В 1475 году в Москву на русскую службу прибыл Аристотель Фьораванти

“Excellent murol and gun maker,” that was how a written source was attesting 60-year-old Aristotele Fioravanti. Word gun maker is clear. It is worth adding that the Italian was an excellent specialist in not only making guns but using them on the battlefield as well, and even acted as commander of artillery during the military campaigns of Ivan III. During these campaigns Aristotele Fioravanti demonstrated an outstanding talent of engineer having built a bridge over Volkhov using ships during the siege of Novgorod. Mysterious word murol becomes clear when one makes a guess that it has the same root with mure. It means Fioravanti was called a mason in the document, which is not accurate. Aristotele Fioravanti was a skillful and talented architect. It is enough to look at the Dormition Cathedral in Kremlin to realize this fact, as it was the Italian who designed it. Moreover, if you take a sablyanitsa (Russian silver coin of that time), you will see an inscription in small letter – Aristotele. It is about the Italian architect and engineer, not Plato’s disciple.