ALBERTI, LEONE BATTISTA, was descended from a noble family of Florence, and was perfectly acquainted with painting, sculpture, and architecture. He wrote of all three in Latin, but his studies did not permit him to leave any thing considerable behind him in painting. He was employed by Pope Nicholas V. in his buildings, which he executed in a beautiful manner; and his work on architecture, which consists of 10 books, is greatly esteemed. He also wrote some treatises of morality, and a piece of arithmetic. He died in 1485.