"Alberti was also occupied by the dialectic of the vita activa – vita contemplativa. 33 Through his own treatise on the subject, De commodis literarum atque incommodis,34 and a study of the Florentine family, Della famiglia,35 Alberti deeply influenced a younger generation of powerful and wealthy soldier-scholars, including Leonello d'Este and Federico, who negotiated their turbulent political climate as much by tactical eloquence as by militaristic valor."