LEO, the names of 13 popes:  L. I., ST., Pope from 410 to 461; L. II., ST., pope from 682 to 683; L. III., Pope from 795 to 816; L. IV., pope from 847 to 855; L. V., Pope in 903; L. VI., Pope from 928 to 929; L. VII., Pope from 936 to 939; L. VIII., Pope from 963 to 965; L. IX., ST., Pope from 1049 to 1054; L. X., pope from 1513 to 1521; L. XI., Pope in 1605; L. XII., Pope from 1823 to 1829; L. XIII., Pope since 1878.  Of these only the following deserve mention:—­

LEO I., saint, surnamed the GREAT; was distinguished for his zeal against heretics, presided at two councils, and persuaded Attila to retire from Rome on his invasion of Italy, as he persuaded Genseric four years later to moderate the outrages of his troops in the city; his letters are in evidence of the jurisdiction of the Roman over the universal Church.  Festival, Nov. 10.

LEO III., proclaimed Charlemagne emperor of the West in 800; driven in 799 from the papal chair by a conspiracy, he was reinstated by Charlemagne, who next year visited the city and was crowned by him emperor.

LEO IX., saint; was elected at the Diet of Worms in 1048, welcomed at Rome, and applied himself zealously to the reform of Church discipline; being defeated in the field by Guiscard, suffered a 10 years’ imprisonment, fell ill and died.

LEO X., Giovanni de’ Medici, son of Lorenzo the Magnificent, sovereign of Florence; was distinguished as a patron of art, science, and letters, and as occupant of the chair of St. Peter at the outbreak of the Reformation, and as by his issue of indulgences for the replenishment of his treasure provoking the movement and rousing the ire of Luther, which set the rest of Europe on fire.

LEO XIII., 257th Pope of Rome, born at Carpineto; distinguished at college in mathematics, physics, and philosophy; took holy orders in 1837, was nuncio to Belgium in 1843, became bishop of Perugia in 1846, cardinal 1853, and Pope in 1878; holds to his rights as Pope both secular and spiritual; believes in the Catholic Church as the only regenerator of society, and hails every show of encroach it makes on the domain of Protestantism as promise of its universal restoration; b. 1810.

LEON, an ancient kingdom in the NE. of Spain, united with Castile in 1230, with a capital of the same name 256 m.  NW. of Madrid.  Also the name of a city in Nicaragua and another in Mexico.

LEONARDO DA VINCI, celebrated painter and sculptor of the Florentine school, born at Vinci in the Val d’Arno; showed early a wonderful aptitude for art; studied under Andrea del Verrocchio, but so surpassed him in his work as to drive him to renounce the painter’s art; his great work, executed by him at Milan, was the famous picture of the “Last Supper,” which he painted in oil about 1497 on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican convent of the Madonna delle Grazie; it perished from the dampness of the wall almost as soon as it was finished, but happily copies were taken of it before decay had ruined it; besides, Leonardo did in 1503 at Florence the famous cartoon of the Battle of the Standard; he was a man of imposing personal appearance, of very wide range of ability, and distinguished himself in engineering as well as art; he wrote a “Treatise on Painting,” which has been widely translated (1452-1519).