This animal has a horror of the poor, because they eat poor food,

and it loves the rich, because they have good living and especially

meat. And the excrement of animals always retains some virtue of its

origin as is shown by the faeces ...

Now dogs have so keen a smell, that they can discern by their nose

the virtue remaining in these faeces, and if they find them in the

streets, smell them and if they smell in them the virtue of meat or

of other things, they take them, and if not, they leave them: And to

return to the question, I say that if by means of this smell they

know that dog to be well fed, they respect him, because they judge

that he has a powerful and rich master; and if they discover no such

smell with the virtue of meat, they judge that dog to be of small

account and to have a poor and humble master, and therefore they

bite that dog as they would his master.

1331.

The circular plans of carrying earth are very useful, inasmuch as

men never stop in their work; and it is done in many ways. By one of

these ways men carry the earth on their shoulders, by another in

chests and others on wheelbarrows. The man who carries it on his

shoulders first fills the tub on the ground, and he loses time in

hoisting it on to his shoulders. He with the chests loses no time.

[Footnote: The subject of this text has apparently no connection

with the other texts of this section.]

Irony (1332).

1332.

If Petrarch was so fond of bay, it was because it is of a good taste

in sausages and with tunny; I cannot put any value on their foolery.

[Footnote: Conte Porro has published these lines in the _Archivio

Stor. Lombarda_ VIII, IV; he reads the concluding line thus: _I no

posso di loro gia (sic) co' far tesauro._--This is known to be by a

contemporary poet, as Senatore Morelli informs me.]

Tricks (1333-1335).

1333.

We are two brothers, each of us has a brother. Here the way of

saying it makes it appear that the two brothers have become four.

1334.

TRICKS OF DIVIDING.

Take in each hand an equal number; put 4 from the right hand into

the left; cast away the remainder; cast away an equal number from

the left hand; add 5, and now you will find 13 in this [left] hand;

that is-I made you put 4 from the right hand into the left, and cast

away the remainder; now your right hand has 4 more; then I make you

throw away as many from the right as you threw away from the left;

so, throwing from each hand a quantity of which the remainder may be

equal, you now have 4 and 4, which make 8, and that the trick may

not be detec- ted I made you put 5 more, which made 13.

TRICKS OF DIVIDING.

Take any number less than 12 that you please; then take of mine

enough to make up the number 12, and that which remains to me is the

number which you at first had; because when I said, take any number

less than 12 as you please, I took 12 into my hand, and of that 12

you took such a number as made up your number of 12; and what you

added to your number, you took from mine; that is, if you had 8 to

go as far as to 12, you took of my 12, 4; hence this 4 transferred

from me to you reduced my 12 to a remainder of 8, and your 8 became

12; so that my 8 is equal to your 8, before it was made 12.

[Footnote: G. Govi _says in the_ 'Saggio' p. 22: _Si dilett*

Leonarda, di giuochi di prestigi e molti (?) ne descrisse, che si

leggono poi riportati dal Paciolo nel suo libro:_ de Viribus

Quantitatis, _e che, se non tutti, sono certo in gran parte

invenzioni del Vinci._]

1335.

If you want to teach someone a subject you do not know yourself, let

him measure the length of an object unknown to you, and he will

learn the measure you did not know before;--Master Giovanni da Lodi.

_XXI._

_Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes._

_When we consider how superficial and imperfect are the accounts of

Leonardo's life written some time after his death by Vasari and

others, any notes or letters which can throw more light on his

personal circumstances cannot fail to be in the highest degree

interesting. The texts here given as Nos._ 1351--1353, _set his

residence in Rome in quite a new aspect; nay, the picture which

irresistibly dwells in our minds after reading these details of his

life in the Vatican, forms a striking contrast to the contemporary

life of Raphael at Rome._

_I have placed foremost of these documents the very remarkable

letters to the Defterdar of Syria. In these Leonardo speaks of

himself as having staid among the mountains of Armenia, and as the

biographies of the master tell nothing of any such distant journeys,

it would seem most obvious to treat this passage as fiction, and so

spare ourselves the onus of proof and discussion. But on close

examination no one can doubt that these documents, with the

accompanying sketches, are the work of Leonardo's own hand. Not

merely is the character of the handwriting his, but the spelling and

the language are his also. In one respect only does the writing

betray any marked deviation from the rest of the notes, especially

those treating on scientific questions; namely, in these

observations he seems to have taken particular pains to give the

most distinct and best form of expression to all he had to say; we

find erasures and emendations in almost every line. He proceeded, as

we shall see, in the same way in the sketches for letters to

Giuliano de' Medici, and what can be more natural, I may ask, than

to find the draft of a letter thus altered and improved when it is

to contain an account of a definite subject, and when personal

interests are in the scale? The finished copies as sent off are not

known to exist; if we had these instead of the rough drafts, we

might unhesitatingly have declared that some unknown Italian

engineer must have been, at that time, engaged in Armenia in the

service of the Egyptian Sultan, and that Leonardo had copied his

documents. Under this hypothesis however we should have to state

that this unknown writer must have been so far one in mind with

Leonardo as to use the same style of language and even the same

lines of thought. This explanation might--as I say--have been

possible, if only we had the finished letters. But why should these

rough drafts of letters be regarded as anything else than what they

actually and obviously are? If Leonardo had been a man of our own

time, we might perhaps have attempted to account for the facts by

saying that Leonardo, without having been in the East himself, might

have undertaken to write a Romance of which the scene was laid in

Armenia, and at the desire of his publisher had made sketches of

landscape to illustrate the text.

I feel bound to mention this singular hypothesis as it has actually

been put forward (see No. 1336 note 5); and it would certainly seem

as though there were no other possible way of evading the conclusion

to which these letters point, and their bearing on the life of the

master,--absurd as the alternative is. But, if, on a question of

such importance, we are justified in suggesting theories that have

no foundation in probability, I could suggest another which, as

compared with that of a Fiction by Leonardo, would be neither more

nor less plausible; it is, moreover the only other hypothesis,

perhaps, which can be devised to account for these passages, if it

were possible to prove that the interpretation that the documents

themselves suggest, must be rejected a priori; viz may not Leonardo

have written them with the intention of mystifying those who, after

his death, should try to decipher these manuscripts with a view to

publishing them? But if, in fact, no objection that will stand the

test of criticism can be brought against the simple and direct

interpretation of the words as they stand, we are bound to regard

Leonardo's travels in the East as an established fact. There is, I

believe nothing in what we know of his biography to negative such a

fact, especially as the details of his life for some few years are

wholly unknown; nor need we be at a loss for evidence which may

serve to explain--at any rate to some extent--the strangeness of his

undertaking such a journey. We have no information as to Leonardo's

history between 1482 and 1486; it cannot be proved that he was

either in Milan or in Florence. On the other hand the tenor of this

letter does not require us to assume a longer absence than a year or

two. For, even if his appointment_ (offitio) _as Engineer in Syria

had been a permanent one, it might have become untenable--by the

death perhaps of the Defterdar, his patron, or by his removal from

office--, and Leonardo on his return home may have kept silence on

the subject of an episode which probably had ended in failure and

disappointment.

>From the text of No. 1379 we can hardly doubt that Leonardo intended

to make an excursion secretly from Rome to Naples, although so far

as has hitherto been known, his biographers never allude to it. In

another place (No. 1077) he says that he had worked as an Engineer

in Friuli. Are we to doubt this statement too, merely because no

biographer has hitherto given us any information on the matter? In

the geographical notes Leonardo frequently speaks of the East, and

though such passages afford no direct proof of his having been

there, they show beyond a doubt that, next to the Nile, the

Euphrates, the Tigris and the Taurus mountains had a special

interest in his eyes. As a still further proof of the futility of

the argument that there is nothing in his drawings to show that he

had travelled in the East, we find on Pl. CXX a study of oriental

heads of Armenian type,--though of course this may have been made in

Italy.

If the style of these letters were less sober, and the expressions

less strictly to the point throughout, it miglit be possible to

regard them as a romantic fiction instead of a narrative of fact.

Nay, we have only to compare them with such obviously fanciful

passages as No. 1354, Nos. 670-673, and the Fables and Prophecies.

It is unnecessary to discuss the subject any further here; such

explanations as the letter needs are given in the foot notes.

The drafts of letters to Lodovico il Moro are very remarkable.

Leonardo and this prince were certainly far less closely connected,

than has hitherto been supposed. It is impossible that Leonardo can

have remained so long in the service of this prince, because the

salary was good, as is commonly stated. On the contrary, it would

seem, that what kept him there, in spite of his sore need of the

money owed him by the prince, was the hope of some day being able to

carry out the project of casting the_ 'gran cavallo'.

Drafts of Letters and Reports referring to Armenia (1336. 1337).

1336.

TO THE DEVATDAR OF SYRIA, LIEUTENANT OF THE SACRED SULTAN OF

BABYLON.

[*3] The recent disaster in our Northern parts which I am certain

will terrify not you alone but the whole world, which

[Footnote: Lines 1-52 are reproduced in facsimile on Pl. CXVI.

1. _Diodario._ This word is not to be found in any Italian

dictionary, and for a long time I vainly sought an explanation of

it. The youthful reminiscences of my wife afforded the desired clue.

The chief town of each Turkish Villayet, or province --such as

Broussa, for instance, in Asia Minor, is the residence of a

Defterdar, who presides over the financial affairs of the province.

_Defterdar hane_ was, in former times, the name given to the

Ministry of Finance at Constantinople; the Minister of Finance to

the Porte is now known as the _Mallie-Nazri_ and the _Defterdars_

are his subordinates. A _Defterdar_, at the present day is merely

the head of the finance department in each Provincial district. With

regard to my suggestion that Leonardo's _Diodario_ might be

identical with the Defterdar of former times, the late M. C.

DEFREMERIE, Arabic Professor, and Membre de l'Institut de France

wrote to me as follows: _Votre conjecture est parfaitement fondee;

diodario est Vequivalent de devadar ou plus exactement devatdar,

titre d'une importante dignite en Egypt'e, sous les Mamlouks._

The word however is not of Turkish, but of Perso-Arabie derivation.

[Defter written in arab?]* literally _Defter_ (Arabic) meaning

_folio_; for _dar_ (Persian) Bookkeeper or holder is the English

equivalent; and the idea is that of a deputy in command. During the

Mamelook supremacy over Syria, which corresponded in date with

Leonardo's time, the office of Defterdar was the third in importance

in the State.

_Soltano di Babilonia_. The name of Babylon was commonly applied to

Cairo in the middle ages. For instance BREIDENBACH, _Itinerarium

Hierosolyma_ p. 218 says: "At last we reached Babylon. But this is

not that Babylon which stood on the further shore of the river

Chober, but that which is called the Egyptian Babylon. It is close

by Cairo and the twain are but one and not two towns; one half is

called Cairo and the other Babylon, whence they are called together

Cairo-Babylon; originally the town is said to have been named

Memphis and then Babylon, but now it is called Cairo." Compare No.

1085, 6.

Egypt was governed from 1382 till 1517 by the Borgite or

Tcherkessian dynasty of the Mamelook Sultans. One of the most famous

of these, Sultan Kait Bey, ruled from 1468-1496 during whose reign

the Gama (or Mosque) of Kait Bey and tomb of Kait Bey near the

Okella Kait Bey were erected in Cairo, which preserve his name to

this day. Under the rule of this great and wise prince many

foreigners, particularly Italians, found occupation in Egypt, as may

be seen in the 'Viaggio di Josaphat Barbaro', among other

travellers. "Next to Leonardo (so I learn from Prof. Jac. Burckhardt

of Bale) Kait Bey's most helpful engineer was a German who in about

1487, superintended the construction of the Mole at Alexandria.

Felix Fabri knew him and mentions him in his _Historia Suevorum_,

written in 1488."] shall be related to you in due order, showing

first the effect and then the cause. [Footnote 4: The text here

breaks off. The following lines are a fresh beginning of a letter,

evidently addressed to the same person, but, as it would seem,

written at a later date than the previous text. The numerous

corrections and amendments amply prove that it is not a copy from

any account of a journey by some unknown person; but, on the

contrary, that Leonardo was particularly anxious to choose such

words and phrases as might best express his own ideas.]

Finding myself in this part of Armenia [Footnote 5: _Parti

d'Erminia_. See No. 945, note. The extent of Armenia in Leonardo's

time is only approximately known. In the XVth century the Persians

governed the Eastern, and the Arabs the Southern portions. Arabic

authors--as, for instance Abulfeda--include Cilicia and a part of

Cappadocia in Armenia, and Greater Armenia was the tract of that

country known later as Turcomania, while Armenia Minor was the

territory between Cappadocia and the Euphrates. It was not till

1522, or even 1574 that the whole country came under the dominion of

the Ottoman Turks, in the reign of Selim I.

The Mamelook Sultans of Egypt seem to have taken a particular

interest in this, the most Northern province of their empire, which

was even then in danger of being conquered by the Turks. In the

autumn of 1477 Sultan Kait Bey made a journey of inspection,

visiting Antioch and the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates with a

numerous and brilliant escort. This tour is briefly alluded to by

_Moodshireddin_ p. 561; and by WEIL, _Geschichte der Abbasiden_ V,

p. 358. An anonymous member of the suite wrote a diary of the

expedition in Arabic, which has been published by R. V. LONZONE

(_'Viaggio in Palestina e Soria di Kaid Ba XVIII sultano della II

dinastia mamelucca, fatto nel 1477. Testo arabo. Torino 1878'_,

without notes or commentary). Compare the critique on this edition,

by J. GILDEMEISTER in _Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaestina Vereins_

(Vol. Ill p. 246--249). Lanzone's edition seems to be no more than

an abridged copy of the original. I owe to Professor Sche'fer,

Membre de l'Institut, the information that he is in possession of a

manuscript in which the text is fuller, and more correctly given.

The Mamelook dynasty was, as is well known, of Circassian origin,

and a large proportion of the Egyptian Army was recruited in

Circassia even so late as in the XVth century. That was a period of

political storms in Syria and Asia Minor and it is easy to suppose

that the Sultan's minister, to whom Leonardo addresses his report as

his superior, had a special interest in the welfare of those

frontier provinces. Only to mention a few historical events of

Sultan Kait Bey's reign, we find that in 1488 he assisted the

Circassians to resist the encroachments of Alaeddoulet, an Asiatic

prince who had allied himself with the Osmanli to threaten the

province; the consequence was a war in Cilicia by sea and land,

which broke out in the following year between the contending powers.

Only a few years earlier the same province had been the scene of the

so-called Caramenian war in which the united Venetian, Neapolitan

and Sclavonic fleets had been engaged. (See CORIALANO CIPPICO,

_Della guerra dei Veneziani nell' Asia dal_ 1469--1474. Venezia

1796, p. 54) and we learn incidentally that a certain Leonardo

Boldo, Governor of Scutari under Sultan Mahmoud,--as his name would

indicate, one of the numerous renegades of Italian birth--played an

important part in the negotiations for peace.

_Tu mi mandasti_. The address _tu_ to a personage so high in office

is singular and suggests personal intimacy; Leonardo seems to have

been a favourite with the Diodario. Compare lines 54 and 55.

I have endeavoured to show, and I believe that I am also in a

position to prove with regard to these texts, that they are draughts

of letters actually written by Leonardo; at the same time I must not

omit to mention that shortly after I had discovered]

to carry into effect with due love and care the task for which you

sent me [Footnote: ][6]; and to make a beginning in a place which

seemed to me to be most to our purpose, I entered into

**Is the following from previous page?** 3. _Il nuovo accidente

accaduto_, or as Leonardo first wrote and then erased, _e accaduto

un nuovo accidente_. From the sequel this must refer to an

earthquake, and indeed these were frequent at that period,

particularly in Asia Minor, where they caused immense mischief. See

No. 1101 note.

the city of Calindrafy[7], near to our frontiers. This city is

situated at the base of that part of the Taurus mountains which is

divided from the Euphrates and looks towards the peaks of the great

Mount Taurus [8] to the West [9]. These peaks are of such a height

that they seem to touch the sky, and in all the world there is no

part of the earth, higher than its summit[10], and the rays of

these texts in the Codex Atlanticus and publi- shed a paper on the

subject in the _Zeit- schrift fur bildende Kunst (Vol. XVI)_, Prof.

Govi put forward this hypothesis to account for their origin:

_"Quanto alle notizie sul monte Tauro, sull'Armenia e sull' Asia

minore che si contengono negli altri frammenti, esse vennero prese

da qualche geografro o viaggiatore contemporaneo. Dall'indice

imperfetto che accompagna quei frammenti, si potrebbe dedurre che

Leonardo volesse farne un libro, che poi non venne compiuto. A ogni

modo, non e possibile di trovare in questi brani nessun indizio di

un viaggio di Leonardo in oriente, ne della sua conversione alla

religione di Maometto, come qualcuno pretenderebbe. Leonardo amava

con passione gli studi geografici, e nel suoi scritti s'incontran

spesso itinerart, indicazioni, o descrizioni di luoghi, schizzi di

carte e abbozzi topografici di varie regioni, non e quindi strano

che egli, abile narratore com'era, si fosse proposto di scrivere una

specie di Romanzo in forma epistolare svolgendone Pintreccio

nell'Asia Minore, intorno alla quale i libri d'allora, e forse

qualche viaggiatore amico suo, gli avevano somministrato alcuni

elementi piu o meno_

fantastici. (See Transunti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei Voi. V

Ser. 3).

It is hardly necessary to point out that Prof. Govi omits to name

the sources from which Leonardo could be supposed to have drawn his

information, and I may leave it to the reader to pronounce judgment

on the anomaly which is involved in the hypothesis that we have here

a fragment of a Romance, cast in the form of a correspondence. At

the same time, I cannot but admit that the solution of the

difficulties proposed by Prof. Govi is, under the circumstances,

certainly the easiest way of dealing with the question. But we

should then be equally justified in supposing some more of

Leonardo's letters to be fragments of such romances; particularly

those of which the addresses can no longer be named. Still, as

regards these drafts of letters to the Diodario, if we accept the

Romance theory, as pro- posed by Prof. Govi, we are also compelled

to assume that Leonardo purposed from the first to illustrate his

tale; for it needs only a glance at the

sketches on PI. CXVI to CXIX to perceive that they are connected

with the texts; and of course the rest of Leonardo's numerous notes

on matters pertaining to the East, the greater part of which are

here published for the first time, may also be some- how connected

with this strange romance.

7. _Citta de Calindra (Chalindra)_. The position of this city is so

exactly determined, between the valley of the Euphrates and the

Taurus range that it ought to be possible to identify it. But it can

hardly be the same as the sea port of Cilicia with a somewhat

similar name Celenderis, Kelandria, Celendria, Kilindria, now the

Turkish Gulnar. In two Catalonian Portulans in the Bibliotheque

Natio- nale in Paris-one dating from the XV'h century, by Wilhelm

von Soler, the other by Olivez de Majorca, in l584-I find this place

called Calandra. But Leonardo's Calindra must certainly have lain

more to the North West, probably somewhere in Kurdistan. The fact

that the geographical position is so care- fully determined by

Leonardo seems to prove that it was a place of no great importance

and little known. It is singular that the words first written in 1.

8 were divisa dal lago (Lake Van?), altered afterwards to

dall'Eitfrates.

Nostri confini, and in 1. 6 proposito nostro. These refer to the

frontier and to the affairs of the Mamelook Sultan, Lines 65 and 66

throw some light on the purpose of Leonardo's mission.

8. _I_ corni del gra mote Tauro. Compare the sketches PI.

CXVI-CXVIII. So long as it is im- possible to identify the situation

of Calindra it is most difficult to decide with any certainty which

peak of the Taurus is here meant; and I greatly regret that I had no

foreknowledge of this puzzling topographical question when, in 1876,

I was pursuing archaeological enquiries in the Provinces of Aleppo

and Cilicia, and had to travel for some time in view of the imposing

snow-peaks of Bulghar Dagh and Ala Tepessi.

9-10. The opinion here expressed as to the height of the mountain

would be unmeaning, unless it had been written before Leonardo moved

to Milan, where Monte Rosa is so conspicuous an the sun always fall

upon it on its East side, four hours before day-time, and being of

the whitest stone [Footnote II:_Pietra bianchissima_. The Taurus

Mountains consist in great part of limestone.] it shines

resplendently and fulfils the function to these Armenians which a

bright moon-light would in the midst of the darkness; and by its

great height it outreaches the utmost level of the clouds by a space

of four miles in a straight line. This peak is seen in many places

towards the West, illuminated by the sun after its setting the third

part of the night. This it is, which with you [Footnote 14:

_Appresso di voi_. Leonardo had at first written _noi_ as though his

meaning had,been: This peak appeared to us to be a comet when you

and I observed it in North Syria (at Aleppo? at Aintas?). The

description of the curious reflection in the evening, resembling the

"Alpine-glow" is certainly not an invented fiction, for in the next

lines an explanation of the phenomenon is offered, or at least

attempted.] we formerly in calm weather had supposed to be a comet,

and appears to us in the darkness of night, to change its form,

being sometimes divided in two or three parts, and sometimes long

and sometimes short. And this is caused by the clouds on the horizon

of the sky which interpose between part of this mountain and the

sun, and by cutting off some of the solar rays the light on the

mountain is intercepted by various intervals of clouds, and

therefore varies in the form of its brightness.

THE DIVISIONS OF THE BOOK [Footnote 19: The next 33 lines are

evidently the contents of a connected Report or Book, but not of one

which he had at hand; more probably, indeed, of one he purposed

writing.].

The praise and confession of the faith [Footnote 20: _Persuasione di

fede_, of the Christian or the Mohammedan faith? We must suppose the

latter, at the beginning of a document addressed to so high a

Mohammedan official. _Predica_ probably stands as an abbreviation

for _predicazione_ (lat. _praedicatio_) in the sense of praise or

glorification; very probably it may mean some such initial doxology

as we find in Mohammedan works. (Comp. 1. 40.)].

The sudden inundation, to its end.

[23] The destruction of the city.

[24]The death of the people and their despair.

The preacher's search, his release and benevolence [Footnote 28: The

phraseology of this is too general for any conjecture as to its

meaning to be worth hazarding.]

Description of the cause of this fall of the mountain [Footnote 30:

_Ruina del monte_. Of course by an earthquake. In a catalogue of

earthquakes, entitled _kechf aussalssale*b an auasf ezzel-zele*h_,

and written by Djelal eddin].

The mischief it did.

**Is the following from previous page's footnotes?** object in the

landscape. 4 _ore inanzi_ seems to mean, four hours before the sun's

rays penetrate to the bottom of the valleys.

***I did put this footnote as 28 but not 26 because I cannot find

reference to 26 in text*** 26. 28. The phraseology of this is too

general for any conjecture as to its meaning to be worth hazarding.

[32] Fall of snow.

The finding of the prophet [33].

His prophesy.

[35] The inundation of the lower portion of Eastern Armenia, the

draining of which was effected by the cutting through the Taurus

Mountains.

How the new prophet showed [Footnote 40:_Nova profeta, 1. 33,

profeta_. Mohammed. Leonardo here refers to the Koran:

In the name of the most merciful God.--When the earth shall be

shaken by an earthquake; and the earth shall cast forth her burdens;

and a man shall say, what aileth her? On that day the earth shall

declare her tidings, for that thy Lord will inspire her. On that day

men shall go forward in distinct classes, that they may behold their

works. And whoever shall have wrought good of the weight of an ant,

shall behold the same. And whoever shall have wrought evil of the

weight of an ant, shall behold the same. (The Koran, translated by

G. Sale, Chapter XCIX, p. 452).] that this destruction would happen

as he had foretold.

Description of the Taurus Mountains [Footnote 43:] and the river

Euphrates.

Why the mountain shines at the top, from half to a third of the

night, and looks like a comet to the inhabitants of the West after

the sunset, and before day to those of the East.

Why this comet appears of variable forms, so that it is now round

and now long, and now again divided into two or three parts, and now

in one piece, and when it is to be seen again.

OF THE SHAPE OF THE TAURUS MOUNTAINS [Footnote *53--94*: The

facsimile of this passage is given on Pl. CXVII.].

I am not to be accused, Oh Devatdar, of idleness, as your chidings

seem to hint; but your excessive love for me, which gave rise to the

benefits you have conferred on me [Footnote 55] is that which has

also compelled me to the utmost painstaking in seeking out and

diligently investigating the cause of so great and stupendous an

effect. And this could not be done without time; now, in order to

satisfy you fully as to the cause of so great an effect, it is

requisite that I should explain to you the form of the place, and

then I will proceed to the effect, by which I believe you will be

amply satisfied.

***Is the following footnote from previous page?*** Syouthy, the

following statement occurs: "In the year 889 (1484 A.D.) there were

six shocks of earthquake at Aleppo. They were excessively violent

and threw the inhabitants into consternation." I owe this

communication to the kindness of Prof. Ch. Schefer, Membre de

l'Institut, to whom this unpublished Arabic MS. belongs. The

foregoing entries refer to two earthquakes in Cairo, in 1476 and

1481: the following ones indicate a time at which Leonardo was,

certainly, living in Milan.

***Where does this footnote belong?*** 36. _Tagliata di Monte

Tauro_. The Euphrates flows through the Taurus range near the influx

of the Kura Shai; it rushes through a rift in the wildest cliffs

from 2000 to 3000 feet high and runs on for 90 miles in 300 falls or

rapids till it reaches Telek, near which at a spot called Gleikash,

or the Hart's leap, it measures only 35 paces across. Compare the

map on Pl. CXIX and the explanation fo* it on p. 391.

***Where does this footnote belong?*** 54. The foregoing sketch of a

letter, lines 5. 18, appears to have remained a fragment when

Leonardo received pressing orders which caused

[Footnote 59: This passage was evidently intended as an improvement

on that immediately preceding it. The purport of both is essentially

the same, but the first is pitched in a key of ill-disguised

annoyance which is absent from the second. I do not see how these

two versions can be reconciled with the romance-theory held by Prof.

Govi.] Do not be aggrieved, O Devatdar, by my delay in responding to

your pressing request, for those things which you require of me are

of such a nature that they cannot be well expressed without some

lapse of time; particularly because, in order to explain the cause

of so great an effect, it is necessary to describe with accuracy the

nature of the place; and by this means I can afterwards easily

satisfy your above-mentioned request. [Footnote 62: This passage was

evidently intended as an improvement on that immediately preceding

it. The purport of both is essentially the same, but the first is

pitched in a key of ill-disguised annoyance which is absent from the

second. I do not see how these two versions can be reconciled with

the romance-theory held by Prof. Govi.]

I will pass over any description of the form of Asia Minor, or as to

what seas or lands form the limits of its outline and extent,

because I know that by your own diligence and carefulness in your

studies you have not remained in ignorance of these matters [*65];

and I will go on to describe the true form of the Taurus Mountain

which is the cause of this stupendous and harmful marvel, and which

will serve to advance us in our purpose [*66]. This Taurus is that

mountain which, with many others is said to be the ridge of Mount

Caucasus; but wishing to be very clear about it, I desired to speak

to some of the inhabitants of the shores of the Caspian sea, who

give evidence that this must be the true Caucasus, and that though

their mountains bear the same name, yet these are higher; and to

confirm this in the Scythian tongue Caucasus means a very high

[Footnote 68: Caucasus; Herodot *Kaoxaais; Armen. Kaukaz.] peak, and

in fact we have no information of there being, in the East or in the

West, any mountain so high. And the proof of this is that the

inhabitants of the countries to the West see the rays of the sun

illuminating a great part of its summit for as much as a quarter of

the longest night. And in the same way, in those countries which lie

to the East.

OF THE STRUCTURE AND SIZE OF MOUNT TAURUS.

[Footnote 73: The statements are of course founded on those of the

'inhabitants' spoken of in 1. 67.] The shadow of this ridge of the

Taurus is of such a height that when, in the middle of June, the Sun

is at its meridian, its

*him to write immediately and fully on the subject mentioned in line

43.

*73-75. [Footnote 75: The statements are of course founded on those

of the 'inhabitants' spoken of in 1. 67.]

shadow extends as far as the borders of Sarmatia, twelve days off;

and in the middle of December it extends as far as the Hyperborean

mountains, which are at a month's journey to the North [*75]. And

the side which faces the wind is always free from clouds and mists,

because the wind which is parted in beating on the rock, closes

again on the further side of that rock, and in its motion carries

with it the clouds from all quarters and leaves them where it

strikes. And it is always full of thunderbolts from the great

quantity of clouds which accumulate there, whence the rock is all

riven and full of huge debris [Footnote 77: Sudden storms are

equally common on the heights of Ararat. It is hardly necessary to

observe that Ararat cannot be meant here. Its summit is formed like

the crater of Vesuvius. The peaks sketched on Pl. CXVI-CXVIII are

probably views of the same mountain, taken from different sides.

Near the solitary peak, Pl. CXVIII these three names are written

_goba, arnigasar, caruda_, names most likely of different peaks. Pl.

CXVI and CXVII are in the original on a single sheet folded down the

middle, 30 centimetres high and 43 1/2 wide. On the reverse of one

half of the sheet are notes on _peso_ and _bilancia_ (weight and

balance), on the other are the 'prophecies' printed under Nos. 1293

and 1294. It is evident from the arrangement that these were written

subsequently, on the space which had been left blank. These pages

are facsimiled on Pl. CXVIII. In Pl. CXVI-CXVIII the size is smaller

than in the original; the map of Armenia, Pl. CXVIII, is on Pl. CXIX

slightly enlarged. On this map we find the following names,

beginning from the right hand at the top: _pariardes mo_ (for

Paryadres Mons, Arm. Parchar, now Barchal or Kolai Dagh; Trebizond

is on its slope).

_Aquilone_ --North, _Antitaurus Antitaurus \\\\* psis mo_ (probably

meant for Thospitis = Lake Van, Arm. Dgov Vanai, Tospoi, and the

Mountain range to the South); _Gordis mo_ (Mountains of Gordyaea),

the birth place of the Tigris; _Oriente_ --East; _Tigris_, and then,

to the left, _Eufrates_. Then, above to the left _Argeo mo_ (now

Erdshigas, an extinct volcano, 12000 feet high); _Celeno mo_ (no

doubt Sultan Dagh in Pisidia). Celeno is the Greek town of

*KeAouvat-- see Arian I, 29, I--now the ruins of Dineir); _oriente_

--East; _africo libezco_ (for libeccio--South West). In the middle

of the Euphrates river on this small map we see a shaded portion

surrounded by mountains, perhaps to indicate the inundation

mentioned in l. 35. The affluent to the Euphrates shown as coming

with many windings from the high land of 'Argeo' on the West, is the

Tochma Su, which joins the main river at Malatie. I have not been

able to discover any map of Armenia of the XVth or XVIth century in

which the course of the Euphrates is laid down with any thing like

the correctness displayed in this sketch. The best I have seen is

the Catalonian Portulan of Olivez de Majorca, executed in 1584, and

it is far behind Leonardo's.]. This mountain, at its base, is

inhabited by a very rich population and is full of most beautiful

springs and rivers, and is fertile and abounding in all good

produce, particularly in those parts which face to the South. But

after mounting about three miles we begin to find forests of great

fir trees, and beech and other similar trees; after this, for a

space of three more miles, there are meadows and vast pastures; and

all the rest, as far as the beginning of the Taurus, is eternal

snows which never disappear at any time, and extend to a height of

about fourteen miles in all. From this beginning of the Taurus up to

the height of a mile the clouds never pass away; thus we have

fifteen miles, that is, a height of about five miles in a straight

line; and the summit of the peaks of the Taurus are as much, or

about that. There, half way up, we begin to find a scorching air and

never feel a breath of wind; but nothing can live long there; there

nothing is brought forth save a few birds of prey which breed in the

high fissures of Taurus and descend below the clouds to seek their

prey. Above the wooded hills all is bare rock, that is, from the

clouds upwards; and the rock is the purest white. And it is

impossible to walk to the high summit on account of the rough and

perilous ascent.

1337.

Having often made you, by my letters, acquainted with the things

which have happened, I think I ought not to be silent as to the

events of the last few days, which--[2]...

Having several times--

Having many times rejoiced with you by letters over your prosperous

fortunes, I know now that, as a friend you will be sad with me over

the miserable state in which I find myself; and this is, that during

the last few days I have been in so much trouble, fear, peril and

loss, besides the miseries of the people here, that we have been

envious of the dead; and certainly I do not believe that since the

elements by their separation reduced the vast chaos to order, they

have ever combined their force and fury to do so much mischief to

man. As far as regards us here, what we have seen and gone through

is such that I could not imagine that things could ever rise to such

an amount of mischief, as we experienced in the space of ten hours.

In the first place we were assailed and attacked by the violence and

fury of the winds [*10]; to this was added the falling of great

mountains of snow which filled up all this valley, thus destroying a

great part of our city [Footnote 11: _Della nostra citta_ (Leonardo

first wrote _di questa citta_). From this we may infer that he had

at some time lived in the place in question wherever it might be.].

And not content with this the tempest sent a sudden flood of water

to submerge all the low part of this city [*12]; added to which

there came a sudden rain, or rather a ruinous torrent and flood of

water, sand, mud, and stones, entangled with roots, and stems and

fragments of various trees; and every kind of thing flying through

the air fell upon us; finally a great fire broke out, not brought by

the wind, but carried as it would seem, by ten thousand devils,

which completely burnt up all this neighbourhood and it has not yet

ceased. And those few who remain unhurt are in such dejection and

such terror that they hardly have courage to speak to each other, as

if they were stunned. Having abandoned all our business, we stay

here together in the ruins of some churches, men and women mingled

together, small and great [Footnote 17: _Certe ruine di chiese_.

Either of Armenian churches or of Mosques, which it was not unusual

to speak of as churches.

_Maschi e femmini insieme unite_, implies an infringement of the

usually strict rule of the separation of the sexes.], just like

herds of goats. The neighbours out of pity succoured us with

victuals, and they had previously been our enemies. And if

[Footnote 18: _I vicini, nostri nimici_. The town must then have

stood quite close to the frontier of the country. Compare 1336. L.

7. _vicini ai nostri confini_. Dr. M. JORDAN has already published

lines 4-13 (see _Das Malerbuch, Leipzig_, 1873, p. 90:--his reading

differs from mine) under the title of "Description of a landscape

near Lake Como". We do in fact find, among other loose sheets in the

Codex Atlanticus, certain texts referring to valleys of the Alps

(see Nos. 1030, 1031 and note p. 237) and in the arrangement of the

loose sheets, of which the Codex Atlanticus has been formed, these

happen to be placed close to this text. The compiler stuck both on

the same folio sheet; and if this is not the reason for Dr. JORDAN'S

choosing such a title (Description &c.) I cannot imagine what it can

have been. It is, at any rate, a merely hypothetical statement. The

designation of the population of the country round a city as "the

enemy" (_nemici_) is hardly appropriate to Italy in the time of

Leonardo.] it had not been for certain people who succoured us with

victuals, all would have died of hunger. Now you see the state we

are in. And all these evils are as nothing compared with those which

are promised to us shortly.

I know that as a friend you will grieve for my misfortunes, as I, in

former letters have shown my joy at your prosperity ...

[Footnote: 1337. On comparing this commencement of a letter l. 1-2

with that in l. 3 and 4 of No. 1336 it is quite evident that both

refer to the same event. (Compare also No. 1337 l. 10-l2 and 17 with

No. 1336 l. 23, 24 and 32.) But the text No. 1336, including the

fragment l. 3-4, was obviously written later than the draft here

reproduced. The _Diodario_ is not directly addressed--the person

addressed indeed is not known--and it seems to me highly probable

that it was written to some other patron and friend whose name and

position are not mentioned.]

Notes about events observed abroad (1338-1339).

1338.

BOOK 43. OF THE MOVEMENT OF AIR ENCLOSED IN WATER.

I have seen motions of the air so furious that they have carried,

mixed up in their course, the largest trees of the forest and whole

roofs of great palaces, and I have seen the same fury bore a hole

with a whirling movement digging out a gravel pit, and carrying

gravel, sand and water more than half a mile through the air.

[Footnote: The first sixteen lines of this passage which treat of

the subject as indicated on the title line have no place in this

connexion and have been omitted.]

*[Footnote 2: _Ho veduto movimenti_ &c. Nothing of the kind happened

in Italy during Leonardo's lifetime, and it is therefore extremely

probable that this refers to the natural phenomena which are so

fully described in the foregoing passage. (Compare too, No. 1021.)

There can be no doubt that the descriptions of the Deluge in the

Libro di Pittura (Vol. I, No. 607-611), and that of the fall of a

mountain No. 610, l. 17-30 were written from the vivid impressions

derived from personal experience. Compare also Pl. XXXIV-XL.]

1339.

Like a whirling wind which rushes down a sandy and hollow valley,

and which, in its hasty course, drives to its centre every thing

that opposes its furious course ...

No otherwise does the Northern blast whirl round in its tempestuous

progress ...

**[Footnote: It may be inferred from the character of the writing,

which is in the style of the note in facsimile Vol. I, p. 297, that

this passage was written between 1470 and 1480. As the figure 6 at

the end of the text indicates, it was continued on another page, but

I have searched in vain for it. The reverse of this leaf is coloured

red for drawing in silver point, but has not been used for that

purpose but for writing on, and at about the same date. The passages

are given as Nos. 1217, 1218, 1219, 1162 and No. 994 (see note page

218). The text given above is obviously not a fragment of a letter,

but a record of some personal experience. No. 1379 also seems to

refer to Leonardo's journeys in Southern Italy.]

Nor does the tempestuous sea bellow so loud, when the Northern blast

dashes it, with its foaming waves between Scylla and Charybdis; nor

Stromboli, nor Mount Etna, when their sulphurous flames, having been

forcibly confined, rend, and burst open the mountain, fulminating

stones and earth through the air together with the flames they

vomit.

Nor when the inflamed caverns of Mount Etna **[Footnote 13:

Mongibello is a name commonly given in Sicily to Mount Etna (from

Djebel, Arab.=mountain). Fr. FERRARA, _Descrizione dell' Etna con la

storia delle *eruzioni_ (Palermo, 1818, p. 88) tells us, on the

authority of the _Cronaca del Monastero Benedettino di Licordia_ of

an eruption of the Volcano with a great flow of lava on Sept. 21,

1447. The next records of the mountain are from the years 1533 and

1536. A. Percy neither does mention any eruptions of Etna during the

years to which this note must probably refer _Memoire des

tremblements de terre de la peninsule italique, Vol. XXII des

Memoires couronnees et Memoires des savants etrangers. Academie

Royal de Belgique_).

A literal interpretation of the passage would not, however, indicate

an allusion to any great eruption; particularly in the connection

with Stromboli, where the periodical outbreaks in very short

intervals are very striking to any observer, especially at night

time, when passing the island on the way from Naples to Messina.],

rejecting the ill-restained element vomit it forth, back to its own

region, driving furiously before it every obstacle that comes in the

way of its impetuous rage ...

Unable to resist my eager desire and wanting to see the great ... of

the various and strange shapes made by formative nature, and having

wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of

a great cavern, in front of which I stood some time, astonished and

unaware of such a thing. Bending my back into an arch I rested my

left hand on my knee and held my right hand over my down-cast and

contracted eye brows: often bending first one way and then the

other, to see whether I could discover anything inside, and this

being forbidden by the deep darkness within, and after having

remained there some time, two contrary emotions arose in me, fear

and desire--fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see

whether there were any marvellous thing within it ...

Drafts of Letters to Lodovico il Moro (1340-1345).

1340.

Most illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the

specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of

instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said

instruments are nothing different to those in common use: I shall

endeavour, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to

your Excellency showing your Lordship my secrets, and then offering

them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at

opportune moments as well as all those things which, in part, shall

be briefly noted below.

[Footnote: The numerous corrections, the alterations in the figures

(l. 18) and the absence of any signature prove that this is merely

the rough draft of a letter to Lodovico il Moro. It is one of the

very few manuscripts which are written from left to right--see the

facsimile of the beginning as here reproduced. This is probably the

final sketch of a document the clean of which copy was written in

the usual manner. Leonardo no doubt very rarely wrote so, and this

is probably the reason of the conspicuous dissimilarity in the

handwriting, when he did. (Compare Pl. XXXVIII.) It is noteworthy

too that here the orthography and abbreviations are also

exceptional. But such superficial peculiarities are not enough to

stamp the document as altogether spurious. It is neither a forgery

nor the production of any artist but Leonardo himself. As to this

point the contents leave us no doubt as to its authenticity,

particularly l. 32 (see No. 719, where this passage is repeated).

But whether the fragment, as we here see it, was written from

Leonardo's dictation--a theory favoured by the orthography, the

erasures and corrections--or whether it may be a copy made for or by

Melzi or Mazenta is comparatively unimportant. There are in the

Codex Atlanticus a few other documents not written by Leonardo

himself, but the notes in his own hand found on the reverse pages of

these leaves amply prove that they were certainly in Leonardo's

possession. This mark of ownership is wanting to the text in

question, but the compilers of the Codex Atlanticus, at any rate,

accepted it as a genuine document.

With regard to the probable date of this projected letter see Vol.

II, p. 3.]

1) I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to

be most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any

time flee from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by

fire and battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods

of burning and destroying those of the enemy.

2) I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of

the trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways

and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.

3) Item. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength

of the place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a

place, to avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods

for destroying every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded

on a rock, &c.

4) Again I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry;

and with these can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and

with the smoke of these causing great terror to the enemy, to his

great detriment and confusion.

9) [8]* And when the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many

machines most efficient for offence and defence; and vessels which

will resist the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.

5) Item.* I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made

without noise to reach a designated [spot], even if it were needed

to pass under a trench or a river.

6) Item. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable which,

entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of

men so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry

could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.

7) Item. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars and light

ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.

8) Where the operation of bombardment should fail, I would contrive

catapults, mangonels, _trabocchi_ and other machines of marvellous

efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the

variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of

offence and defence.

10) In time of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and

to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of

buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to

another.

Item: I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze or clay, and also

in painting whatever may be done, and as well as any other, be he

whom he may.

[32] Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to

the immortal glory and eternal honour of the prince your father of

happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.

And if any one of the above-named things seem to any one to be

impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment

in your park, or in whatever place may please your Excellency--to

whom I commend myself with the utmost humility &c.

1341.

To my illustrious Lord, Lodovico, Duke of Bari, Leonardo da Vinci of

Florence-- Leonardo.

[Footnote: Evidently a note of the superscription of a letter to the

Duke, and written, like the foregoing from left to right. The

manuscript containing it is of the year 1493. Lodovico was not

proclaimed and styled Duke of Milan till September 1494. The Dukedom

of Bari belonged to the Sforza family till 1499.]

1342.

You would like to see a model which will prove useful to you and to

me, also it will be of use to those who will be the cause of our

usefulness.

[Footnote: 1342. 1343. These two notes occur in the same not very

voluminous MS. as the former one and it is possible that they are

fragments of the same letter. By the _Modello_, the equestrian

statue is probably meant, particularly as the model of this statue

was publicly exhibited in this very year, 1493, on tne occasion of

the marriage of the Emperor Maximilian with Bianca Maria Sforza.]

1343.

There are here, my Lord, many gentlemen who will undertake this

expense among them, if they are allowed to enjoy the use of

admission to the waters, the mills, and the passage of vessels and

when it is sold to them the price will be repaid to them by the

canal of Martesana.

1344.

I am greatly vexed to be in necessity, but I still more regret that

this should be the cause of the hindrance of my wish which is always

disposed to obey your Excellency.

Perhaps your Excellency did not give further orders to Messer

Gualtieri, believing that I had money enough.

I am greatly annoyed that you should have found me in necessity, and

that my having to earn my living should have hindered me ...

[12] It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me

to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters, instead of

following up the work which your Lordship entrusted to me. But I

hope in a short time to have earned so much that I may carry it out

quietly to the satisfaction of your Excellency, to whom I commend

myself; and if your Lordship thought that I had money, your Lordship

was deceived. I had to feed 6 men for 56 months, and have had 50

ducats.

1345.

And if any other comission is given me by any ... of the reward of

my service. Because I am not [able] to be ... things assigned

because meanwhile they have ... to them ... ... which they well may

settle rather than I ... not my art which I wish to change and ...

given some clothing if I dare a sum ...

[Footnote: The paper on which this is written is torn down the

middle; about half of each line remains.]

My Lord, I knowing your Excellency's mind to be occupied ... to

remind your Lordship of my small matters and the arts put to silence

that my silence might be the cause of making your Lordship scorn ...

my life in your service. I hold myself ever in readiness to obey ...

[Footnote 11: See No. 723, where this passage is repeated.] Of the

horse I will say nothing because I know the times [are bad] to your

Lordship how I had still to receive two years' salary of the ...

with the two skilled workmen who are constantly in my pay and at my

cost that at last I found myself advanced the said sum about 15 lire

... works of fame by which I could show to those who shall see it

that I have been everywhere, but I do not know where I could bestow

my work [more] ...

[Footnote 17: See No. 1344 l. 12.] I, having been working to gain my

living ...

I not having been informed what it is, I find myself ...

[Footnote 19: In April, 1498, Leonardo was engaged in painting the

Saletta Nigra of the Castello at Milan. (See G. MONGERI, _l'Arte in

Milano_, 1872, p. 417.)] remember the commission to paint the rooms

...

I conveyed to your Lordship only requesting you ...

Draft of letter to be sent to Piacenza (1346. 1347).

1346.

Magnificent Commissioners of Buildings I, understanding that your

Magnificencies have made up your minds to make certain great works

in bronze, will remind you of certain things: first that you should

not be so hasty or so quick to give the commission, lest by this

haste it should become impossible to select a good model and a good

master; and some man of small merit may be chosen, who by his

insufficiency may cause you to

**[Footnote: **1346. 1347. Piacenza belonged to Milan. The Lord

spoken of in this letter, is no doubt Lodovico il Moro. One may

infer from the concluding sentence (No. 1346, l. 33. 34 and No.

1347), that Leonardo, who no doubt compiled this letter, did not

forward it to Piacenza himself, but gave it to some influential

patron, under whose name and signature a copy of it was sent to the

Commission.] be abused by your descendants, judging that this age

was but ill supplied with men of good counsel and with good masters;

seeing that other cities, and chiefly the city of the Florentines,

has been as it were in these very days, endowed with beautiful and

grand works in bronze; among which are the doors of their

Baptistery. And this town of Florence, like Piacenza, is a place of

intercourse, through which many foreigners pass; who, seeing that

the works are fine and of good quality, carry away a good

impression, and will say that that city is well filled with worthy

inhabitants, seeing the works which bear witness to their opinion;

and on the other hand, I say seeing so much metal expended and so

badly wrought, it were less shame to the city if the doors had been

of plain wood; because, the material, costing so little, would not

seem to merit any great outlay of skill...

Now the principal parts which are sought for in cities are their

cathedrals, and of these the first things which strike the eye are

the doors, by which one passes into these churches.

Beware, gentlemen of the Commission, lest too great speed in your

determination, and so much haste to expedite the entrusting of so

great a work as that which I hear you have ordered, be the cause

that that which was intended for the honour of God and of men should

be turned to great dishonour of your judgments, and of your city,

which, being a place of mark, is the resort and gathering-place of

innumerable foreigners. And this dishonour would result if by your

lack of diligence you were to put your trust in some vaunter, who by

his tricks or by favour shown to him here should obtain such work

from you, by which lasting and very great shame would result to him

and to you. Thus I cannot help being angry when I consider what men

those are who have conferred with you as wishing to undertake this

great work without thinking of their sufficiency for it, not to say

more. This one is a potter, that one a maker of cuirasses, this one

is a bell-founder, another a bell ringer, and one is even a

bombardier; and among them one in his Lordship's service, who

boasted that he was the gossip of Messer Ambrosio Ferrere [Footnote

26: Messer Ambrogio Ferrere was Farmer of the Customs under the

Duke. Piacenza at that time belonged to Milan.], who has some power

and who has made him some promises; and if this were not enough he

would mount on horseback, and go to his Lord and obtain such letters

that you could never refuse [to give] him the work. But consider

where masters of real talent and fit for such work are brought when

they have to compete with such men as these. Open your eyes and look

carefully lest your money should be spent in buying your own

disgrace. I can declare to you that from that place you will procure

none but average works of inferior and coarse masters. There is no

capable man,--[33] and you may believe me,--except Leonardo the

Florentine, who is making the equestrian statue in bronze of the

Duke Francesco and who has no need to bring himself into notice,

because he has work for all his life time; and I doubt, whether

being so great a work, he will ever finish it [34].

The miserable painstakers ... with what hope may they expect a

reward of their merit?

1347.

There is one whom his Lordship invited from Florence to do this work

and who is a worthy master, but with so very much business he will

never finish it; and you may imagine that a difference there is to

be seen between a beautiful object and an ugly one. Quote Pliny.

Letter to the Cardinal Ippolito d' Este.

1348.

Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord. The Lord Ippolito, Cardinal

of Este at Ferrare.

Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord.

I arrived from Milan but a few days since and finding that my elder

brother refuses to

**[Footnote: This letter addressed to the Cardinal Ippolito d'Este

is here given from Marchese G. CAMPORI'S publication: _Nuovi

documenti per la Vita di Leonardo da Vinci. Atti e Memorie delle R.

R. Deputazioni di Storia patria per la provincie modenesi e par-

_menesi, Vol. III._ It is the only text throughout this work which I

have not myself examined and copied from the original. The learned

discoverer of this letter--the only letter from Leonardo hitherto

known as having been sent--adds these interesting remarks: _Codesto

Cardinale nato ad Ercole I. nel 1470, arcivescovo di Strigonia a

sette anni, poi d'Agra, aveva conseguito nel 1497 la pingue ed

ambita cattedra di Milano, la dove avra conosciuto il Vinci, sebbene

il poco amore ch'ei professava alle arti lasci credere che le

proteste di servitu di Leonardo piu che a gratitudine per favori

ricevuti e per opere a lui allogate, accennino a speranza per un

favore che si aspetta. Notabile e ancora in questo prezioso

documento la ripetuta signatura del grande artista 'che si scrive

Vincio e Vincius, non da Vinci come si tiene comunemente, sebbene

l'una e l'altra possano valere a significare cosi il casato come il

paese; restando a sapere se il nome del paese di Vinci fosse assunto

a cognome della famiglia di Leonardo nel qual supposto piu

propriamento avrebbe a chiamarsi Leonardo Vinci, o Vincio

(latinamente Vincius) com'egli stesso amo segnarsi in questa

lettera, e come scrissero parecchi contenporanei di lui, il Casio,

il Cesariano, Geoffrey Tory, il Gaurico, il Bandello, Raffaelle

Maffei, il Paciolo. Per ultimo non lascero d'avvertire come la

lettera del Vinci e assai ben conservata, di nitida e larga

scrittura in forma pienemente corrispondente a quella dei suoi

manoscritti, vergata all'uso comune da sinistra a destra, anziche

contrariamente come fu suo costume; ma indubbiamente autentica e

fornita della menzione e del suggello che fresca ancora conserva

l'impronta di una testa di profilo da un picciolo antico cammeo._

(Compare No. 1368, note.)]

carry into effect a will, made three years ago when my father

died--as also, and no less, because I would not fail in a matter I

esteem most important--I cannot forbear to crave of your most

Reverend Highness a letter of recommendation and favour to Ser

Raphaello Hieronymo, at present one of the illustrious members of

the Signoria before whom my cause is being argued; and more

particularly it has been laid by his Excellency the Gonfaloniere

into the hands of the said Ser Raphaello, that his Worship may have

to decide and end it before the festival of All Saints. And

therefore, my Lord, I entreat you, as urgently as I know how and am

able, that your Highness will write a letter to the said Ser

Raphaello in that admirable and pressing manner which your Highness

can use, recommending to him Leonardo Vincio, your most humble

servant as I am, and shall always be; requesting him and pressing

him not only to do me justice but to do so with despatch; and I have

not the least doubt, from many things that I hear, that Ser

Raphaello, being most affectionately devoted to your Highness, the

matter will issue _ad votum_. And this I shall attribute to your

most Reverend Highness' letter, to whom I once more humbly commend

myself. _Et bene valeat_.

Florence XVIIIa 7bris 1507. E. V. R. D.

your humble servant Leonardus Vincius, pictor.

Draft of Letter to the Governor of Milan.

1349.

I am afraid lest the small return I have made for the great

benefits, I have received from your Excellency, have not made you

somewhat angry with me, and that this is why to so many letters

which I have written to your Lordship I have never had an answer. I

now send Salai to explain to your Lordship that I am almost at an

end of the litigation I had with my brother; that I hope to find

myself with you this Easter, and to carry with me two pictures of

two Madonnas of different sizes. These were done for our most

Christian King, or for whomsoever your Lordship may please. I should

be very glad to know on my return thence where I may have to reside,

for I would not give any more trouble to your Lordship. Also, as I

have worked for the most Christian King, whether my salary is to

continue or not. I wrote to the President as to that water which the

king granted me, and which I was not put in possession of because at

that time there was a dearth in the canal by reason of the great

droughts and because [Footnote:Compare Nos. 1009 and 1010. Leonardo

has noted the payment of the pension from the king in 1505.] its

outlets were not regulated; but he certainly promised me that when

this was done I should be put in possession. Thus I pray your

Lordship that you will take so much trouble, now that these outlets

are regulated, as to remind the President of my matter; that is, to

give me possession of this water, because on my return I hope to

make there instruments and other things which will greatly please

our most Christian King. Nothing else occurs to me. I am always

yours to command. [Footnote:1349. Charles d'Amboise, Marechal de

Chaumont, was Governor of Milan under Louis XII. Leonardo was in

personal communication with him so early as in 1503. He was absent

from Milan in the autumn of 1506 and from October l5l0--when he

besieged Pope Julius II. in Bologna--till his death, which took

place at Correggio, February 11, 1511. Francesco Vinci, Leonardo's

uncle, died--as Amoretti tells us--in the winter of l5l0-11 (or

according to Uzielli in 1506?), and Leonardo remained in Florence

for business connected with his estate. The letter written with

reference to this affair, No. 1348, is undoubtedly earlier than the

letters Nos. 1349 and 1350. Amoretti tells us, _Memorie Storiche_,

ch. II, that the following note existed on the same leaf in MS. C.

A. I have not however succeeded in finding it. The passage runs

thus: _Jo sono quasi al fine del mio letizio che io o con mie

fratetgli ... Ancora ricordo a V. Excia la facenda che o cum Ser

Juliana mio Fratello capo delli altri fratelli ricordandoli come se

offerse di conciar le cose nostre fra noi fratelli del comune della

eredita de mio Zio, e quelli costringa alla expeditione, quale

conteneva la lettera che lui me mando._]

C. A. 364b; 1138b]

Drafts of Letters to the Superintendent of Canals and to Fr. Melzi.

1350.

Magnificent President, I am sending thither Salai, my pupil, who is

the bearer of this, and from him you will hear by word of mouth the

cause of my...

Magnificent President, I...

Magnificent President:--Having ofttimes remembered the proposals

made many times to me by your Excellency, I take the liberty of

writing to remind your Lordship of the promise made to me at my last

departure, that is the possession of the twelve inches of water

granted to me by the most Christian King. Your Lordship knows that I

did not enter into possession, because at that time when it was

given to me there was a dearth of water in the canal, as well by

reason of the great drought as also because the outlets were not

regulated; but your Excellency promised me that as soon as this was

done, I should have my rights. Afterwards hearing that the canal was

complete I wrote several times to your Lordship and to Messer

Girolamo da Cusano,who has in his keeping the deed of this gift; and

so also I wrote to Corigero and never had a reply. I now send

thither Salai, my pupil, the bearer of this, to whom your Lordship

may tell by word of mouth all that happened in the matter about

which I petition your Excellency. I expect to go thither this Easter

since I am nearly at the end of my lawsuit, and I will take with me

two pictures of our Lady which I have begun, and at the present time

have brought them on to a very good end; nothing else occurs to me.

My Lord the love which your Excellency has always shown me and the

benefits that I have constantly received from you I have hitherto...

I am fearful lest the small return I have made for the great

benefits I have received from your Excellency may not have made you

somewhat annoyed with me. And this is why, to many letters which I

have written to your Excellency I have never had an answer. I now

send to you Salai to explain to your Excellency that I am almost at

the end of my litigation with my brothers, and that I hope to be

with you this Easter and carry with me two pictures on which are two

Madonnas of different sizes which I began for the most Christian

King, or for whomsoever you please. I should be very glad to know

where, on my return from this place, I shall have to reside, because

I do not wish to give more trouble to your Lordship; and then,

having worked for the most Christian King, whether my salary is to

be continued or not. I write to the President as to the water that

the king granted me of which I had not been put in possession by

reason of the dearth in the canal, caused by the great drought and

because its outlets were not regulated; but he promised me certainly

that as soon as the regulation was made, I should be put in

possession of it; I therefore pray you that, if you should meet the

said President, you would be good enough, now that the outlets are

regulated, to remind the said President to cause me to be put in

possession of that water, since I understand it is in great measure

in his power. Nothing else occurs to me; always yours to command.

Good day to you Messer Francesco. Why, in God's name, of all the

letters I have written to you, have you never answered one. Now wait

till I come, by God, and I shall make you write so much that perhaps

you will become sick of it.

Dear Messer Francesco. I am sending thither Salai to learn from His

Magnificence the President to what end the regulation of the water

has come since, at my departure this regulation of the outlets of

the canal had been ordered, because His Magnificence the President

promised me that as soon as this was done I should be satisfied. It

is now some time since I heard that the canal was in order, as also

its outlets, and I immediately wrote to the President and to you,

and then I repeated it, and never had an answer. So you will have

the goodness to answer me as to that which happened, and as I am not

to hurry the matter, would you take the trouble, for the love of me,

to urge the President a little, and also Messer Girolamo Cusano, to

whom you will commend me and offer my duty to his Magnificence.

*1350. 28-36. Draft of a letter to Francesco Melzi, born l493--a

youth therefore of about 17 in 1510. Leonardo addresses his young

friend as "Messer", as being the son of a noble house. Melzi

practised art under Leonardo as a dilettante and not as a pupil,

like Cesare da Sesto and others (See LERMOLIEFF, _Die Galerien_ &c.,

p. 476).

*Drafts of a letter to Giuliano de' Medici (1351-1352).

1351.

[Most illustrious Lord. I greatly rejoice most Illustrious Lord at

your...]

I was so greatly rejoiced, most illustrious Lord, by the desired

restoration of your health, that it almost had the effect that [my

own health recovered]--[I have got through my illness]--my own

illness left me-- --of your Excellency's almost restored health. But

I am extremely vexed that I have not been able completely to satisfy

the wishes of your Excellency, by reason of the wickedness of that

deceiver, for whom I left nothing undone which could be done for him

by me and by which I might be of use to him; and in the first place

his allowances were paid to him before the time, which I believe he

would willingly deny, if I had not the writing signed by myself and

the interpreter. And I, seeing that he did not work for me unless he

had no work to do for others, which he was very careful in

solliciting, invited him to dine with me, and to work afterwards

near me, because, besides the saving of expense, he

*1351. 1353.[Footnote: It is clear from the contents of this notes

that they refer to Leonardo's residence in Rome in 1513-1515. Nor

can there be any doubt that they were addressed to Leonardo's patron

at the time: Giuliano de' Medici, third son of Lorenzo the

Magnificent and brother of Pope Leo X (born 1478). In 1512 he became

the head of the Florentine Republic. The Pope invited him to Rome,

where he settled; in 1513 he was named patrician with much splendid

ceremonial. The medal struck in honour of the event bears the words

MAG. IVLIAN. MEDICES. Leonardo too uses the style "Magnifico", in

his letter. Compare also No. 1377.

GlNO CAPPONI (_Storia della Repubblica di Firenze_, Vol. III, p.

139) thus describes the character of Giuliano de' Medici, who died

in 1516: _Era il migliore della famiglia, di vita placida, grande

spenditore, tenendo intorno a s*e uomini ingegnosi, ed ogni nuova

cosa voleva provare._

See too GREGOROVIUS, _Geschichte der Stadi Rom_, VIII (book XIV.

III, 2): _Die Luftschl*osser f*urstlicher Gr*osse, wozu ihn der

Papst hatte erheben wollen zerfielen. Julian war der edelste aller

damaligen Medici, ein Mensch von innerlicher Richtung, unbefriedigt

durch das Leben, mitten im Sonnenglanz der Herrlichkeit Leo's X.

eine dunkle Gestalt die wie ein Schatten vor*uberzog._ Giuliano

lived in the Vatican, and it may be safely inferred from No. 1352 l.

2, and No. 1353 l. 4, that Leonardo did the same.

>From the following unpublished notice in the Vatican archives, which

M. Eug. M*untz, librarian of the Ecole des Beaux arts, Paris, has

done me the favour to communicate to me, we get a more accurate view

of Leonardo's relation to the often named GIORGIO TEDESCO:

_Nota delle provisione_ (sic) _a da pagare per me in nome del nostro

ill. S. Bernardo Bini e chomp*a di Roma, e prima della ill*ma sua

chonsorte ogni mese d. 800.

A L*do da Vinci per sua provisione d. XXXIII, e pi*u d. VII al detto

per la provisione di Giorgio tedescho, che sono in tutto d. 40.

>From this we learn, that seven ducats formed the German's monthly

wages, but according to No. 1353 l. 7 he pretended that eight ducats

had been agreed upon.]

would acquire the Italian language. He always promised, but would

never do so. And this I did also, because that Giovanni, the German

who makes the mirrors, was there always in the workshop, and wanted

to see and to know all that was being done there and made it known

outside ... strongly criticising it; and because he dined with those

of the Pope's guard, and then they went out with guns killing birds

among the ruins; and this went on from after dinner till the

evening; and when I sent Lorenzo to urge him to work he said that he

would not have so many masters over him, and that his work was for

your Excellency's Wardrobe; and thus two months passed and so it

went on; and one day finding Gian Niccolo of the Wardrobe and asking

whether the German had finished the work for your Magnificence, he

told me this was not true, but only that he had given him two guns

to clean. Afterwards, when I had urged him farther, be left the

workshop and began to work in his room, and lost much time in making

another pair of pincers and files and other tools with screws; and

there he worked at mills for twisting silk which he hid when any one

of my people went in, and with a thousand oaths and mutterings, so

that none of them would go there any more.

I was so greatly rejoiced, most Illustrious Lord, by the desired

restoration of your health, that my own illness almost left me. But

I am greatly vexed at not having been able to completely satisfy

your Excellency's wishes by reason of the wickedness of that German

deceiver, for whom I left nothing undone by which I could have hope

to please him; and secondly I invited him to lodge and board with

me, by which means I should constantly see the work he was doing and

with greater ease correct his errors while, besides this, he would

learn the Italian tongue, by means of which be could with more ease

talk without an interpreter; his moneys were always given him in

advance of the time when due. Afterwards he wanted to have the

models finished in wood, just as they were to be in iron, and wished

to carry them away to his own country. But this I refused him,

telling him that I would give him, in drawing, the breadth, length,

height and form of what he had to do; and so we remained in

ill-will.

The next thing was that he made himself another workshop and pincers

and tools in his room where he slept, and there he worked for

others; afterwards he went to dine with the Swiss of the guard,

where there are idle fellows, in which he beat them all; and most

times they went two or three together with guns, to shoot birds

among the ruins, and this went on till evening.

At last I found how this master Giovanni the mirror-maker was he who

had done it all, for two reasons; the first because he had said that

my coming here had deprived him of the countenance and favour of

your Lordship which always... The other is that he said that his

iron-workers' rooms suited him for working at his mirrors, and of

this he gave proof; for besides making him my enemy, he made him

sell all he had and leave his workshop to him, where he works with a

number of workmen making numerous mirrors to send to the fairs.

1352.

I was so greatly rejoiced, most Illustrious Lord, by the wished for

recovery of your health, that my own ills have almost left me; and I

say God be praised for it. But it vexes me greatly that I have not

been able completely to satisfy your Excellency's wishes by reason

of the wickedness of that German deceiver, for whom I left nothing

undone by which I could hope to please him; and secondly I invited

him to lodge and board with me, by which means I should see

constantly the work he was doing, for which purpose I would have a

table fixed at the foot of one of these windows, where he could work

with the file and finish the things made below; and so I should

constantly see the work he might do, and it could be corrected with

greater ease.

Draft of letter written at Rome.

1353.

This other hindered me in anatomy, blaming it before the Pope; and

likewise at the hospital; and he has filled [*4] this whole

Belvedere with workshops for mirrors; and he did the same thing in

Maestro Giorgio's room. He said that he had been promised [*7] eight

ducats every month, beginning with the first day, when he set out,

or at latest when he spoke with you; and that you agreed.

Seeing that he seldom stayed in the workshop, and that he ate a

great deal, I sent him word that, if he liked I could deal with him

separately for each thing that he might make, and would give him

what we might agree to be a fair valuation. He took counsel with his

neighbour and gave up his room, selling every thing, and went to

find...

Miscellaneous Records (1354. 1355)-

1354.

Dear Benedetto de' Pertarti. When the proud giant fell because of

the bloody and miry state of the ground it was as though a mountain

had fallen so that the country shook as with an earthquake, and

terror fell on Pluto in hell. From the violence of the shock he lay

as stunned on the level ground. Suddenly the people, seeing him as

one killed by a thunderbolt, turned back; like ants running wildly

over the body of the fallen oak, so these rushing over his ample

limbs.......... them with

*1354.[Footnote: A puzzling passage, meant, as it would seem, for a

jest. Compare the description of Giants in Dante, _Inf_. XXI and

XXII. Perhaps Leonardo had the Giant Antaeus in his mind. Of him the

myth relates that he was a son of Ge, that he fed on lions; that he

hunted in Libya and killed the inhabitants. He enjoyed the

peculiarity of renewing his strength whenever he fell and came in

contact with his mother earth; but that Hercules lifted him up and

so conquered and strangled him. Lucan gives a full account of the

struggle. Pharsalia IV, 617. The reading of this passage, which is

very indistinctly written, is in many places doubtful.]

frequent wounds; by which, the giant being roused and feeling

himself almost covered by the multitude, he suddenly perceives the

smarting of the stabs, and sent forth a roar which sounded like a

terrific clap of thunder; and placing his hands on the ground he

raised his terrible face: and having lifted one hand to his head he

found it full of men and rabble sticking to it like the minute

creatures which not unfrequently are found there; wherefore with a

shake of his head he sends the men flying through the air just as

hail does when driven by the fury of the winds. Many of these men

were found to be dead; stamping with his feet.

And clinging to his hair, and striving to hide in it, they behaved

like sailors in a storm, who run up the ropes to lessen the force of

the wind [by taking in sail].

News of things from the East.

Be it known to you that in the month of June there appeared a Giant,

who came from the Lybian desert... mad with rage like ants....

struck down by the rude.

This great Giant was born in Mount Atlas and was a hero ... and had

to fight against the Egyptians and Arabs, Medes and Persians. He

lived in the sea on whales, grampuses and ships.

Mars fearing for his life took refuge under the... of Jove.

And at the great fall it seemed as though the whole province quaked.

1355.

This spirit returns to the brain whence it had departed, with a loud

voice and with these words, it moved...

And if any man though he may have wisdom or goodness .........

[Footnote: This passage, very difficult to decipher, is on the

reverse of a drawing at Windsor, Pl. CXXII, which possibly has some

connection with it. The drawing is slightly reduced in this

reproduction; the original being 25 cm. high by 19 cm. wide.]

O blessed and happy spirit whence comest thou? Well have I known

this man, much against my will. This one is a receptacle of

villainy; he is a perfect heap of the utmost ingratitude combined

with every vice. But of what use is it to fatigue myself with vain

words? Nothing is to be found in them but every form of sin ... And

if there should be found among them any that possesses any good,

they will not be treated differently to myself by other men; and in

fine, I come to the conclusion that it is bad if they are hostile,

and worse if they are friendly.

Miscellaneous drafts of letters and personal records (1356--1368).

1356.

All the ills that are or ever were, if they could be set to work by

him, would not satisfy the desires of his iniquitous soul; and I

could not in any length of time describe his nature to you, but I

conclude...

1357.

I know one who, having promised me much, less than my due, being

disappointed of his presumptuous desires, has tried to deprive me of

all my friends; and as he has found them wise and not pliable to his

will, he has menaced me that, having found means of denouncing me,

he would deprive me of my benefactors. Hence I have informed your

Lordship of this, to the end [that this man who wishes to sow the

usual scandals, may find no soil fit for sowing the thoughts and

deeds of his evil nature] so that he, trying to make your Lordship,

the instrument of his iniquitous and maliceous nature may be

disappointed of his desire.

1358.

And in this case I know that I shall make few enemies seeing that no

one will believe what I can say of him; for they are but

[Footnote: Below this text we read gusstino--Giustino and in another

passage on the same page Justin is quoted (No. 1210, 1. 48). The two

have however no real connection.]

few whom his vices have disgusted, and he only dislikes those men

whose natures are contrary to those vices. And many hate their

fathers, and break off friendship with those who reprove their

vices; and he will not permit any examples against them, nor any

advice.

If you meet with any one who is virtuous do not drive him from you;

do him honour, so that he may not have to flee from you and be

reduced to hiding in hermitages, or caves or other solitary places

to escape from your treachery; if there is such an one among you do

him honour, for these are our Saints upon earth; these are they who

deserve statues from us, and images; but remember that their images

are not to be eaten by you, as is still done in some parts of India

[Footnote 15: In explanation of this passage I have received the

following communication from Dr. G. W. LEITNER of Lahore: "So far as

Indian customs are known to us, this practice spoken of by Leonardo

as 'still existing in some parts of India' is perfectly unknown; and

it is equally opposed to the spirit of Hinduism, Mohammedanism and

Sikhism. In central Thibet the ashes of the dead, when burnt, are

mixed with dough, and small figures--usually of Buddha--are stamped

out of them and some are laid in the grave while others are

distributed among the relations. The custom spoken of by Leonardo

may have prevailed there but I never heard of it." Possibly Leonardo

refers here to customs of nations of America.] where, when the

images have according to them, performed some miracle, the priests

cut them in pieces, being of wood, and give them to all the people

of the country, not without payment; and each one grates his portion

very fine, and puts it upon the first food he eats; and thus

believes that by faith he has eaten his saint who then preserves him

from all perils. What do you think here, Man, of your own species?

Are you so wise as you believe yourselves to be? Are these things to

be done by men?

1359.

As I told you in past days, you know that I am without any....

Francesco d'Antonio. Bernardo di Maestro Jacopo.

1360.

Tell me how the things happened.

1361.

j lorezo\\\ 2 inbiadali\\\ 3 inferri de\\\ 4in lorezo\\\ 5[inno

abuil]\\ 6 in acocatu\\\ 7 per la sella\\\ 8colte di lor\\\ 9v

cavallott\\\ I0el uiagg\\\ IIal\\\ I2a lurez\\\ 13in biada\\\

14inferri\\\ 15abuss\\\ 16in viagg\\\ 17alorz\\\ [Footnote: This

seems to be the beginning of a letter, but only the first words of

the lines have been preserved, the leaf being torn down the middle.

No translation is possible.]

1362.

And so may it please our great Author that I may demonstrate the

nature of man and his customs, in the way I describe his figure.

[Footnote: A preparatory note for the passage given as No. 798, *11.

41--42.]

1363.

This writing distinctly about the kite seems to be my destiny,

because among the first recollections of my infancy, it seemed to me

that, as I was in my cradle, a kite came to me and opened my mouth

with its tail, and struck me several times with its tail inside my

lips. [Footnote: This note probably refers to the text No. 1221.]

C. A. 248a; 737a]

1364.

[When I did well, as a boy you used to put me in prison. Now if I do

it being grown up, you will do worse to me.]

1365.

Tell me if anything was ever done.

1366.

Tell me if ever I did a thing which me ....

1367.

Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison

of love. [Footnote:This note seems to be a quotation.]

1368.

Maestro Leonardo of Florence. [Footnote: So Leonardo writes his name

on a sheet with sundry short notes, evidently to try a pen. Compare

the signature with those in Nos. 1341, 1348 and 1374 (see also No.

1346, l. 33). The form "Lionardo" does not occur in the autographs.

The Portrait of the Master in the Royal Library at Turin, which is

reproduced--slightly diminished--on Pl. I, has in the original two

lines of writing underneath; one in red chalk of two or three words

is partly effaced: _lionardo it... lm_ (or _lai_?); the second

written in pencil is as follows: _fatto da lui stesso assai

vecchio_. In both of these the writing is very like the Master's,

but is certainly only an imitation.]

Notes bearing Dates (1369--1378).

1369.

The day of Santa Maria _della Neve_ [of the Snows] August the 2nd

1473. [Footnote: *W. An. I. 1368. 1369. This date is on a drawing of

a rocky landscape. See _Chronique des Arts_ 1881 no. 23: _Leonard de

Vinci a-t-il ete au Righi le 5 aout 1473_? letter by H. de

Geymuller. The next following date in the MSS. is 1478 (see No.

663).

1370.

On the 2nd of April 1489, book entitled 'Of the human figure'.

[Footnote: While the letters in the MS. notes of 1473 and 1478 are

very ornate, this note and the texts on anatomy on the same sheet

(for instance No. 805) are in the same simple hand as we see on Pl.

CXVI and CXIX. No 1370 is the only dated note of the years between

1480 and 1489, and the characters are in all essential points

identical with those that we see in the latest manuscripts written

in France (compare the facsimiles on Pl. CXV and p. 254), so that it

is hardly possible to determine exactly the date of a manuscript

from the style of the handwriting, if it does not betray the

peculiarities of style as displayed in the few notes dated previous

to l480.--Compare the facsimile of the manuscripts 1479 on Pl.LXII,

No. 2; No. 664, note, Vol. I p. 346. This shows already a marked

simplicity as compared with the calligraphy of I478.

The text No. 720 belongs to the year 1490; No. 1510 to the year

1492; No. 1459, No. 1384 and No. 1460 to the year 1493; No. 1463,

No. 1517, No. 1024, 1025 and 1461 to the year 1494; Nos. 1523 and

1524 to the year 1497.

C. A. 103a; 325a]

1371.

On the ist of August 1499, I wrote here of motion and of weight.

[Footnote:1371. _Scrissi qui_. Leonardo does not say where; still we

may assume that it was not in Milan. Amoretti writes, _Memorie

Storiche_, chap. XIX: _Sembra pertanto che non nel 1499 ma nel 1500,

dopo il ritorno e la prigionia del duca, sia da qui partito Lionardo

per andare a Firenze; ed e quindi probabile, che i mesi di governo

nuovo e incerto abbia passati coll' amico suo Francesco Melzi a

Vaprio, ove meglio che altrove studiar potea la natura, e

soprattutta le acque, e l'Adda specialmente, che gia era stato

l'ogetto delle sue idrostatiche ricerche_. At that time Melzi was

only six years of age. The next date is 1502; to this year belong

No. 1034, 1040, 1042, 1048 and 1053. The note No. 1525 belongs to

the year 1503.]

1372.

On the 9th of July 1504, Wednesday, at seven o'clock, died Ser Piero

da Vinci, notary at the Palazzo del Podest*a, my father, --at seven

o'clock, being eighty years old, leaving behind ten sons and two

daughters.

[Footnote: This statement of Ser Piero's age contradicts that of the

_Riassunto della portata di Antonio da Vinci_ (Leonardo's

grandfather), who speaks of Ser Piero as being thirty years old in

1457; and that of the _Riassunto della portata di Ser Piero e

Francesco_, sons of Antonia da Vinci, where Ser Piero is mentioned

as being forty in 1469. These documents were published by G.

UZIELLI, _Ricerche intorno a L. da Vinci, Firenze_, 1872, pp. 144

and 146. Leonardo was, as is well known, a natural son. His mother

'La Catarina' was married in 1457 to Acchattabriga di Piero del

Vaccha da Vinci. She died in 1519. Leonardo never mentions her in

the Manuscripts. In the year of Leonardo's birth Ser Piero married

Albiera di Giovanni Amadoci, and after her death at the age of

thirty eight he again married, Francesca, daughter of Ser Giovanni

Lanfredi, then only fifteen. Their children were Leonardo's

halfbrothers, Antonio (b. 1476), Ser Giuliano (b. 1479), Lorenzo (b.

1484), a girl, Violante (b. 1485), and another boy Domenico (b.

1486); Domenico's descendants still exist as a family. Ser Piero

married for the third time Lucrezia di Guglielmo Cortigiani by whom

he had six children: Margherita (b. 1491), Benedetto (b. 1492),

Pandolfo (b. 1494), Guglielmo (b. 1496), Bartolommeo (b. 1497), and

Giovanni) date of birth unknown). Pierino da Vinci the sculptor

(about 1520-1554) was the son of Bartolommeo, the fifth of these

children. The dates of their deaths are not known, but we may infer

from the above passage that they were all still living in 1505.]

1373.

On Wednesday at seven o'clock died Ser Piero da Vinci on the 9th of

July 1504.

[Footnote: This and the previous text it may be remarked are the

only mention made by Leonardo of his father; Nos. 1526, 1527 and No.

1463 are of the year 1504.]

1374.

Begun by me, Leonardo da Vinci, on the l2th of July 1505.

[Footnote: Thus he writes on the first page of the MS. The title is

on the foregoing coversheet as follows: _Libro titolato

disstrafformatione coe_ (cio*e) _d'un corpo nvn_ (in un) _altro

sanza diminuitione e acresscemento di materia._]

1375.

Begun at Milan on the l2th of September 1508.

[Footnote: No. 1528 and No. 1529 belong to the same year. The text

Vol. I, No. 4 belongs to the following year 1509 (1508 old style);

so also does No. 1009.-- Nos. 1022, 1057 and 1464 belong to 1511.]

1376.

On the 9th of January 1513.

[Footnote: No. 1465 belongs to the same year. No. 1065 has the next

date 1514.]

1377.

The Magnifico Giuliano de' Medici left Rome on the 9th of January

1515, just at daybreak, to take a wife in Savoy; and on the same day

fell the death of the king of France.

[Footnote: Giuliano de Medici, brother to Pope Leo X.; see note to

Nos. 1351-1353. In February, 1515, he was married to Filiberta,

daughter of Filippo, Duke of Savoy, and aunt to Francis I, Louis

XII's successor on the throne of France. Louis XII died on Jan. 1st,

and not on Jan. 9th as is here stated.-- This addition is written in

paler ink and evidently at a later date.]

1378.

On the 24th of June, St John's day, 1518 at Amboise, in the palace

of...

[Footnote: _Castello del clli_. The meaning of this word is obscure;

it is perhaps not written at full length.]

_XXII._

_Miscellaneous Notes._

_The incidental memoranda scattered here and there throughout the

MSS. can have been for the most part intelligible to the writer

only; in many cases their meaning and connection are all the more

obscure because we are in ignorance about the persons with whom

Leonardo used to converse nor can we say what part he may have

played in the various events of his time. Vasari and other early

biographers give us a very superficial and far from accurate picture

of Leonardo's private life. Though his own memoranda, referring for

the most part to incidents of no permanent interest, do not go far

towards supplying this deficiency, they are nevertheless of some

importance and interest as helping us to solve the numerous

mysteries in which the history of Leonardo's long life remains

involved. We may at any rate assume, from Leonardo's having

committed to paper notes on more or less trivial matters on his

pupils, on his house-keeping, on various known and unknown

personages, and a hundred other trifies--that at the time they must

have been in some way important to him._

_I have endeavoured to make these 'Miscellaneous Notes' as complete

as possible, for in many cases an incidental memorandum will help to

explain the meaning of some other note of a similar kind. The first

portion of these notes (Nos. l379--l457), as well as those referring

to his pupils and to other artists and artificers who lived in his

house (1458--1468,) are arranged in chronological order. A

considerable proportion of these notes belong to the period between

1490 and 1500, when Leonardo was living at Milan under the patronage

of Lodovico il Moro, a time concerning which we have otherwise only

very scanty information. If Leonardo did really--as has always been

supposed,--spend also the greater part of the preceding decade in

Milan, it seems hardly likely that we should not find a single note

indicative of the fact, or referring to any event of that period, on

the numerous loose leaves in his writing that exist. Leonardo's life

in Milan between 1489 and 1500 must have been comparatively

uneventful. The MSS. and memoranda of those years seem to prove that

it was a tranquil period of intellectual and artistic labour rather

than of bustling court life. Whatever may have been the fate of the

MSS. and note books of the foregoing years--whether they were

destroyed by Leonardo himself or have been lost--it is certainly

strange that nothing whatever exists to inform us as to his life and

doings in Milan earlier than the consecutive series of manuscripts

which begin in the year 1489._

_There is nothing surprising in the fact that the notes regarding

his pupils are few and meagre. Excepting for the record of money

transactions only very exceptional circumstances would have prompted

him to make any written observations on the persons with whom he was

in daily intercourse, among whom, of course, were his pupils. Of

them all none is so frequently mentioned as Salai, but the character

of the notes does not--as it seems to me--justify us in supposing

that he was any thing more than a sort of factotum of Leonardo's

(see 1519, note)._

_Leonardo's quotations from books and his lists of titles supply

nothing more than a hint as to his occasional literary studies or

recreations. It was evidently no part of his ambition to be deeply

read (see Nrs. 10, 11, 1159) and he more than once expressly states

(in various passages which will be found in the foregoing sections)

that he did not recognise the authority of the Ancients, on

scientific questions, which in his day was held paramount.

Archimedes is the sole exception, and Leonardo frankly owns his

admiration for the illustrious Greek to whose genius his own was so

much akin (see No. 1476). All his notes on various authors,

excepting those which have already been inserted in the previous

section, have been arranged alphabetically for the sake of

convenience (1469--1508)._

_The passages next in order contain accounts and inventories

principally of household property. The publication of these--often

very trivial entries--is only justifiable as proving that the

wealth, the splendid mode of life and lavish expenditure which have

been attributed to Leonardo are altogether mythical; unless we put

forward the very improbable hypothesis that these notes as to money

in hand, outlay and receipts, refer throughout to an exceptional

state of his affairs, viz. when he was short of money._

_The memoranda collected at the end (No. 1505--1565) are, in the

original, in the usual writing, from left to right. Besides, the

style of the handwriting is at variance with what we should expect

it to be, if really Leonardo himself had written these notes. Most

of them are to be found in juxtaposition with undoubtedly authentic

writing of his. But this may be easily explained, if we take into

account the fact, that Leonardo frequently wrote on loose sheets. He

may therefore have occasionally used paper on which others had made

short memoranda, for the most part as it would seem, for his use. At

the end of all I have given Leonardo's will from the copy of it

preserved in the Melzi Library. It has already been printed by

Amoretti and by Uzielli. It is not known what has become of the

original document._

Memoranda before 1500 (1379-l413).

1379.

Find Longhi and tell him that you wait for him at Rome and will go

with him to Naples; make you pay the donation [Footnote 2: _Libro di

Vitolone_ see No. 1506 note.] and take the book by Vitolone, and the

measurements of the public buildings. [3] Have two covered boxes

made to be carried on mules, but bed-covers will be best; this makes

three, of which you will leave one at Vinci. [4] Obtain

the.............. from Giovanni Lombardo the linen draper of Verona.

Buy handkerchiefs and towels,.... and shoes, 4 pairs of hose, a

jerkin of... and skins, to make new ones; the lake of Alessandro.

[Footnote: 7 and fol. It would seem from the text that Leonardo

intended to have instructions in painting on paper. It is hardly

necessary to point out that the Art of illuminating was quite

separate from that of painting.]

Sell what you cannot take with you. Get from Jean de Paris the

method of painting in tempera and the way of making white [Footnote:

The mysterious looking words, quite distinctly written, in line 1:

_ingol, amor a, ilopan a_ and on line 2: _enoiganod al_ are

obviously in cipher and the solution is a simple one; by reading

them backwards we find for _ingol_: logni-probably _longi_,

evidently the name of a person; for _amor a_: _a Roma_, for _ilopan

a_: _a Napoli_. Leonardo has done the same in two passages treating

on some secrets of his art Nos. 641 and 729, the only other places

in which we find this cipher employed; we may therefore conclude

that it was for the sake of secrecy that he used it.

There can be no doubt, from the tenor of this passage, that Leonardo

projected a secret excursion to Naples. Nothing has hitherto been

known of this journey, but the significance of the passage will be

easily understood by a reference to the following notes, from which

we may infer that Leonardo really had at the time plans for

travelling further than Naples. From lines 3, 4 and 7 it is evident

that he purposed, after selling every thing that was not easily

portable, to leave a chest in the care of his relations at Vinci.

His luggage was to be packed into two trunks especially adapted for

transport by mules. The exact meaning of many sentences in the

following notes must necessarily remain obscure. These brief remarks

on small and irrelevant affairs and so forth are however of no

historical value. The notes referring to the preparations for his

journey are more intelligible.]

salt, and how to make tinted paper; sheets

of paper folded up; and his box of colours;

learn to work flesh colours in tempera,

learn to dissolve gum lac, linseed

... white, of the garlic of Piacenza; take 'de Ponderibus'; take the works of

Leonardo of Cremona. Remove the small

furnace ... seed of lilies and of... Sell the

boards of the support. Make him who stole it,

give you the ... learn levelling and how

much soil a man can dig out in a day.

C.19b]

1380.

This was done by Leone in the

piazza of the castle with a chain

and an arrow.

[Footnote: This note must have been made in Milan;

as we know from the date of the MS.]

B. 50b]

1381.

NAMES OF ENGINEERS.

Callias of Rhodes, Epimachus the Athenian,

Diogenes, a philosopher, of Rhodes,

Calcedonius of Thrace, Febar of Tyre,

Callimachus the architect, a master of fires.

[Footnote: Callias, Architect of Aradus, mentioned

by Vitruvius (X, 16, 5).--Epimachus, of Athens,

invented a battering-enginee for Demetrius Poliorketes

(Vitruvius X, 16, 4).--Callimachus, the inventor of

the Corinthian capital (Vitr. IV, I, 9), and of the

method of boring marble (Paus. I, 26, 7), was also

famous for his casts in bronze (Plin. XXXIV,

8, 19). He invented a lamp for the temple of

Athene Polias, on the Acropolis of Athens (Paus.

I, 26, 7)--The other names, here mentioned, cannot

be identified.]

Ash. II. 13b]

1382.

Ask maestro Lodovico for 'the conduits

of water'.

[Footnote: Condotti d'acqua. Possibly a book, a MS. or

a map.]

F1. Uff.]

1383.

... at Pistoja, Fioravante di Domenico at

Florence is my most beloved friend, as though

he were my [brother].

[Footnote: On the same sheet is the text No. 663.]

*** from previous page?***

II. 'De Ponderibus'. A large number of Leonardo's

notes bear this superscription. Compare No. 1436, 3.

S.K.M. III. 1b]

1384.

On the 16th day of July.

Caterina came on 16th day of July, 1493.

Messer Mariolo's Morel the Florentin, has a

big horse with a fine neck and a beautiful head.

The white stallion belonging to the falconer

has fine hind quarters; it is behind the

Comasina Gate.

The big horse of Cermonino, of Signor

Giulio.

[Footnote: Compare Nos. 1522 and 1517. Caterina

seems to have been his housekeeper.]

S.K.M. III. 30a]

1385.

OF THE INSTRUMENT.

Any one who spends one ducat may take

the instrument; and he will not pay more than

half a ducat as a premium to the inventor of

the instrument and one grosso to the workman

every year. I do not want sub-officials.

[Footnote: Refers perhaps to the regulation of the

water in the canals.]

S.K.M. III. 55a]

1386.

Maestro Giuliano da Marliano has a fine

herbal. He lives opposite to Strami the

Carpenters.

[Footnote: Compare No. 616, note. 4. legnamiere

(milanese dialect) = legnajuolo.]

S.K.M. III. 94a]

1387.

Christofano da Castiglione who lives at

the Pieta has a fine head.

C.A. 328a 980a]

1388.

Work of ... of the stable of Galeazzo;

by the road of Brera [Footnote 4: Brera, see No. 1448, II, 13]; benefice of Stanghe [Footnote 5:Stanghe,

see No. 1509.]; benefice of Porta Nuova; benefice

of Monza; Indaco's mistake; give first the

benefices; then the works; then ingratitude,

indignity and lamentations.

H.3 47b]

1389.

Chiliarch--captain of 1000.

Prefects--captains.

A legion, six thousand and sixty three men.

H.2 14b]

1390.

A nun lives at La Colomba at Cremona;

she works good straw plait, and a friar of

Saint Francis.[Footnote: La Colomba is to this day the name of a small house at Cremona, decorated with frescoes.]

H.2 46a]

1391.

Needle,--Niccolao,--thread,--Ferrando,

-lacopo Andrea,--canvas,--stone,--colours,

-brushes,-pallet,-sponge,-the panel

of the Duke.

S.K.M.II.2 7a]

1392.

Messer Gian Domenico Mezzabarba and

Messer Giovanni Franceso Mezzabarba. By

the side of Messer Piero d'Anghiera.

S.K.M. II.2 7b]

1393.

Conte Francesco Torello.

S.K.M. II.2 12a]

1394.

Giuliano Trombetta,--Antonio di Ferrara,

--Oil of ....

[Footnote: Near this text is the sketch of a head drawn in red chalk.]

S.K.M. II.2 20a]

1395.

Paul was snatched up to heaven.

[Footnote: See the facsimile of this note on

Pl.XXIII No. 2.]

S.K.M. II.2 22a]

1396.

Giuliano da Maria, physician, has a steward

without hands.

S.K.M. II.2 27a]

1397.

Have some ears of corn of large size sent

from Florence.

S.K.M.II.2 52a]

1398.

See the bedstead at Santa Maria.

Secret.

S.K.M.II.2 53a]

1399.

Arrigo is to have 11 gold Ducats.

Arrigo is to have 4 gold ducats in the

middle of August.

S.K.M.II.2 63a]

1400.

Give your master the instance of a

captain who does not himself win the

victory, but the soldiers do by his counsels;

and so he still deserves the reward.

S.K.M.II.2 68a]

1401.

Messer Pier Antonio.

S.K.M.II.2 69a]

1402.

Oil,--yellow,--Ambrosio,--the mouth,

--the farmhouse.

S.K.M.II.2 78b]

1403.

My dear Alessandro from Parma, by the

hand of ...

S.K.M.II.2 78b]

1404.

Giovannina, has a fantastic face,--is at

Santa Caterina, at the Hospital.[Footnote: Compare the text on the same page: No. 667.]

I.2 IIa]

1405.

24 tavole make 1 perch.

4 trabochi make 1 tavola.

4 braccia and a half make a trabocco.

A perch contains 1936 square braccia,

or 1944.

I.2 70b]

1406.

The road of Messer Mariolo is 13 1/4 braccia

wide; the House of Evangelista is 75.

It enters 7'/2 braccia in the house of Mariolo.

[Footnote: On this page and that which faces it,

MS.I2 7la, are two diagrams with numerous reference

numbers, evidently relating to the measurements of

a street.]

I.2 72b]

1407.

I ask at what part of its curved motion

the moving cause will leave the thing

moved and moveable.

Speak to Pietro Monti of these methods

of throwing spears.

I.2 87a]

1408.

Antonio de' Risi is at the council of

Justice.

I.1 28a]

1409.

Paolo said that no machine that moves

another ...[Footnote: The passage, of which, the beginning

is here given, deals with questions in mechanics.

The instances in which Leonardo quotes the

opinions of his contemporaries on scientific matters

are so rare as to be worth noticing. Compare

No. 901. ]

W.P.7.]

1410.

Caravaggio.[Footnote:Caravaggio, a village not far from the Adda between Milan and Brescia, where Polidoro and

Michelangelo da Caravaggio were born. This note is given

in facsimile on Pl. XIII, No. I (above, to the left).

On Pl. XIII, No. 2 above to the right we read

cerovazo.]

W.A.II.5b]

1411.

Pulleys,--nails,--rope,--mercury,--cloth,

Monday.

W.A.II.202b]

1412.

MEMORANDUM.

Maghino, Speculus of Master Giovanni

the Frenchman; Galenus on utility.

W.X.]

1413.

Near to Cordusio is Pier Antonio da

Tossano and his brother Serafino.

[Footnote: This note is written between lines 23 and

24 of the text No. 710. Corduso, Cordusio (curia

ducis) = Cordus in the Milanese dialect, is the name

of a Piazza between the Via del Broletto and the

Piazza de' Mercanti at Milan.. In the time of il

Moro it was the centre of the town. The persons

here named were members of the noble Milanese

family de'Fossani; Ambrogio da Possano, the con-

temporary painter, had no connection with them.]

1414.

L. o']

Memoranda

after 1500

(1414--1434)

1414.

Paul of Vannochio at Siena ...

The upper chamber for the apostles.

[4] Buildings by Bramante.

The governor of the castle made a

prisoner.

[Footnote 6: Visconti. Chi fosse quel Visconte non sapremmo indovinare fra tanti di questo nome. Arluno narra che allora atterrate furono le case de' Viconti, de' Castiglioni, de' Sanseverini, e de' Botta e non e improbabile che ne fossero insultati e morti i padroni. Molti Visconti annovera lo

stesso Cronista che per essersi rallegrati del ritorno del duca in Milano furono da Francesi arrestati, e strascinati in--Francia come prigionieri di stato; e fra questi Messer Francesco Visconti, e suo figliuolo Battista. (AMORETTI, Mem. Stor. XIX.). Visconti carried away and his son killed.

Giovanni della Rosa deprived of his money.

[Footnote 8: Borgonzio o Brugonzio Botta fu regolatore delle ducali entrate sotto il Moro, alla cui fuga la casa sua fu pur messa a sacco da' partitanti francesi. (AMORETTI, 1. c.)] Borgonzio began ...; and moreover

his fortunes fled.

The Duke has lost the state, property

and liberty and none of his entreprises was

carried out by him.

[Footnote 1: 4--10 This passage evidently refers to

events in Milan at the time of the overthrow of

Ludovico il Moro. Amoretti published it in the

'Memorie Storiche' and added copious notes.]

L. Ia]

1415.

Ambrosio Petri, St. Mark, 4 boards for

the window, 2 ..., 3 the saints of

chapels, 5 the Genoese at home.

L. Ib]

1416.

Piece of tapestry,-pair of compasses,--

Tommaso's book,--the book of Giovanni

Benci,--the box in the custom-house,--to cut

the cloth,--the sword-belt,--to sole the boots,

--a light hat,--the cane from the ruined

houses,--the debt for the table linen,

--swimming-belt,--a book of white paper for

drawing,--charcoal.--How much is a florin ....

a leather bodice.

L.2a]

1417.

Borges [Footnote: Borges. A Spanish name.] shall get for you the Archimedes from the bishop of Padua, and Vitellozzo the one from Borgo a San Sepolcro [Footnote: Borgo a San Sepolcro, where Luca Paciolo, Leonardo's friend, was born.]

L. 30b]

1418.

Marzocco's tablet.

L. o"]

1419.

Marcello lives in the house of Giacomo

da Mengardino.

Br. M. 202b]

1420.

Where is Valentino? [Footnote: Valentino. Cesare Borgia is probably meant. After being made Archbishop of Valence by Alexander VI he was commonly called Valentinus

or Valentino. With reference to Leonardo's engagements by him see pp. 224 and 243, note.]--boots,--boxes in

the custom-house ...,-- [Footnote: Carmine. A church and monastery at Florence.] the monk at the

Carmine,--squares,--[Footnotes 7 an 8: Martelli, Borgherini; names of Florentine families. See No. 4.] Piero Martelli,--[8] Salvi Borgherini,--send back the bags,--a support for the spectacles,--[Footnote 11: San Gallo; possibly Giuliano da San Gallo, the Florentine architect.] the nude study of San Gallo,--the cloak.

Porphyry,--groups,--square,--[Footnote 16: Pandolfini, see No. 1544 note.] Pandolfino.

1421.

Concave mirrors; philosophy of Aristotle;[Footnote:Filosofia d'Aristotele see No. 1481 note.][Footnote 2: Avicenna (Leonardo here writes it Avinega) the Arab philosopher, 980-1037, for centuries the unimpeachable authority on all medical questions.

Leonardo possibly points here to a printed edition:

Avicennae canonum libri V, latine 1476 Patavis.

Other editions are, Padua 1479, and Venice 1490.] the books of Avicenna Italian and Latin vocabulary; Messer Ottaviano Palavicino or his Vitruvius [Footnote 3: Vitruvius. See Vol. I, No. 343 note.].

bohemian knives; Vitruvius[Footnote 6: Vitruvius. See Vol. I, No. 343 note.]; go every Saturday to the

hot bath where you will see naked men;

Meteora' [Footnote 7: See No. 1448, 25.],

Archimedes, on the centre of gravity [Footnote 9: The works of Archimedes were not printed during Leonardo's life-time.]; anatomy [Footnote 10: Compare No. 1494.] Alessandro Benedetto; The Dante of Niccolo della Croce; Inflate the lungs of a pig and observe whether they increase in width and in length, or in width

diminishing in length.

[Footnote 14: Johannes Marliani sua etate philosophorum et medicorum principis et ducala phisic. primi de proportione motuum velocitate questio subtilissima incipit ex ejusdem Marliani originali feliciter extracta, M(ilano) 1482.

Another work by him has the title: Marlianus

mediolanensis. Questio de caliditate corporum humanorum

tempore hiemis ed estatis et de antiparistasi ad celebrem

philosophorum et medicorum universitatem ticinensem. 1474.] Marliano, on Calculation, to Bertuccio. Albertus, on heaven and earth [Footnote 15: See No. 1469, 1. 7.], [from the monk Bernardino]. Horace has written on the movements of the heavens.

F. 27b]

1422.

Of the three regular bodies as opposed to

some commentators who disparage the Ancients,

who were the originators of grammar

and the sciences and ...

W. An. III 217a (G)]

1423.

The room in the tower of Vaneri.

[Footnote: This note is written inside the sketch of a

plan of a house. On the same page is the date

1513 (see No. 1376).]

1424.

The figures you will have to reserve for

the last book on shadows that they may appear

in the study of Gerardo the illuminator at San

Marco at Florence.

[Go to see Melzo, and the Ambassador,

and Maestro Bernardo].

[Footnote: L. 1-3 are in the original written between

lines 3 and 4 of No. 292. But the sense is not clear

in this connection. It is scarcely possible to devine

the meaning of the following sentence.

*2. 3. _Gherardo_ Miniatore, a famous illuminator,

1445-1497, to whom Vasari dedicated a section of

his Lives (Vol. II pp. 237-243, ed. Sansoni 1879).

*5. _Bernardo_, possibly the painter Bernardo Zenale.]

1425.

Hermes the philosopher.

1426.

Suisset, viz. calculator,--Tisber,

--Angelo Fossobron,--Alberto.

1427.

The structure of the drawbridge shown me

by Donnino, and why _c_ and _d_ thrust downwards.

[Footnote: The sketch on the same page as this text

represents two poles one across the other. At the

ends of the longest are the letter _c_ and _d_. The

sense of the passage is not rendered any clearer.]

1428.

The great bird will take its first flight;--

on the back of his great swan,--filling

the universe with wonders; filling all writings

with his fame and bringing eternal glory to

his birthplace.

[Footnote: This seems to be a speculation about the

flying machine (compare p. 271).]

1429.

This stratagem was used by the Gauls

against the Romans, and so great a mortality

ensued that all Rome was dressed in mourning.

[Footnote: Leonardo perhaps alludes to the Gauls under

Brennus, who laid his sword in the scale when the

tribute was weighed.]

1430.

Alberto da Imola;--Algebra, that is,

the demonstration of the equality of one thing

to another.

1431.

Johannes Rubicissa e Robbia.

1432.

Ask the wife of Biagio Crivelli how the

capon nurtures and hatches the eggs of

the hen,--he being drunk.

1433.

The book on Water to Messer Marco

Antonio.

[Footnote: Possibly Marc-Antonio della Torre, see

p. 97.]

1434.

Have Avicenna's work on useful inventions

translated; spectacles with the case, steel

and fork and...., charcoal, boards, and

paper, and chalk and white, and wax;....

.... for glass, a saw for bones with fine

teeth, a chisel, inkstand ........ three

herbs, and Agnolo Benedetto. Get a skull,

nut,--mustard.

Boots,--gloves, socks, combs, papers,

towels, shirts,.... shoe-tapes,--.....

shoes, penknife, pens. A skin for the

chest.

[Footnote: 4. Lapis. Compare Condivi, _Vita di Michelagnolo

Buonarotti_, Chap. XVIII.: _Ma egli_ (Michelangelo)

_non avendo che mostrare, prese una penna (percioche

in quel tempo il lapis non era in uso) e con tal

leggiadria gli dipinse una mano ecc._ The incident is

of the year l496.--Lapis means pencil, and chalk

(_matita_). Between lines 7 and 8 are the texts given

as Nos. 819 and No. 7.]

Undated memoranda

(1435-1457).

1435.

The book of Piero Crescenze,--studies

from the nude by Giovanni Ambrosio,--compasses,

--the book of Giovanni Giacomo.

1436.

MEMORARDUM.

To make some provisions for my garden,

--Giordano, _De Ponderibus_[Footnote 3: _Giordano_.

Jordanus Nemorarius, a mathematician

of the beginning of the XIIIth century.

No particulars of his life are known. The title

of his principal work is: _Arithmetica decem libris demonstrata_,

first published at Paris 1496. In 1523 appeared

at Nuremberg: _Liber *Jordani Nemorarii de

ponderibus, propositiones XIII et earundem demonstrationes,

multarumque rerum rationes sane pulcherrimas

complectens, nunc in lucem editus._],--the peacemaker,

the flow and ebb of the sea,--have two

baggage trunks made, look to Beltraffio's [Footnote 6:

_Beltraffio_, see No. 465, note 2.