I cannot help mentioning here one Character more, of a different kind indeed from these, yet such a one as may serve to shew the wonderful Force of Nature and of Application, and is the most singular Instance of an Universal Genius I have ever met with. The Person I mean is

Leonardo da Vinci

, an

Italian

Painter, descended from a noble Family in

Tuscany

, about the beginning of the sixteenth Century. In his Profession of History-Painting he was so great a Master, that some have affirmed he excelled all who went before him

. It is certain

, that he raised the Envy of

Michael Angelo