LEONARDI, Giovan Giacomo (1498-1562). The battles of our time. Manuscript c.a 1540-1552 Exceptional unpublished manuscript by Giovan Giacomo Leonardi, diplomat, gunman and military theorist at the service of the Della Rovere, probably attributable to the vast plan of the knight Prince, to whom the author worked during his maturity and for which he obtained in 1561 a privilege of printing, remained unused. The work is dedicated to Guidobaldo II Della Rovere (1514-1574), Duke of Urbino and son of Francesco Maria I, presented as the prince-conductor capable of redeeming Italian freedom: "You only with whom I study them with the engraving of your ordinances and those of the Venetian lords and their soldiers ite thinking of libescarcel'Italia" . In the dedication Leonardi shows the method followed in the composition of the work: moving from the classical authors of history and military tactics, he intends to follow the simple erudite comment by comparing the precepts of the ancients with the direct experience of the contemporary war: "we all read Vegetio, Elliano et simili, no one is that investigating what they wrote in their own time find the Better to bring him to our intelligence in a way that we can imitate him. In the promium he also compares the constitution of an army to the formation of the human body, referring to the example of the artist: "With the saying of this (*Michelangelo) man I go again considering that the horse prince has to put together an army body how to form a man imagining the painter." There follows a vademecum of 39 short rules for the conduct of the battle, in which emerges the pragmatic character of Leonardi's military thought: numerical superiority, discipline and organization are considered essential conditions for the victory, while picca and archibugio are indicated as the weapons "necessary to battle" and the cavalry is assigned a now subordinate role. The author also disputes with the still chivalrous conception of the war proper to some contemporaries: "Those modern writers who have desired the shield of ancient Romans have not remembered the archibugi" . The main nucleus of the manuscript consists of 91 short thesises, dedicated to concrete aspects of the military organization: recruitment and management of troops, armaments, ordering of armies, offensive and defensive tactics, with frequent comparisons between the ancient war and the modern one. The text is accompanied by 9 drawings, two of which on a double page, destined to illusscarcegrafically the different dispositions of the troops elaborated by Leonardi and probably executed in the environment of the Urbino court. The editorial staff can be limited between 1540 and 1552: Leonardi signed in fact "Giova Jacomo Leonardi da Pesaro," Count of Monte l'Abbate, title conferred on him by Guidobaldo II in 1540, while in the dedication the duke is still presented in his capacity as commander of the Venetian forces, an assignment not renewed in 1552. The manuscript is therefore closely related to Leonardi's other military texts today preserved at the Oliveriana Library in Pesaro: the arms and artillery treaty of 1540, the Knight ambassador of 1542 (ms. 216), the Book of Fortifications of our times of 1553 (ms. 220), the Book over the lodging of an army (ms. 221) and the Prince knight in duel (mss. This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. Important unpublished testimony of the theory and practice of war in Italy of the full Renaissance, gained from the direct experience of one of the main military collaborators of the Della Rovere. Folio (320 × 220 mm). Manuscript on paper, 63 papers, 53 of which are numbered, with watermark depicting still and star; 9 drawings of military formations, of which 2 on double page, and a bifolio explanatory manuscript. Composition: a white paper; manuscript title on paper applied; a white card; 3 cards dedicate to Guidobaldo II; a card of promium; a map with 39 rules for the conduct of battles; 51 cards containing 91 thesis; 4 final white cards. The 9 drawings are inserted out of text; the first is accompanied by an explanatory bifolio not numbered, inserted between cards 15 and 16. In beards (gorges of water at the upper and lower margins, without loss of text; small paper losses at the margins). Inserted within ligature of the sixteenth century richly decorated in gold wheels, with at the center of the plates the figure of a holy archbishop, probably of Roman production (minimum defects). Contact the department for a detailed description of the content. LEONARDI, Giovan Giacomo (1498-1562), Pesaro, studied law in Bologna and Ferrara, where he graduated in 1522. In 1525 he took part in the defence and fortification of Pavia during the French siege; in 1528 he passed to the service of Francesco Maria I Della Rovere (1490-1538), Duke of Urbino and captain general of the terrestrial forces of the Republic of Venice. As his representative at the College of the Savi, he reported on the progress of operations and dealt with funding for the army. The position occupied between Venice and Urbino also made Leonardi an important cultural and artistic intermediary between the two courts: he had relations with Tommaso Diplovatazio (1468-1541), Sebastiano Serlio (1475-1554 circa) and Pietro Bembo (1470-1547) and, according to Pietro Aretino, was bound by close friendship with Tiziano Vecellio (ca. 1488/90-1576). In 1532 he commissioned the painter the Head of Hannibal, a Christ and an Adoration of the shepherds destined for the Urbino court and in 1538 intervened in the purchase of the famous Venus of Urbinus. In 1532 he presented to the Serenissima a project for the fortification of Vicenza and in the same years began the composition of his military treaties, later gathered under the title of Prince knight. After the death of Francesco Maria I in 1538 he continued to represent his son Guidobaldo II Della Rovere, who in 1540 created him Count of Montelabbate. To these years belong the Treaty of Arms and Artillery (1540) and the Knight Ambassador (1542), both preserved at the Oliverian Library. Leonardi again obtained the conduct of the Venetian militias in 1542 and 1546; when in 1552 he failed to obtain for Guidobaldo the renewal of the venetian office, he followed him to Rome, where the duke had been appointed captain general of the Church. Leonardi finally retired in the fief of Montelabbate, dedicated his last years to the reordering of the knight Prince, for whom Emanuele Filiberto of Savoy (1528-1580) granted him a press privilege on September 5, 1561 that he had not followed. He died in 1562 and was buried in the church of San Francesco in Pesaro. After his death, the family, known as Leonardi Della Rovere conti di Montelabbate, continued to reside between the feudal castle and Palazzo Leonardi in Pesaro until the eighteenth century, when the transfer of a branch of the family to Moravia marked the beginning of the dispersion of the heritage. (1)