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In the original redaction of his first literary work, the Latin comedy Philodoxeos (1424), Leon Battista Alberti (1404-72) named himself 'Lepidus' and the work circulated for a while as if it were the work of an ancient Roman comedian with this name. Later the author renamed himself, adding the first name 'Leo' (in Latin) or 'Leon' (in the vernacular) in front of Battista, and using it in the second version of his comedy (1434-37). Around 1440 he decided not to give his name as the author of two works: his unfinished Latin autobiography, the Vita (c. 1438-41) and the anonymous vernacular Protesta (c. 1441). Much of Alberti's authorship between the 1420s and 1440s thus revolved round pseudonyms, added names, and anonymity. The article suggests that such preoccupations were bound up with the two traumas of Alberti's birth: he was born illegitimate and into a family in exile from Florence. This concern with nomenclature and individuality is also linked to the fact that Alberti was the first early modern author to leave a verbal self-portrait in his autobiography and a visual self-portrait in the bronze medal he had cast, where his new added name is prominent. Both the religious and secular implications of the name 'Leo' seem to have played a part in Alberti's choice of his new name. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]