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The treatise “Della famiglia” (“On the Family”), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy upon which his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist largely rests. He wrote these dialogues in the vernacular, expressly for a broad urban public that would not be skilled in Latin: for the non litteratissimi cittadini, as he called them. Based upon classical models, chiefly Cicero and Seneca, these works brought to the day-to-day concerns of a bourgeois society the reasonable counsel of the ancients—on the fickleness of fortune, on meeting adversity and prosperity, on husbandry, on friendship and family, on education and obligation to the common good. They are didactic and derivative, yet fresh with the tone and life-style of the Quattrocento (the 1400s). In Alberti’s dialogues the ethical ideals of the ancient world are made to foster a distinctively modern outlook: a morality founded upon the idea of work. Virtue has become a matter of action, not of right thinking. It arises not out of serene detachment but out of striving, labouring, producing. This ethic of achievement, which corresponds to the social reality of his youth, found ready acceptance in the urban society of central and northern Italy in which Alberti moved after 1434. Travelling with the papal court of Eugenius IV to Florence (the ban of exile against his family was lifted with the restoration of Medici influence), Bologna, and Ferrara, Alberti made several congenial and fruitful contacts. The writings, both the Latin and vernacular ones, that he dedicated to his new associates are imbued with his characteristic notions of work, practice, and productive activity; and he took upon himself in turn the technical and practical problems that were absorbing his friends and patrons. In Florence his close associations with the sculptor Donatello and the architect Brunelleschi led to one of his major achievements: the systematization of the painter’s perspective. The book On Painting, which he wrote in 1435, set forth for the first time the rules for drawing a picture of a three-dimensional scene upon the two-dimensional plane of a panel or wall. It had an immediate and profound effect upon Italian painting and relief work, giving rise to the correct, ample, geometrically ordered space of the perspectival Renaissance style. Later perspectival theorists, such as the painter Piero della Francesca and Leonardo, elaborated upon Alberti’s work, but his principles remain as basic to the projective science of perspective as Euclid’s do to plane geometry. His friendship with the Florentine cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli was of comparable practical and scientific importance. It was Toscanelli who provided Columbus with the map that guided him on his first voyage. Alberti seems to have collaborated with him in astronomy rather than geography, but the two sciences were closely bound at the time (and bound to perspective) by the conceptions and methods of geometric mapping rediscovered in the writings of the ancient astronomer and geographer Ptolemy. Alberti’s distinctive contribution to this current of thought took the form of a small treatise on geography, the first work of its kind since antiquity. It sets forth the rules for surveying and mapping a land area, in this case the city of Rome, and it was probably as influential as his earlier treatise on painting. Although it is difficult to trace the historical connections, the methods of surveying and mapping and the instruments described by Alberti are precisely those that were responsible for the new scientific accuracy of the depictions of towns and land areas that date from the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

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彼が1432年にローマで始めた論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が大きく根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。彼はこれらの対話を、ラテン語に熟練していないであろう広い都市の大衆のために、はっきりと言葉で書いた。

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His paper "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. He broadly talks about these dialogues, which may not be proficient in Latin.

INTO JAPANESE

彼が1432年にローマで始めた彼の論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が深く根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。彼はこれらの対話について広く話しますが、それはラテン語に堪能ではないかもしれません。

BACK INTO ENGLISH

His treatise "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. .. He talks widely about these dialogues, which is Latin

INTO JAPANESE

彼が1432年にローマで始めた彼の論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が深く根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。 ..彼はラテン語であるこれらの対話について広く話します

BACK INTO ENGLISH

His treatise "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. .. .. He speaks broadly about these dialogues in Latin

INTO JAPANESE

彼が1432年にローマで始めた彼の論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が深く根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。 ....彼はラテン語でこれらの対話について広く話します

BACK INTO ENGLISH

His treatise "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. .. .... He speaks widely about these dialogues in Latin

INTO JAPANESE

彼が1432年にローマで始めた彼の論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が深く根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。 ......彼はラテン語でこれらの対話について広く話します

BACK INTO ENGLISH

His treatise "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. .. ... he speaks widely about these dialogues in Latin

INTO JAPANESE

彼が1432年にローマで始めた彼の論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が深く根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。 .....彼はラテン語でこれらの対話について広く話します

BACK INTO ENGLISH

His treatise "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. .. ..... he speaks widely about these dialogues in Latin

INTO JAPANESE

彼が1432年にローマで始めた彼の論文「Dellafamiglia」（「Onthe Family」）は、倫理思想家および文学スタイリストとしての彼の評判が深く根付いている道徳哲学に関するいくつかの対話の最初のものです。 .....彼はラテン語でこれらの対話について広く話します

BACK INTO ENGLISH

His treatise "Della famiglia" ("On the Family"), which he began in Rome in 1432, is the first of several dialogues on moral philosophy, where his reputation as an ethical thinker and literary stylist is deeply rooted. .. ..... he speaks widely about these dialogues in Latin