[207] Op. cit. pp. 292, 282, 391, 379.
[208] Nov. i. and xxviii. The second of these stories is dedicated to Francesco of Aragon, who, born in 1461, could not have been more than fifteen when this frightful tale of lust and blood was sent him. Nothing paints the manners of the time better than this fact.
[209] See op. cit. pp. 28, 68, 89, 141, 256, 273, 275, 380, 341, 343.
[210] For specimens of his invective read pp. 517, 273, 84, 275, 55, 65, 534. I have collected some of these passages, bearing on the clergy, in a [note to p. 458] of my [Age of the Despots], 2nd edition. No wonder that Masuccio's book was put upon the Index!
[211] Nov. xxvii, xxxiii. xxxv. xxxvii. xlviii.
[212] See Revival of Learning, pp. 341-344, for some account of Alberti's life and place among the humanists; [Fine Arts], p. 74, for his skill as an architect.
[213] Sacchetti, we have seen, called himself uomo discolo; Ser Giovanni proclaimed himself a pecorone; Masuccio had the culture of a nobleman; Corio and Matarazzo, if we are right in identifying the latter with Francesco Maturanzio, were both men of considerable erudition.
[214] The most charming monument of Alberti's memory is the Life by an anonymous writer, published in Muratori and reprinted in Bonucci's edition, vol. i. Bonucci conjectures, without any substantial reason, that it was composed by Alberti himself.
[215] For the Camera Optica, Reticolo de' dipintori, and Bolide Albertiana, see the Preface (pp. lxv.-lxix.) to Anicio Bonucci's edition of the Opere Volgari di L.B. Alberti, Firenze, 1843, five vols. All references will be made to this comprehensive but uncritical collection. Hubert Janitschek's edition of the Treatises on Art should be consulted for its introduction and carefully prepared text—Vienna, 1877, in the Quellenschriften für Kunstgeschichte.
[216] The sentence of banishment was first removed in 1428; but the rights of burghership were only restored to the Alberti in 1434. Leo Battista finished the Treatise on Painting at Florence, Sept. 7, 1435 (see Janitschek, op. cit. p. iii.), and dedicated it to Brunelleschi, July 17, 1436. From that dedication it would seem that he had only recently returned.