iation of the talent of another, will be
rightly extolled and celebrated both on the one count and on the
other, and as much for what he would have done as for what he did. The
sculptor Vinci, therefore, should not suffer on account of the short
duration of his life, or be robbed thereby of the praise due to him
from the judgment of those who shall come after us, considering that
he was only in the first bloom both of his life and of his studies at
the time when he produced and gave to the world that which everyone
admires, and was like to bring forth fruits in greater abundance, if a
hostile tempest had not destroyed both the fruits and the tree.

I remember having said in another place that in the township of Vinci,
in the lower Valdarno, there lived Ser Piero, the father of Leonardo
da Vinci, most famous of painters. To this Ser Piero, after Leonardo,
there was born, as his youngest son, Bartolommeo, who, living at Vinci
and attaining to manhood, took for his wife one of the first maidens
of that township. Bartolommeo was desirous of having a male child, and
spoke very often to his wife of the greatness of the genius with which
his brother Leonardo had been endowed, praying God that He should make
her worthy that from her there might be born in his house another
Leonardo, the first being now dead. In a short time, therefore,
according to his desire, there was born to him a gracious boy, to whom
he wished to give the name of Leonardo; but, being advised by his
relatives to revive the memory of his father, he gave him the name of
Piero. Having come to the age of three years, the boy had a most
beautiful countenance, with curly locks, and showed great grace in
every movement, with a quickness of intelligence that was marvellous;
insomuch that Maestro Giuliano del Carmine, an excellent astrologer,
and with him a priest devoted to chiromancy, who were both close
friends of Bartolommeo, having arrived in Vinci and lodged in
Bartolommeo's house, looking at the forehead and hand of the boy,
revealed to the father, both the astrologer and the chiromancer
together, the greatness of his genius, and predicted that in a short
time he would make extraordinary proficience in the mercurial arts,
but that his life would also be very short. And only too true was
their prophecy, for both in the one part and in the other (when one
would have sufficed), in his life as well as in his art, it needs must
be fulfilled.

Then, continuing to