The Books on the Family

Leon Battista Alberti - The Books on the Family

Page 6

...so long remained with them empire, glory, and even fortune. Alberti argues that "Fortune" (luck or fate) follows those who possess "Virtue" (strength, character, and skill).

But as soon as the lust for tyranny, private interests, and unjust desires held more power in Italy than good laws and most holy customary disciplines, immediately the Latin empire began to weaken and fade away, losing its grace, decorum, and all its former strength. One saw the divine Latin glory clouded and blinded—a glory that previously had shone throughout and illuminated even beyond the Ocean. The "Ocean" here refers to the Atlantic, which the ancients considered the outer boundary of the world. And you, most noble Italy, head and citadel of the entire universe, while you were united, of one mind, and in harmony to maintain virtue, to achieve praise, and to expand your glory; while your study and art were to overthrow the proud and to be most humane and just with your subjects This is a direct reference to the Roman poet Virgil’s Aeneid (6.853): "To spare the conquered and beat down the proud" (parcere subiectis et debellare superbos).; and while you knew how to sustain any impetuous adversity with an elevated and upright spirit, and you considered it no less a matter of praise to overcome any arduous and laborious thing by enduring it than to avoid it by shrinking away; and for as long as enemies recognized virtue in you, friends recognized loyalty, and the conquered recognized mercy—for that long you were powerful against Fortune and stood above all mortals. During that time, you were able to impose your most holy laws and magistrates upon all nations of the universe, and even to the borders of the Indies it was permitted for you to establish the brilliant insignias of your inestimable and deserved divine glory. Because of your most excellent virtues and your most magnificent, powerful, and strong spirits, you were revered, loved, and feared as an equal to the gods.

But now, through your discords and civil dissensions, you immediately began to fall from your ancient majesty. Suddenly your Latin altars, temples, and theaters—which used to be seen filled with games, festivals, and joy, and covered and laden with the spoils original: "essuvie," from the Latin exuviae, meaning the armor or equipment stripped from a defeated enemy. of enemies, victorious offerings, and triumphal laurels—immediately these began to be full of calamity and misery, sprinkled with tears, and celebrated with sorrow and lamentation. And the barbarian nations, the most remote servant peoples, who used to put aside all pride and all anger at your venerable name, O Italy, and tremble—