Architettura con il suo commento et figure Vetruvio in volgar lingua raportato

Therefore, Vitruvius says that no person can have greater consolation, in soul and body, than knowing oneself to be praised by the true light, and all the more so when the highest and divine honors are granted to them. He deservedly says to the Emperor, of your divinity and deity: O highest praise and glorious exaltation of men, when they show by their effects that they can imitate the operations of the divine mind. Since we, who are not immortal, do not know of what form and substance the omnipotent God is, we strive through virtue to approach Him; and likewise, Vitruvius in the eighth proem called Him divine, because that eternal mind always suddenly provides for and cares for all things in the universe with a nod. Therefore, it seems necessary for Emperors, in whom a kind of providence is sought for the governing of the world, just as everything depends on the highest King, God, who is above all Kings and Emperors—as many jurists have written, this can certainly be known. And we human creatures must believe that the origin of our human nature came from the sky, and was formed by divine power in a way other than how other animals were created. For there is no contrary opinion among the most learned writers that we are not all like children of the omnipotent God, who created the diversity of species. And it was thus convenient for man to come to taste and consider these things. For, being divine, he was formed of this matter of transmutable elements just as all other animals and particular things were, and as one sees that he gradually tries, through natural memory, to reach toward things of his divine principle. And this is introduced into this animated essence, just as in the book of Animals, Aristotle says, "Only the intellect enters into us from outside, and it alone is divine." Therefore, our mind, which is located in the head, seems almost the eye of the Soul and the guide of the body, and almost in comparison to the Immortals. And for this reason, Aristotle in the seventh book of the Ethics says that men are called to make themselves Gods through virtue and excellence. Given that the virtue of the Soul seems placed in the mind like the gnomon the pin of a sundial in the gnomon, and like the triangle in the tetragon. This we can truly say seems to be the center, because it draws to itself all things that occur to the virtue of the five Senses of the soul, just as in a mirror the representation of all Ideas, provided that it can seize them in that center of the soul when it is fatigued or struck. And in what manner this can happen, read Valerius Maximus in the first book, and Pliny in the seventh of the Natural History, regarding a certain most learned Athenian. And because we have come to the examples of others, a certain most learned Athenian man, being struck by a stone in the head, retained everything with the most tenacious memory, except for the letters he had forgotten, to which he had greatly devoted himself. Having received a great wound in the soul, almost seeking the senses on purpose, in that same place where he delighted much, due to the bitterness of the offense, he brought forth a singular doctrine. And coming to himself with envy, that if it were not permitted to him to practice more useful studies, it would have been better not to have obtained the path than to have lacked his already taken sweetness. Therefore, it seems a thing to be noted, not only by Kings and Emperors—in whose wisdom and will all things consist, to ensure that they know how to preserve themselves—but also that other Wise men and all virtuous ones are avoided and defended from dangerous cases, so that the people and all living things and the things of the world may know how to rule themselves and be warned for the universal good. Since it is the case that from the cradle, those who should be known can reach the highest excellence, showing some clear sign, and they are those who, by the grace that nature has placed upon them, are not only to be guarded with great and highest diligence, but revered and loved as divine children, whose name and majesty, by grace freely given, seems to be spread within them. Just as was Hercules, Romulus, Tullius, Servius, Titus Vespasian, and many others made memorable by some most famous Historians; these seem to have arrived at great effects from a very small beginning, being generous. And just as we can worthily praise these, and on the contrary blame those who have degenerated from these and other great lineages—as we have knowledge of many Princes and Kings not only from Justin and Diodorus Siculus, but here also from Pliny, Plutarch, Valerius Maximus, Sallust, and many others—in such a way that those who have degenerated show themselves to be much more numerous than the generous ones, without any doubt. And because those who wish to obtain that Imperial majesty in themselves seem almost constituted by natural disposition—as Aristotle says, to rule is a divine thing, and the vile and poor do not know how to lord over others—therefore, those who wish to lord over others must have that natural grace given by the divine mind, which is granted to few. And these have been surnamed Heroes, terrestrial Gods, Blessed, and Delicate. And although by the constitution of law it is not permitted for an Emperor, or King, or other Prince, due to natural or acquired dignity, to introduce the inferiors, nonetheless it was constituted by the Roman laws, no one

and victory, the citizens gloried, and all the subjugated peoples looked to your nod, and the Roman People and the Senate, freed from fear, you governed with your most ample thoughts and counsels. I do not dare, because of your many occupations, to manifest the books of Architecture I have written and declared with great study; fearing that by interrupting you at an unsuitable time, I might offend your spirit.