This compilation later served as the basis for the Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on Painting), which was published posthumously by others based on Melzi’s organization of da Vinci’s notes.

[2](p19) Francesco grew up in the Milanese court, and was raised with proper manners and was granted a good education, which included training in the arts.

[3] As a member of a prominent family of the Milanese court, however, Francesco would have had political and social responsibilities as he got older that would have caused him to discontinue his studies in art had it not been for Leonardo da Vinci.

In a biography of Leonardo da Vinci, it is argued that he felt compelled to stay in Milan longer than he had intended after meeting with the young Francesco.

[5](p381) Francesco is described in literature as charming and graceful, an adolescent without the awkwardness or lack of manners typical of boys around this age.

[6](p351) Shortly after they met, Francesco began studying and working at Leonardo's workshop and quickly became his master's favorite pupil, and the most devoted as well.

And although he is not well-known, Francesco is referred to as being the first person responsible for collecting, organizing, and preserving Leonardo da Vinci's notes on painting, and transforming it into a manuscript copy known as the Codex Urbinas.

Sigmund Freud attributed the lack of success of Leonardo's pupils, including the talented Francesco, to their inability to distinguish themselves as separate from their master, and thus their careers were unable to flourish after his death.

In his notebook Leonardo wrote, "I left Milan for Rome on the 24th day of September 1513, with Giovanni Boltraffio, Francesco de' Melzi, Lorenzo di Credi, and il Fanfoia.

Despite not managing to publish them, Melzi's curation did in fact ensure the future preservation of his late master's works that he treasured so greatly: He gathered 944 short chapters from Leonardo's scattered notes, but had difficulty organizing and arranging the material, and even left some pages blank.

[2](pp8–9) Being a Milanese noble, Francesco Melzi must have employed helpers to sort through the thousands of pages of notes, but he was the only one who could decipher Leonardo's unique left-handed mirror-like writing style, and his spelling and enigmatic abbreviations.

Melzi loaned out these pre-publication versions of Leonardo's work to scholars of the time, such as Vasari, Lomazzo, Antonio Gaddiano, Cardano, among others; their names are inscribed on numerous surviving manuscript copies.

[8](p116) Because he owned his master's manuscripts, notes, and works, after his death, he was able to share with the next generation of artists Leonardo's genius, techniques, and oeuvre.

[15] Francesco quickly became aware of his master's loneliness, seeing past his legendary fame and genius, and felt impelled to care for him, essentially devoting his whole life to him.

[5](p381) Leonardo's second Milanese period, when he resided with the Melzi family, is by some considered his most creative years in art and canal engineering.

[16] In fact, the only people at Leonardo's deathbed were Francesco and members of the clergy: The vicar of the church of St. Denis at Amboise, two Franciscan friars, and two priests.

Francesco Melzi, in contrast to his peers, actually does have a handful of completed, high quality paintings attributed to him, as well as drawings and studies.

[8](pp370–380) This drawing is red chalk on paper, and although it highlights the artist's keen ability to render from observation, Francesco's note at the bottom leads us to believe that it was based on a relief, most likely by Leonardo.

(a)) Other paintings by or attributed to Francesco are Nymph at the Spring (Washington Gallery of Art), Portrait of a Young Man with a Parrot (Milan, private collection), and Saint Anne with the Virgin and the Child Embracing a Lamb (Galleria degli Uffizi).