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.