baldi, told me several times to position it as I have drawn it and not otherwise." "All the more reason to warn him." "You do not want to hide from your customer the risks to which his ignorance can expose him." "Architecture is a great thing, remember that." "Not everyone can aspire to practice it." "To have the daring to deem oneself an architect, one must have ingenuity, yes, obstinacy in his studies, excellent doctrine, much experience, maturity" "and chaste judgment." "It would be very useful to know the technique employed by the Romans in the construction of their ships." "If we could salvage the Roman ships from the bottom of Lake Nemi our knowledge of navigation would be greatly enriched." "Sadly, we do not know at what depth those ships lie, and it seems that a strong current moves the sounding lines that many have thrown in the water." "I know, Holy Father, therefore I have invented a simple device that is sure to succeed." "It is an oak gall, a float, from which hangs a lead weight on a hook." "The gall is pulled under water by the weight of the lead until it reaches the bottom." "As soon as the weight touches the bottom the hook releases the gall, which due to its lightness floats to the surface." "With an hourglass we shall measure the time it takes the gall to surface." "Subsequently, I shall immerse the gall in a container filled with a known amount of water." "From a small hole on the side, a quantity of water equal to the gall's mass will leak out." "By measuring the quantity of water lost we will know the weight of the gall." "Knowing this and the time taken by the gall to surface in the container," "I shall be able to calculate the depth of rivers, lakes and oceans." "Good, this way perhaps we shall retrieve one ancient ship." "But will Rome regain its ancient monuments?" "Its splendid statues?" "I would like the city to rise from its ruins and I have proclaimed edicts against the destruction of the monuments whose stones have even been used to make lime." "But will it be enough?" "Your edicts will be helpful in avoiding new destruction." "As for me, I will try to preserve what has already been built and not to ruin it with what has yet to be designed." "I hope so, Alberti." "You continue your work and do not be tempted by the offers you receive from the foreign princes." "Rome is what I care about, bear in mind." "I sent an advance party of 50 armed men ahead of me, who fell into the trap set by Manfredi, as I had predicted." "I hid until nightfall among the reeds in the swamp." "Finally, toward dawn, a peasant passed by, and I showed myself to him, covered in mud and battered." "He never could have suspected my identity." "I asked for his help and, once on his wagon, so as not to arouse suspicion," "I maligned myself as much as possible." "The man was thrilled and in fact joined in the abuse." "Upon reaching the gates of Bagnacavallo, when he saw the troops saluting me and greeting me with proper respect, the peasant recognized me, blanched and ran away faster than a jackrabbit." "Lucky for him, or he could have said good-bye to his own head." "Mr. Leon Battista Alberti, the architect, asks to be received." " Show him in, he was expected." " Gentlemen." "Welcome to Rimini." "I am glad to have been invited to your court," "Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, lord of Rimini, to offer my services to you." "I know of your fame as an architect, Alberti." "I have chosen you because I trust and admire you." "Matteo de' Pasti has already started restoring the interior of the church of Saint Francis, and you will work on the exterior." "I hope, Mr. Alberti, that for our work we can find a way to work together harmoniously." "Agostino di Duccio and I have been transforming the interior of the church for nearly three years." "I do not believe it necessary for us to work together, Matteo." "I shall work on the exterior of the church, which in my design is considered a work in its own right and contains no reference to the internal structure you are working on." "It will be easier to clarify your respective points of view if we proceed to look at the drawings." "Here." "My plan foresees that the exterior architectural shell of the church of Saint Francis should be built as a wrapper, a sort of chest enclosing the ancient structure." "But I do not believe that you can neglect the harmony with the interior if you want the whole to have logic and equilibrium in its various dimensions." "Matteo de' Pasti, the proportions of the two internal chapels, of barbarian derivation, do not allow any possible harmony." "Therefore, it is appropriate for the external architecture and the facade in particular to be built as an autonomous work." "I cannot judge the merits of your dispute, Mr. Alberti." "Each of you has an assignment that takes place in different spaces." "You, Alberti, will be entirely responsible for the splendor of the exterior." "And you, Matteo, will have total freedom as far as the beauty of the interior is concerned." "Thank you, Mr. Sigismondo." "Listen, for the side facades," "I designed them with a curved form, because they should conceal the two slopes of the roof and cover the entire church, including the chapels." "I think that the facade of the cupola should measure two diameters." "Manetti shares my opinion." "We each have our artistic models." "I believe that the ancients left us admirable examples of architectural ability." "For the cupola, my models are the Pantheon, and the Baths of Diocletian." "For the facades, my reference is the architectural scheme of the Roman Arch of Constantine." "Look." "I perceive the beauty of a vast perspective dimension." "And the structure built on the facade allows me to translate this concept into reality." "Here, unlike the Arch of Constantine, this fornix goes all the way to the ground." "And along the sides, the perspective develops along a series of arches that recall a Roman aqueduct." "I hope the building lives up to the beauty of your design and realizes my wish." "From the transformation of the church of Saint Francis" "I expect a great work that gives my family a secular prestige." "Now I would like to invite you to come with me to my castle, where my masons and master carpenters have put in operation the machines you designed for me." "But before you leave, tell my men when you will return to Rimini to execute your work." "I am glad to accept your invitation." "As for my return to Rimini," "I must warn you that it is not my custom to execute my own designs." "I am accustomed to hiring meticulous and intelligent master builders." "An architect should only give his advice and accurate drawings for the proper execution of the design." "I think the architect should only talk to people of high intellect, and with the princes of cities who are lovers of beautiful buildings, of palaces and of buildings for military defense." "To the master builders we should leave the responsibility of building them." "Aristotle in his Metaphysics says, There is matter,"" "meaning lime and stones," "And there is form," meaning the design." "So let us leave the question of matter to the master builders, and let us leave to the architects the form, meaning the design." "The designs for your machines were perfectly clear." "The projectiles of the firing tube can travel up to 1 20 lengths." "More important than the distance is the height that the projectile can reach, look." "Lower it." "Of course." "With these firing tubes we could hit the inside of the fortress of our Lord Malatesta." "It is easier to face a fierce enemy than to face the power of intellect." "More victories have been won through the use of art, ability and the instruments designed by an architect than through the force of soldiers and cavalry." "It is now clear that the architect can win with a small army, and without much risk to the soldiers." "Here." "Around the defense walls, the earth will have to be molded into a slope, so that the trajectory of the projectiles from the enemy's machines becomes very high and the projectiles do not reach the walls, but fly beyond them." "Furthermore, the walls will have to be flanked by turrets with a distance of 50 cubits between them." "The side of the turrets that faces the city will have to be devoid of any defense, to avoid allowing the enemy, should he penetrate the turrets, to defend himself." "In the turrets, there will be no vaults or floors, but only wooden planks that can be removed or set on fire if the enemy invades the turrets." "But the enemy, as we all know, is not always only on the outside." "Princes fear internal conspiracies and must protect themselves." "The city of Cairo was riddled with a large number of canals so that it appeared to be a grouping of small cities, rather than a single city." "This made it possible to isolate the rebels and to chase them away with great ease." "Servius Tullius would have wanted the patricians to live in one district so that in case of a revolt it would be possible to quell it right away from a nearby hill." "It will also be wise to ensure that the streets of the city are not crossed by arches or flanked by towers or that there are not balconies from which the inhabitants of the district might repel the prince's soldiers" "by throwing objects at them." "In a city built with such forethought he who holds power, and he alone, holds all the elevated positions." "And only his trusted men have free access to them with no one to challenge them." "However, this is certainly not the ideal city." "This is the city of the tyrant, very different from that of a king or a republic." "There is also another difference." "A free people builds its city on a plain, while the tyrant enjoys more security on the top of a hill." "Look." "This is more proof of the power and acuity of human ingenuity." "At first, we had only our hands to do things, then we started using tools." "A hoe is a tool, as are the plow, the shovel and the hammer." "This lathe, however, is a smarter tool than a shovel." "It allows one to use a chisel with great precision." "Here we have a wonder that is even smarter." "It is what we call a machine." "Tools help man's hands to do things, whereas machines work in place of the hands." "This weight moves the machine in the same way as water and wind make the wheels of a mill turn." "Here, look." "I will show you its practical use." "This screw causes a piece of iron to advance at regular intervals and this hammer scores it every time it advances." "This way a bar of metal becomes a file." "This is a machine." "Thank you, Alberti." "You give me a great sense of security with all you are able to devise." "I would like for this work which we have now concluded to serve not just as an example, but also as a stimulus for future generations." "The human being, perpetually in search of himself, finds himself and is mirrored in his works" "each of which represents his limits and his capacity for invention." "Brunelleschi was a supreme artist because he was an architect, sculptor, builder of fortresses and mechanical clocks, well versed in hydraulic construction, in mechanics, expert in proportions and perspective." "To this day, I admire his beautiful and excellent clocks and the ability to penetrate, like him," "the imagination of things." "Artists who fall in love with practice without science are like boatswains who set sail on a boat with no rudder or compass who never know for certain where they are going." "To he who states that so much science is not necessary, that practice is enough to portray objects from nature, we should respond that we are never greater fools than when we trust our judgment without any science." "And this is proven by experience, which disproves alchemists, necromancers and the judgment of other simple minds." "I know that they say of me that I am not an artist, but a scientist and a pedant." "It is true, it is true." "Now I am interested in astronomy and mathematics." "But science and art have in common the hope of progress for mankind." "And there is no art that ignores science." "I have always maintained that the painter must be as knowledgeable as he can in all seven of the liberal arts:" "grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music." "But more than anything he should know geometry." "Painting is science." "It is the science of perspective vision on which a painter's work is based." "The painter should know the intersection of the lines of the visual pyramid, how to evaluate a surface and position figures on it in such a way as to recreate the truth of real space." "Come, I will show you." "It is true, the perspective is very clear." "Thus does the painter possess space." "Until less than a hundred years ago, painting was still considered a manual skill and the painter was little more than a domestic." "Self-righteous and noble citizens would have thought the position of an artist to be humiliating." "But then there arrived in our workshops the fusion of speculation, technical and scientific activities, of manual labor and theory." "Since then, the figure of the artist has been revealed as a type of genius." "Bernardo Rucellai has arrived." "Here we are." "Let me introduce you to Leon Battista Alberti." "I met him many years ago at the Bardi residence, where Cosimo de' Medici lived before Michelozzo built him his famous palace." "He was a young employee of the curia then, and I was little more than a boy." "In his admirable art, he no longer has any rivals." "You are forgetting Pippo Brunelleschi," "Michelozzo, Rossellino." "The ancient builders, of course, were truly great." "But this century has had men so superb and numerous in such a diverse array of arts and doctrines that they can be compared to the ancient masters." "In architecture, in devising devices to transport large weights in building war machines" "I believe that our men have even surpassed the ancients." "You are one of them, and one of the most illustrious." "The Gonzagas in Mantua proudly show all their guests the Church of Saint Sebastian." "I too have admired it." "I also want you to know that in the shop of a good art teacher close to mine in Venice" "I saw your books, and only yours:" "the De Statua and the De Pictura." "The teacher told me that in them he found more art than in any other book and that he would not part with them for all the gold in the world." "I am glad to know that I have been useful to him." "That is why I wrote them, why I studied the arts and became an architect." "I was very young when I wrote them." "Now I am tired and at times the weight of my years confuses me." "But your words comfort me." "I have tried to gain knowledge because he who has none can help neither himself nor others." "Now I would like to show you the results of my studies on mirrors." "Look." "Mirrors amuse me greatly and I have learned much through their use." "You see, the curved mirror, just as the cylindrical one, makes it possible to analyze images because it exasperates lines and amplifies them," "as you can see for yourselves." "I would like you to come to Venice." "It is a wonderful city and you could beautify it even more." "I would like to, but I cannot." "I must return to Rome and present myself to the new Pope, Sixtus IV." "New works await me." "The young Lorenzo de' Medici will come with me to pay homage to the Pope." "His grandfather Cosimo loved and admired him very much and today Florence has faith in him." "Rome is great in spite of the destruction." "The Pope has decided to stay in Rome so that it could continue its history." "Look at the walls of Servius Tullius, the Porta Capena, and the Appian Way." "It was the first road traced by the Romans, the road that joined Rome and Magna Graecia, the Greece of Pythagoras and Archimedes." "Peter and Paul came to Rome on that Road." "The Caelimontium, and the Palazzi Laterani, papal residences from the fourth century and the ruins of the temples of Isis and Serapis." "Down there was the heart of the city of Caesars:" "The Colosseum, the Domus Aurea, the Baths of Caracalla, the Imperial fora, the temple of Venus and the sacred Tiber." "You are young, Lorenzo, grandson and heir to the great Cosimo." "And you must not forget that the destinies of cities and peoples, when there is no tyrant, are in the hands of princes and citizens." "Remember that greed for riches, without freedom " "To those who harbor such greed, riches and power have never given them wisdom." "Gold is useless unless you transform it into works for the city, works for men." "I have seen that good must be built up like a building, stone upon stone, just as a city must be built family upon family." "All that we have we owe to the family into which we are born." "That is what protects us in spite of the evils of men." "And there is no place in the world where care and diligence toward things can be shown better than inside a family." "It is no small thing to leave one's children riches and knowledge enough so that they will never be obliged to pronounce that bitter phrase:" "I beg of you." "I have seen that if the world asks men to become slaves many will do so." "But when the world honors genius, then many, many men become geniuses." "When one is intelligent, one can build." "When one is mad, one destroys." "Look over there and look at us." "Have you ever wondered why we live in a time filled with such innovations, so fervid with ideas, so rich with intelligence?" "It is because today we honor intelligence, but to what end?" "Does there exist, Dante wonders in his De Monarchia, remembering Aristotle, a specific end to mankind?" "Which is the act that marks the character and the extreme limit of man's actions, the act without which he cannot realize himself?" "Evidently it is that which only man is capable of performing." "Not merely being, or living, or feeling, for other creatures than man are capable of those things." "But knowing through the use of intellect, knowing with all the intellect at his disposal." "Acting is only the extension of knowing." "And the existence of an immense multitude of men has a reason." "Their number is necessary so as to increase a million fold man's ability to understand, his knowledge." "The proper function of the human race, taken in the aggregate, is to actualize continually the entire capacity of the possible intellect."" "Vtg"