Forlimpopoli lies in the same direction at 25 miles from Imola.

Bertinoro, as regards Imola, is five points from the East to wards

the South East, at 27 miles.

1051.

Imola as regards Bologna is five points from the West towards the

North West at a distance of 20 miles.

Castel San Pietro lies exactly North West of Imola, at a distance of

7 miles.

Faenza, as regards Imola lies exactly half way between the East and

South East at a distance of 10 miles; and Forli lies in the same

direction from Imola at a distance of 20 miles; and Forlimpopolo

lies in the same direction from Forli at a distance of 25 miles.

Bertinoro is seen from Imola two points from the East towards the

South East at a distance of 27 miles.

[Footnote: Leonardo inserted this passage on the margin of the

circular plan, in water colour, of Imola--see Pl. CXI No. 1.--In the

original the fields surrounding the town are light green; the moat,

which surrounds the fortifications and the windings of the river

Santerno, are light blue. The parts, which have come out blackish

close to the river are yellow ochre in the original. The dark groups

of houses inside the town are red. At the four points of the compass

drawn in the middle of the town Leonardo has written (from right to

left): _Mezzodi_ (South) at the top; to the left _Scirocho_ (South

east), _levante_ (East), _Greco_ (North East), _Septantrione_

(North), _Maesstro_ (North West), _ponente_ (West) _Libecco_ (South

West). The arch in which the plan is drawn is, in the original, 42

centimetres across.

At the beginning of October 1502 Cesare Borgia was shut up in Imola

by a sudden revolt of the Condottieri, and it was some weeks before

he could release himself from this state of siege (see Gregorovius,

_Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_, Vol. VII, Book XIII, 5,

5).

Besides this incident Imola plays no important part in the history

of the time. I therefore think myself fully justified in connecting

this map, which is at Windsor, with the siege of 1502 and with

Leonardo's engagements in the service of Cesare Borgia, because a

comparison of these texts, Nos. 1050 and 1051, raise, I believe, the

hypothesis to a certainty.]

1052.

>From Bonconventi to Casa Nova are 10 miles, from Casa Nova to Chiusi

9 miles, from Chiusi to Perugia, from, Perugia to Santa Maria degli

Angeli, and then to Fuligno. [Footnote: Most of the places here

described lie within the district shown in the maps on Pl. CXIII.]

1053.

On the first of August 1502, the library at Pesaro.

1054.

OF PAINTING.

On the tops and sides of hills foreshorten the shape of the ground

and its divisions, but give its proper shape to what is turned

towards you. [Footnote: This passage evidently refers to the making

of maps, such as Pl. CXII, CXIII, and CXIV. There is no mention of

such works, it is true, excepting in this one passage of MS. L. But

this can scarcely be taken as evidence against my view that Leonardo

busied himself very extensively at that time in the construction of

maps; and all the less since the foregoing chapters clearly prove

that at a time so full of events Leonardo would only now and then

commit his observations to paper, in the MS. L.

By the side of this text we find, in the original, a very indistinct

sketch, perhaps a plan of a position. Instead of this drawing I have

here inserted a much clearer sketch of a position from the same MS.,

L. 82b and 83a. They are the only drawings of landscape, it may be

noted, which occur at all in that MS.]

Alessandria in Piedmont (1055. 1056).

1055.

At Candia in Lombardy, near Alessandria della Paglia, in making a

well for Messer Gualtieri [Footnote 2: Messer Gualtieri, the same

probably as is mentioned in Nos. 672 and 1344.] of Candia, the

skeleton of a very large boat was found about 10 braccia

underground; and as the timber was black and fine, it seemed good to

the said Messer Gualtieri to have the mouth of the well lengthened

in such a way as that the ends of the boat should be uncovered.

1056.

At Alessandria della Paglia in Lombardy there are no stones for

making lime of, but such as are mixed up with an infinite variety of

things native to the sea, which is now more than 200 miles away.

The Alps (1057-1062).

1057.

At Monbracco, above Saluzzo,--a mile above the Certosa, at the foot

of Monte Viso, there is a quarry of flakey stone, which is as white

as Carrara marble, without a spot, and as hard as porphyry or even

harder; of which my worthy gossip, Master Benedetto the sculptor,

has promised to give me a small slab, for the colours, the second

day of January 1511.

[Footnote: Saluzzo at the foot of the Alps South of Turin.]

[Footnote 9. 10.: _Maestro Benedetto scultore_; probably some native

of Northern Italy acquainted with the place here described. Hardly

the Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Majano. Amoretti had published

this passage, and M. Ravaisson who gave a French translation of it

in the _Gazette des Beaux Arts_ (1881, pag. 528), remarks as

follows: _Le maitre sculpteur que Leonard appelle son "compare" ne

serait-il pas Benedetto da Majano, un de ceux qui jugerent avec lui

de la place a donner au David de Michel-Ange, et de qui le Louvre a

acquis recemment un buste d'apres Philippe Strozzi?_ To this it may

be objected that Benedetto da Majano had already lain in his grave

fourteen years, in the year 1511, when he is supposed to have given

the promise to Leonardo. The colours may have been given to the

sculptor Benedetto and the stone may have been in payment for them.

>From the description of the stone here given we may conclude that it

is repeated from hearsay of the sculptor's account of it. I do not

understand how, from this observation, it is possible to conclude

that Leonardo was on the spot.]

1058.

That there are springs which suddenly break forth in earthquakes or

other convulsions and suddenly fail; and this happened in a mountain

in Savoy where certain forests sank in and left a very deep gap, and

about four miles from here the earth opened itself like a gulf in

the mountain, and threw out a sudden and immense flood of water

which scoured the whole of a little valley of the tilled soil,

vineyards and houses, and did the greatest mischief, wherever it

overflowed.

1059.

The river Arve, a quarter of a mile from Geneva in Savoy, where the

fair is held on midsummerday in the village of Saint Gervais.

[Footnote: An indistinct sketch is to be seen by the text.]

1060.

And this may be seen, as I saw it, by any one going up Monbroso

[Footnote: I have vainly enquired of every available authority for a

solution of the mystery as to what mountain is intended by the name

Monboso (Comp. Vol. I Nos. 300 and 301). It seems most obvious to

refer it to Monte Rosa. ROSA derived from the Keltic ROS which

survives in Breton and in Gaelic, meaning, in its first sense, a

mountain spur, but which also--like HORN--means a very high peak;

thus Monte Rosa would mean literally the High Peak.], a peak of the

Alps which divide France from Italy. The base of this mountain gives

birth to the 4 rivers which flow in four different directions

through the whole of Europe. And no mountain has its base at so

great a height as this, which lifts itself above almost all the

clouds; and snow seldom falls there, but only hail in the summer,

when the clouds are highest. And this hail lies [unmelted] there, so

that if it were not for the absorption of the rising and falling

clouds, which does not happen more than twice in an age, an enormous

mass of ice would be piled up there by the layers of hail, and in

the middle of July I found it very considerable; and I saw the sky

above me quite dark, and the sun as it fell on the mountain was far

brighter here than in the plains below, because a smaller extent of

atmosphere lay between the summit of the mountain and the sun.

[Footnote 6: _in una eta._ This is perhaps a slip of the pen on

Leonardo's part and should be read _estate_ (summer).]

Leic. 9b]

1061.

In the mountains of Verona the red marble is found all mixed with

cockle shells turned into stone; some of them have been filled at

the mouth with the cement which is the substance of the stone; and

in some parts they have remained separate from the mass of the rock

which enclosed them, because the outer covering of the shell had

interposed and had not allowed them to unite with it; while in other

places this cement had petrified those which were old and almost

stripped the outer skin.

1062.

Bridge of Goertz-Wilbach (?).

[Footnote: There is a slight sketch with this text, Leonardo seems

to have intended to suggest, with a few pen-strokes, the course of

the Isonzo and of the Wipbach in the vicinity of Gorizia (Goerz). He

himself says in another place that he had been in Friuli (see No.

1077 1. 19).]

The Appenins (1063-1068).

1063.

That part of the earth which was lightest remained farthest from the

centre of the world; and that part of the earth became the lightest

over which the greatest quantity of water flowed. And therefore that

part became lightest where the greatest number of rivers flow; like

the Alps which divide Germany and France from Italy; whence issue

the Rhone flowing Southwards, and the Rhine to the North. The Danube

or Tanoia towards the North East, and the Po to the East, with

innumerable rivers which join them, and which always run turbid with

the soil carried by them to the sea.

The shores of the sea are constantly moving towards the middle of

the sea and displace it from its original position. The lowest

portion of the Mediterranean will be reserved for the bed and

current of the Nile, the largest river that flows into that sea. And

with it are grouped all its tributaries, which at first fell into

the sea; as may be seen with the Po and its tributaries, which first

fell into that sea, which between the Appenines and the German Alps

was united to the Adriatic sea.

That the Gallic Alps are the highest part of Europe.

1064.

And of these I found some in the rocks of the high Appenines and

mostly at the rock of La Vernia. [Footnote 6: _Sasso della Vernia._

The frowning rock between the sources of the Arno and the Tiber, as

Dante describes this mountain, which is 1269 metres in height.

This note is written by the side of that given as No. 1020; but

their connection does not make it clear what Leonardo's purpose was

in writing it.]

1065.

At Parma, at 'La Campana' on the twenty-fifth of October 1514.

[Footnote 2: _Capano_, an Inn.]

A note on the petrifactions, or fossils near Parma will be found

under No. 989.]

1066.

A method for drying the marsh of Piombino. [Footnote: There is a

slight sketch with this text in the original.--Piombino is also

mentioned in Nos. 609, l. 55-58 (compare Pl. XXXV, 3, below). Also

in No. 1035.]

1067.

The shepherds in the Romagna at the foot of the Apennines make

peculiar large cavities in the mountains in the form of a horn, and

on one side they fasten a horn. This little horn becomes one and the

same with the said cavity and thus they produce by blowing into it a

very loud noise. [Footnote: As to the Romagna see also No. 1046.]

1068.

A spring may be seen to rise in Sicily which at certain times of the

year throws out chesnut leaves in quantities; but in Sicily chesnuts

do not grow, hence it is evident that that spring must issue from

some abyss in Italy and then flow beneath the sea to break forth in

Sicily. [Footnote: The chesnut tree is very common in Sicily. In

writing _cicilia_ Leonardo meant perhaps Cilicia.]

II.

FRANCE.

1069.

GERMANY. FRANCE.

a. Austria, a. Picardy.

b. Saxony. b. Normandy.

c. Nuremberg. c. Dauphine.

d. Flanders.

SPAIN.

a. Biscay.

b. Castille.

c. Galicia.

d. Portugal.

e. Taragona.

f. Granada.

[Footnote: Two slightly sketched maps, one of Europe the other of

Spain, are at the side of these notes.]

1070.

Perpignan. Roanne. Lyons. Paris. Ghent. Bruges. Holland.

[Footnote: _Roana_ does not seem to mean here Rouen in Normandy, but

is probably Roanne (Rodumna) on the upper Loire, Lyonnais (Dep. du

Loire). This town is now unimportant, but in Leonardo's time was

still a place of some consequence.]

1071.

At Bordeaux in Gascony the sea rises about 40 braccia before its

ebb, and the river there is filled with salt water for more than a

hundred and fifty miles; and the vessels which are repaired there

rest high and dry on a high hill above the sea at low tide.

[Footnote 2: This is obviously an exaggeration founded on inaccurate

information. Half of 150 miles would be nearer the mark.]

1072.

The Rhone issues from the lake of Geneva and flows first to the West

and then to the South, with a course of 400 miles and pours its

waters into the Mediterranean.

1073.

_c d_ is the garden at Blois; _a b_ is the conduit of Blois, made in

France by Fra Giocondo, _b c_ is what is wanting in the height of

that conduit, _c d_ is the height of the garden at Blois, _e f_ is

the siphon of the conduit, _b c_, _e f_, _f g_ is where the siphon

discharges into the river. [Footnote: The tenor of this note (see

lines 2 and 3) seems to me to indicate that this passage was not

written in France, but was written from oral information. We have no

evidence as to when this note may have been written beyond the

circumstance that Fra Giocondo the Veronese Architect left France

not before the year 1505. The greater part of the magnificent

Chateau of Blois has now disappeared. Whether this note was made for

a special purpose is uncertain. The original form and extent of the

Chateau is shown in Androvet, _Les plus excellents Bastiments de

France, Paris MDCVII,_ and it may be observed that there is in the

middle of the garden a Pavilion somewhat similar to that shown on

Pl. LXXXVIII No. 7.

See S. DE LA SAUSSAYE, _Histoire du Chateau de Blois 4eme edition

Blois et Paris_ p. 175: _En mariant sa fille ainee a Francois, comte

d'Angouleme, Louis XII lui avait constitue en dot les comtes de

Blois, d'Asti, de Coucy, de Montfort, d'Etampes et de Vertus. Une

ordonnance de Francois I. lui laissa en_ 1516 _l'administration du

comte de Blois.

Le roi fit commencer, dans la meme annee, les travaux de celle belle

partie du chateau, connue sous le nom d'aile de Francois I, et dont

nous avons donne la description au commencement de ce livre. Nous

trouvons en effet, dans les archives du Baron de Foursanvault, une

piece qui en fixe parfaitement la date. On y lit: "Je, Baymon

Philippeaux, commis par le Roy a tenir le compte et fair le payement

des bastiments, ediffices et reparacions que le dit seigneur fait

faire en son chastu de Blois, confesse avoir eu et receu ... la

somme de trois mille livres tournois ... le cinquieme jour de

juillet, l'an mil cinq cent et seize._ P. 24: _Les jardins avaient

ete decores avec beaucoup de luxe par les differents possesseurs du

chateau. Il ne reste de tous les batiments qu'ils y eleverent que

ceux des officiers charges de l'ad_ministration et de la culture des

jardins, et un pavilion carre en pierre et en brique flanque de

terrasses a chacun de ses angles. Quoique defigure par des mesures

elevees sur les terrasses, cet edifice est tris-digne d'interet par

l'originalite du plan, la decoration architecturale et le souvenir

d'Anne de Bretagne qui le fit construire._ Felibien describes the

garden as follows: _Le jardin haut etait fort bien dresse par grands

compartimens de toutes sortes de figures, avec des allees de

meuriers blancs et des palissades de coudriers. Deux grands berceaux

de charpenterie separoient toute la longueur et la largeur du

jardin, et dans les quatres angles des allees, ou ces berceaux se

croissent, il y auoit 4 cabinets, de mesme charpenterie ... Il y a

pas longtemps qu'il y auoit dans ce mesme jardin, a l'endroit ou se

croissent les allees du milieu, un edifice de figure octogone, de

plus de 7 thoises de diametre et de plus de neuf thoises de haut;

avec 4 enfoncements en forme de niches dans les 4 angles des allies.

Ce bastiment.... esloit de charpente mais d'un extraordinairement

bien travaille. On y voyait particulierement la cordiliere qui

regnati tout autour en forme de cordon. Car la Reyne affectait de la

mettre nonseulement a ses armes et a ses chiffres mais de la faire

representer en divers manieres dans tous les ouvrages qu'on lui

faisait pour elle ... le bastiment estati couvert en forme de dome

qui dans son milieu avait encore un plus petit dome, ou lanterne

vitree au-dessus de laquelle estait une figure doree representant

Saint Michel. Les deux domes estoient proprement couvert d'ardoise

et de plomb dore par dehors; par dedans ils esloient lambrissez

d'une menuiserie tres delicate. Au milieu de ce Salon il y avait un

grand bassin octogone de marbre blanc, dont toutes les faces

estoient enrichies de differentes sculptures, avec les armes et les

chiffres du Roy Louis XII et de la Reine Anne, Dans ce bassin il y

en avait un autre pose sur un piedestal lequel auoit sept piedz de

diametre. Il estait de figure ronde a godrons, avec des masques et

d'autres ornements tres scauamment taillez. Du milieu de ce

deuxiesme bassin s'y levoit un autre petit piedestal qui portait un

troisiesme bassin de trois pieds de diametre, aussy parfaitement

bien taille; c'estoit de ce dernier bassin que jallissoit l'eau qui

se rependoit en suitte dans les deux autres bassins. Les beaux

ouvrages faits d'un marbre esgalement blanc et poli, furent brisez

par la pesanteur de tout l'edifice, que les injures de l'air

renverserent de fond en comble.]

1074.

The river Loire at Amboise.

The river is higher within the bank _b d_ than outside that bank.

The island where there is a part of Amboise.

This is the river that passes through Amboise; it passes at _a b c

d_, and when it has passed the bridge it turns back, against the

original current, by the channel _d e_, _b f_ in contact with the

bank which lies between the two contrary currents of the said river,

_a b_, _c d_, and _d e_, _b f_. It then turns down again by the

channel _f l_, _g h_, _n m_, and reunites with the river from which

it was at first separated, which passes by _k n_, which makes _k m_,

_r t_. But when the river is very full it flows all in one channel

passing over the bank _b d_. [Footnote: See Pl. CXV. Lines 1-7 are

above, lines 8-10 in the middle of the large island and the word

_Isola_ is written above _d_ in the smaller island; _a_ is written

on the margin on the bank of the river above 1. I; in the

reproduction it is not visible. As may be seen from the last

sentence, the observation was made after long study of the river's

course, when Leonardo had resided for some time at, or near,

Amboise.]

1075.

The water may be dammed up above the level of Romorantin to such a

height, that in its fall it may be used for numerous mills.

1075.

The river at Villefranche may be conducted to Romorantin which may

be done by the inhabitants; and the timber of which their houses are

built may be carried in boats to Romorantin [Footnote: Compare No.

744.]. The river may be dammed up at such a height that the waters

may be brought back to Romorantin with a convenient fall.

1076.

As to whether it is better that the water should all be raised in a

single turn or in two?

The answer is that in one single turn the wheel could not support

all the water that it can raise in two turns, because at the half

turn of the wheel it would be raising 100 pounds and no more; and if

it had to raise the whole, 200 pounds in one turn, it could not

raise them unless the wheel were of double the diameter and if the

diameter were doubled, the time of its revolution would be doubled;

therefore it is better and a greater advantage in expense to make

such a wheel of half the size (?) the land which it would water and

would render the country fertile to supply food to the inhabitants,

and would make navigable canals for mercantile purposes.

The way in which the river in its flow should scour its own channel.

By the ninth of the third; the more rapid it is, the more it wears

away its channel; and, by the converse proposition, the slower the

water the more it deposits that which renders it turbid.

And let the sluice be movable like the one I arranged in Friuli

[Footnote 19: This passage reveals to us the fact that Leonardo had

visited the country of Friuli and that he had stayed there for some

time. Nothing whatever was known of this previously.], where when

one sluice was opened the water which passed through it dug out the

bottom. Therefore when the rivers are flooded, the sluices of the

mills ought to be opened in order that the whole course of the river

may pass through falls to each mill; there should be many in order

to give a greater impetus, and so all the river will be scoured. And

below the site of each of the two mills there may be one of the said

sluice falls; one of them may be placed below each mill.

1078.

A trabocco is four braccia, and one mile is three thousand of the

said braccia. Each braccio is divided into 12 inches; and the water

in the canals has a fall in every hundred trabocchi of two of these

inches; therefore 14 inches of fall are necessary in two thousand

eight hundred braccia of flow in these canals; it follows that 15

inches of fall give the required momentum to the currents of the

waters in the said canals, that is one braccio and a half in the

mile. And from this it may be concluded that the water taken from

the river of Ville-franche and lent to the river of Romorantin

will..... Where one river by reason of its low level cannot flow

into the other, it will be necessary to dam it up, so that it may

acquire a fall into the other, which was previously the higher.

The eve of Saint Antony I returned from Romorantin to Amboise, and

the King went away two days before from Romorantin.

>From Romorantin as far as the bridge at Saudre it is called the

Saudre, and from that bridge as far as Tours it is called the Cher.

I would test the level of that channel which is to lead from the

Loire to Romorantin, with a channel one braccio wide and one braccio

deep.

[Footnote: Lines 6-18 are partly reproduced in the facsimile on p.

254, and the whole of lines 19-25.

The following names are written along the rivers on the larger

sketch, _era f_ (the Loire) _scier f_ (the Cher) three times. _Pote

Sodro_ (bridge of the Soudre). _Villa francha_ (Villefranche)

_banco_ (sandbank) _Sodro_ (Soudre). The circle below shows the

position of Romorantin. The words '_orologio del sole_' written

below do not belong to the map of the rivers. The following names

are written by the side of the smaller sketch-map:--_tors_ (Tours),

_Abosa_ (Amboise) _bres_--for Bles (Blois) _mo rica_ (Montrichard).

_Lione_ (Lyons). This map was also published in the 'Saggio'

(Milano, 1872) Pl. XXII, and the editors remark: _Forse la linia

retta che va da Amboise a Romorantin segna l'andamento proposto d'un

Canale, che poi rembra prolungarsi in giu fin dove sta scritto

Lione._

M. Ravaisson has enlarged on this idea in the Gazette des Beaux Arts

(1881 p. 530): _Les traces de Leonard permettent d'entrevoir que le

canal commencant soit aupres de Tours, soit aupres de Blois et

passant par Romorantin, avec port d'embarquement a Villefranche,

devait, au dela de Bourges, traverser l'Allier au-dessous des

affluents de la Dore et de la Sioule, aller par Moulins jusqu' a

Digoin; enfin, sur l'autre rive de la Loire, depasser les monts du

Charolais et rejoindre la Saone aupres de Macon._ It seems to me

rash, however, to found so elaborate an hypothesis on these sketches

of rivers. The slight stroke going to _Lione_ is perhaps only an

indication of the direction.--With regard to the Loire compare also

No. 988. l. 38.]

1079.

THE ROAD TO ORLEANS

At 1/4 from the South to the South East. At 1/3 from the South to

the South East. At 1/4 from the South to the South East. At 1/5 from

the South to the South East. Between the South West and South, to

the East bearing to the South; from the South towards the East 1/8;

thence to the West, between the South and South West; at the South.

[Footnote: The meaning is obscure; a more important passage

referring to France is to be found under No. 744]

On the Germans (1080. 1081).

1080.

The way in which the Germans closing up together cross and

interweave their broad leather shields against the enemy, stooping

down and putting one of the ends on the ground while they hold the

rest in their hand. [Footnote: Above the text is a sketch of a few

lines crossing each other and the words _de ponderibus_. The meaning

of the passage is obscure.]

1081.

The Germans are wont to annoy a garrison with the smoke of feathers,

sulphur and realgar, and they make this smoke last 7 or 8 hours.

Likewise the husks of wheat make a great and lasting smoke; and also

dry dung; but this must be mixed with olive husks, that is olives

pressed for oil and from which the oil has been extracted.

[Footnote: There is with this passage a sketch of a round tower

shrouded in smoke.]

The Danube.

1082.

That the valleys were formerly in great part covered by lakes the

soil of which always forms the banks of rivers,--and by seas, which

afterwards, by the persistent wearing of the rivers, cut through the

mountains and the wandering courses of the rivers carried away the

other plains enclosed by the mountains; and the cutting away of the

mountains is evident from the strata in the rocks, which correspond

in their sections as made by the courses of the rivers [Footnote 4:

_Emus_, the Balkan; _Dardania_, now Servia.], The Haemus mountains

which go along Thrace and Dardania and join the Sardonius mountains

which, going on to the westward change their name from Sardus to

Rebi, as they come near Dalmatia; then turning to the West cross

Illyria, now called Sclavonia, changing the name of Rebi to Albanus,

and going on still to the West, they change to Mount Ocra in the

North; and to the South above Istria they are named Caruancas; and

to the West above Italy they join the Adula, where the Danube rises

[8], which stretches to the East and has a course of 1500 miles; its

shortest line is about l000 miles, and the same or about the same is

that branch of the Adula mountains changed as to their name, as

before mentioned. To the North are the Carpathians, closing in the

breadth of the valley of the Danube, which, as I have said extends

eastward, a length of about 1000 miles, and is sometimes 200 and in

some places 300 miles wide; and in the midst flows the Danube, the

principal river of Europe as to size. The said Danube runs through

the middle of Austria and Albania and northwards through Bavaria,

Poland, Hungary, Wallachia and Bosnia and then the Danube or Donau

flows into the Black Sea, which formerly extended almost to Austria

and occupied the plains through which the Danube now courses; and

the evidence of this is in the oysters and cockle shells and

scollops and bones of great fishes which are still to be found in

many places on the sides of those mountains; and this sea was formed

by the filling up of the spurs of the Adula mountains which then

extended to the East joining the spurs of the Taurus which extend to

the West. And near Bithynia the waters of this Black Sea poured into

the Propontis [Marmora] falling into the Aegean Sea, that is the

Mediterranean, where, after a long course, the spurs of the Adula

mountains became separated from those of the Taurus. The Black Sea

sank lower and laid bare the valley of the Danube with the above

named countries, and the whole of Asia Minor beyond the Taurus range

to the North, and the plains from mount Caucasus to the Black Sea to

the West, and the plains of the Don this side--that is to say, at

the foot of the Ural mountains. And thus the Black Sea must have

sunk about 1000 braccia to uncover such vast plains.

[Footnote 8: _Danubio_, in the original _Reno_; evidently a mistake

as we may infer from _come dissi_ l. 10 &c.]

III.

THE COUNTRIES OF THE WESTERN END OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.

The straits of Gibraltar (1083-1085).

1083.

WHY THE SEA MAKES A STRONGER CURRENT IN THE STRAITS OF SPAIN THAN

ELSEWHERE.

A river of equal depth runs with greater speed in a narrow space

than in a wide one, in proportion to the difference between the

wider and the narrower one.

This proposition is clearly proved by reason confirmed by

experiment. Supposing that through a channel one mile wide there

flows one mile in length of water; where the river is five miles

wide each of the 5 square miles will require 1/5 of itself to be

equal to the square mile of water required in the sea, and where the

river is 3 miles wide each of these square miles will require the

third of its volume to make up the amount of the square mile of the

narrow part; as is demonstrated in _f g h_ at the mile marked _n_.

[Footnote: In the place marked A in the diagram _Mare Mediterano_

(Mediterranean Sea) is written in the original. And at B, _stretto

di Spugna_ (straits of Spain, _i.e._ Gibraltar). Compare No. 960.]

1084.

WHY THE CURRENT OF GIBRALTAR IS ALWAYS GREATER TO THE WEST THAN TO

THE EAST.

The reason is that if you put together the mouths of the rivers

which discharge into the Mediterranean sea, you would find the sum

of water to be larger than that which this sea pours through the

straits into the ocean. You see Africa discharging its rivers that

run northwards into this sea, and among them the Nile which runs

through 3000 miles of Africa; there is also the Bagrada river and

the Schelif and others. [Footnote 5: _Bagrada_ (Leonardo writes

Bragada) in Tunis, now Medscherda; _Mavretano_, now Schelif.]

Likewise Europe pours into it the Don and the Danube, the Po, the

Rhone, the Arno, and the Tiber, so that evidently these rivers, with

an infinite number of others of less fame, make its great breadth

and depth and current; and the sea is not wider than 18 miles at the

most westerly point of land where it divides Europe from Africa.

1085.

The gulf of the Mediterranean, as an inland sea, received the

principal waters of Africa, Asia and Europe that flowed towards it;

and its waters came up to the foot of the mountains that surrounded

it and made its shores. And the summits of the Apennines stood up

out of this sea like islands, surrounded by salt water. Africa

again, behind its Atlas mountains did not expose uncovered to the

sky the surface of its vast plains about 3000 miles in length, and

Memphis [Footnote 6: _Mefi._ Leonardo can only mean here the citadel

of Cairo on the Mokattam hills.] was on the shores of this sea, and

above the plains of Italy, where now birds fly in flocks, fish were

wont to wander in large shoals.

1086.

Tunis.

The greatest ebb made anywhere by the Mediterranean is above Tunis,

being about two and a half braccia and at Venice it falls two

braccia. In all the rest of the Mediterranean sea the fall is little

or none.

1087.

Libya.

Describe the mountains of shifting deserts; that is to say the

formation of waves of sand borne by the wind, and of its mountains

and hills, such as occur in Libya. Examples may be seen on the wide

sands of the Po and the Ticino, and other large rivers.

1088.

Majorca.

Circumfulgore is a naval machine. It was an invention of the men of

Majorca. [Footnote: The machine is fully described in the MS. and

shown in a sketch.]

1089.

The Tyrrhene Sea.

Some at the Tyrrhene sea employ this method; that is to say they

fastened an anchor to one end of the yard, and to the other a cord,

of which the lower end was fastened to an anchor; and in battle they

flung this anchor on to the oars of the opponent's boat and by the

use of a capstan drew it to the side; and threw soft soap and tow,

daubed with pitch and set ablaze, on to that side where the anchor

hung; so that in order to escape that fire, the defenders of that

ship had to fly to the opposite side; and in doing this they aided

to the attack, because the galley was more easily drawn to the side

by reason of the counterpoise. [Footnote: This text is illustrated

in the original by a pen and ink sketch.]

IV.

THE LEVANT.

The Levantine Sea.

1090.

On the shores of the Mediterranean 300 rivers flow, and 40, 200

ports. And this sea is 3000 miles long. Many times has the increase

of its waters, heaped up by their backward flow and the blowing of

the West winds, caused the overflow of the Nile and of the rivers

which flow out through the Black Sea, and have so much raised the

seas that they have spread with vast floods over many countries. And

these floods take place at the time when the sun melts the snows on

the high mountains of Ethiopia that rise up into the cold regions of

the air; and in the same way the approach of the sun acts on the

mountains of Sarmatia in Asia and on those in Europe; so that the

gathering together of these three things are, and always have been,

the cause of tremendous floods: that is, the return flow of the sea

with the West wind and the melting of the snows. So every river will

overflow in Syria, in Samaria, in Judea between Sinai and the

Lebanon, and in the rest of Syria between the Lebanon and the Taurus

mountains, and in Cilicia, in the Armenian mountains, and in

Pamphilia and in Lycia within the hills, and in Egypt as far as the

Atlas mountains. The gulf of Persia which was formerly a vast lake

of the Tigris and discharged into the Indian Sea, has now worn away

the mountains which formed its banks and laid them even with the

level of the Indian ocean. And if the Mediterranean had continued

its flow through the gulf of Arabia, it would have done the same,

that is to say, would have reduced the level of the Mediterranean to

that of the Indian Sea.

The Red Sea. (1091. 1092).

1091.

For a long time the water of the Mediterranean flowed out through

the Red Sea, which is 100 miles wide and 1500 long, and full of

reefs; and it has worn away the sides of Mount Sinai, a fact which

testifies, not to an inundation from the Indian sea beating on these

coasts, but to a deluge of water which carried with it all the

rivers which abound round the Mediterranean, and besides this there

is the reflux of the sea; and then, a cutting being made to the West

3000 miles away from this place, Gibraltar was separated from Ceuta,

which had been joined to it. And this passage was cut very low down,

in the plains between Gibraltar and the ocean at the foot of the

mountain, in the low part, aided by the hollowing out of some

valleys made by certain rivers, which might have flowed here.

Hercules [Footnote 9: Leonardo seems here to mention Hercules half

jestingly and only in order to suggest to the reader an allusion to

the legend of the pillars of Hercules.] came to open the sea to the

westward and then the sea waters began to pour into the Western

Ocean; and in consequence of this great fall, the Red Sea remained

the higher; whence the water, abandoning its course here, ever after

poured away through the Straits of Spain.

1092.

The surface of the Red Sea is on a level with the ocean.

A mountain may have fallen and closed the mouth of the Red Sea and

prevented the outlet of the Mediterranean, and the Mediterranean Sea

thus overfilled had for outlet the passage below the mountains of

Gades; for, in our own times a similar thing has been seen [Footnote

6: Compare also No. 1336, ll. 30, 35 and 36.-- Paolo Giovio, the

celebrated historian (born at Como in 1483) reports that in 1513 at

the foot of the Alps, above Bellinzona, on the road to Switzerland,

a mountain fell with a very great noise, in consequence of an

earthquake, and that the mass of rocks, which fell on the left

(Western) side blocked the river Breno (T. I p. 218 and 345 of D.

Sauvage's French edition, quoted in ALEXIS PERCY, _Memoire des

tremblements de terre de la peninsule italique; Academie Royale de

Belgique._ T. XXII).--]; a mountain fell seven miles across a valley

and closed it up and made a lake. And thus most lakes have been made

by mountains, as the lake of Garda, the lakes of Como and Lugano,

and the Lago Maggiore. The Mediterranean fell but little on the

confines of Syria, in consequence of the Gaditanean passage, but a

great deal in this passage, because before this cutting was made the

Mediterranean sea flowed to the South East, and then the fall had to

be made by its run through the Straits of Gades.

At _a_ the water of the Mediterranean fell into the ocean.

All the plains which lie between the sea and mountains were formerly

covered with salt water.

Every valley has been made by its own river; and the proportion

between valleys is the same as that between river and river.

The greatest river in our world is the Mediterranean river, which

moves from the sources of the Nile to the Western ocean.

And its greatest height is in Outer Mauritania and it has a course

of ten thousand miles before it reunites with its ocean, the father

of the waters.

That is 3000 miles for the Mediterranean, 3000 for the Nile, as far

as discovered and 3000 for the Nile which flows to the East, &c.

[Footnote: See Pl. CXI 2, a sketch of the shores of the

Mediterranean Sea, where lines 11 to 16 may be seen. The large

figures 158 are not in Leonardo's writing. The character of the

writing leads us to conclude that this text was written later than

the foregoing. A slight sketch of the Mediterranean is also to be

found in MS. I', 47a.]

The Nile (1093-1098).

1093.

Therefore we must conclude those mountains to be of the greatest

height, above which the clouds falling in snow give rise to the

Nile.

1094.

The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, and the Arabs, in crossing the Nile

with camels, are accustomed to attach two bags on the sides of the

camel's bodies that is skins in the form shown underneath.

In these four meshes of the net the camels for baggage place their

feet.

[Footnote: Unfortunately both the sketches which accompany this

passage are too much effaced to be reproduced. The upper represents

the two sacks joined by ropes, as here described, the other shows

four camels with riders swimming through a river.]

1095.

The Tigris passes through Asia Minor and brings with it the water of

three lakes, one after the other of various elevations; the first

being Munace and the middle Pallas and the lowest Triton. And the

Nile again springs from three very high lakes in Ethiopia, and runs

northwards towards the sea of Egypt with a course of 4000 miles, and

by the shortest and straightest line it is 3000 miles. It is said

that it issues from the Mountains of the Moon, and has various

unknown sources. The said lakes are about 4000 braccia above the

surface of the sphere of water, that is 1 mile and 1/3, giving to

the Nile a fall of 1 braccia in every mile.

[Footnote 5: _Incogniti principio._ The affluents of the lakes are

probably here intended. Compare, as to the Nile, Nos. 970, 1063 and

1084.]

1096.

Very many times the Nile and other very large rivers have poured out

their whole element of water and restored it to the sea.

1097.

Why does the inundation of the Nile occur in the summer, coming from

torrid countries?

1098.

It is not denied that the Nile is constantly muddy in entering the

Egyptian sea and that its turbidity is caused by soil that this

river is continually bringing from the places it passes; which soil

never returns in the sea which receives it, unless it throws it on

its shores. You see the sandy desert beyond Mount Atlas where

formerly it was covered with salt water.

Customs of Asiatic Nations (1099. 1100).

1099.

The Assyrians and the people of Euboea accustom their horses to

carry sacks which they can at pleasure fill with air, and which in

case of need they carry instead of the girth of the saddle above and

at the side, and they are well covered with plates of cuir bouilli,

in order that they may not be perforated by flights of arrows. Thus

they have not on their minds their security in flight, when the

victory is uncertain; a horse thus equipped enables four or five men

to cross over at need.

1100.

SMALL BOATS.

The small boats used by the Assyrians were made of thin laths of

willow plaited over rods also of willow, and bent into the form of a

boat. They were daubed with fine mud soaked with oil or with

turpentine, and reduced to a kind of mud which resisted the water

and because pine would split; and always remained fresh; and they

covered this sort of boats with the skins of oxen in safely crossing

the river Sicuris of Spain, as is reported by Lucant; [Footnote 7:

See Lucan's Pharsalia IV, 130: _Utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque

reliquit, Primum cana salix madefacto vimine parvam Texitur in

puppim, calsoque inducto juvenco Vectoris patiens tumidum supernatat

amnem. Sic Venetus stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus Navigat oceano,

sic cum tenet omnia Nilus, Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymbo papyro.

His ratibus transjecta manus festinat utrimque Succisam cavare nemus

]

The Spaniards, the Scythians and the Arabs, when they want to make a

bridge in haste, fix hurdlework made of willows on bags of ox-hide,

and so cross in safety.

Rhodes (1101. 1102).

1101.

In [fourteen hundred and] eighty nine there was an earthquake in the

sea of Atalia near Rhodes, which opened the sea--that is its

bottom--and into this opening such a torrent of water poured that

for more than three hours the bottom of the sea was uncovered by

reason of the water which was lost in it, and then it closed to the

former level.

[Footnote: _Nello ottanto_ 9. It is scarcely likely that Leonardo

should here mean 89 AD. Dr. H. MULLER- STRUBING writes to me as

follows on this subject: "With reference to Rhodes Ross says (_Reise

auf den Griechischen Inseln, III_ 70 _ff_. 1840), that ancient

history affords instances of severe earthquakes at Rhodes, among

others one in the second year of the 138th Olympiad=270 B. C.; a

remarkably violent one under Antoninus Pius (A. D. 138-161) and

again under Constantine and later. But Leonardo expressly speaks of

an earthquake "_nel mar di Atalia presso a Rodi_", which is

singular. The town of Attalia, founded by Attalus, which is what he

no doubt means, was in Pamphylia and more than 150 English miles

East of Rhodes in a straight line. Leake and most other geographers

identify it with the present town of Adalia. Attalia is rarely

mentioned by the ancients, indeed only by Strabo and Pliny and no

earthquake is spoken of. I think therefore you are justified in

assuming that Leonardo means 1489". In the elaborate catalogue of

earthquakes in the East by Sciale Dshelal eddin Sayouthy (an

unpublished Arabic MS. in the possession of Prof. SCHEFER, (Membre

de l'Institut, Paris) mention is made of a terrible earthquake in

the year 867 of the Mohamedan Era corresponding to the year 1489,

and it is there stated that a hundred persons were killed by it in

the fortress of Kerak. There are three places of this name. Kerak on

the sea of Tiberias, Kerak near Tahle on the Libanon, which I

visited in the summer of l876--but neither of these is the place

alluded to. Possibly it may be the strongly fortified town of

Kerak=Kir Moab, to the West of the Dead Sea. There is no notice

about this in ALEXIS PERCY, _Memoire sur les tremblements de terres

ressentis dans la peninsule turco- hellenique et en Syrie (Memoires

couronnes et memoires des savants etrangers, Academie Royale de

Belgique, Tome XXIII)._]

1102.

Rhodes has in it 5000 houses.

Cyprus (1103. 1104).

1103.

SITE FOR [A TEMPLE OF] VENUS.

You must make steps on four sides, by which to mount to a meadow

formed by nature at the top of a rock which may be hollowed out and

supported in front by pilasters and open underneath in a large

portico,

[Footnote: See Pl. LXXXIII. Compare also p. 33 of this Vol. The

standing male figure at the side is evidently suggested by Michael

Angelo's David. On the same place a slight sketch of horses seems to

have been drawn first; there is no reason for assuming that the text

and this sketch, which have no connection with each other, are of

the same date.

_Sito di Venere._ By this heading Leonardo appears to mean Cyprus,

which was always considered by the ancients to be the home and birth

place of Aphrodite (Kirpic in Homer).]

in which the water may fall into various vases of granite,

porphyryand serpentine, within semi-circular recesses; and the water

may overflow from these. And round this portico towards the North

there should be a lake with a little island in the midst of which

should be a thick and shady wood; the waters at the top of the

pilasters should pour into vases at their base, from whence they

should flow in little channels.

Starting from the shore of Cilicia towards the South you discover

the beauties of the island of Cyprus.

The Caspian Sea (1105. 1106).

1104.

>From the shore of the Southern coast of Cilicia may be seen to the

South the beautiful island of Cyprus, which was the realm of the

goddess Venus, and many navigators being attracted by her beauty,

had their ships and rigging broken amidst the reefs, surrounded by

the whirling waters. Here the beauty of delightful hills tempts

wandering mariners to refresh themselves amidst their flowery

verdure, where the winds are tempered and fill the island and the

surrounding seas with fragrant odours. Ah! how many a ship has here

been sunk. Ah! how many a vessel broken on these rocks. Here might

be seen barks without number, some wrecked and half covered by the

sand; others showing the poop and another the prow, here a keel and

there the ribs; and it seems like a day of judgment when there

should be a resurrection of dead ships, so great is the number of

them covering all the Northern shore; and while the North gale makes

various and fearful noises there.

1105.

Write to Bartolomeo the Turk as to the flow and ebb of the Black

sea, and whether he is aware if there be such a flow and ebb in the

Hyrcanean or Caspian sea. [Footnote: The handwriting of this note

points to a late date.]

1106.

WHY WATER IS FOUND AT THE TOP OF MOUNTAINS.

>From the straits of Gibraltar to the Don is 3500 miles, that is one

mile and 1/6, giving a fall of one braccio in a mile to any water

that moves gently. The Caspian sea is a great deal higher; and none

of the mountains of Europe rise a mile above the surface of our

seas; therefore it might be said that the water which is on the

summits of our mountains might come from the height of those seas,

and of the rivers which flow into them, and which are still higher.

The sea of Azov.

1107.

Hence it follows that the sea of Azov is the highest part of the

Mediterranean sea, being at a distance of 3500 miles from the

Straits of Gibraltar, as is shown by the map for navigation; and it

has 3500 braccia of descent, that is, one mile and 1/6; therefore it

is higher than any mountains which exist in the West.

[Footnote: The passage before this, in the original, treats of the

exit of the waters from Lakes in general.]

The Dardanelles.

1108.

In the Bosphorus the Black Sea flows always into the Egean sea, and

the Egean sea never flows into it. And this is because the Caspian,

which is 400 miles to the East, with the rivers which pour into it,

always flows through subterranean caves into this sea of Pontus; and

the Don does the same as well as the Danube, so that the waters of

Pontus are always higher than those of the Egean; for the higher

always fall towards the lower, and never the lower towards the

higher.

Constantinople.

1109.

The bridge of Pera at Constantinople, 40 braccia wide, 70 braccia

high above the water, 600 braccia long; that is 400 over the sea and

200 on the land, thus making its own abutments.

[Footnote: See Pl. CX No. 1. In 1453 by order of Sultan Mohamed II.

the Golden Horn was crossed by a pontoon bridge laid on barrels (see

Joh. Dukas' History of the Byzantine Empire XXXVIII p. 279). --The

biographers of Michelangelo, Vasari as well as Condivi, relate that

at the time when Michelangelo suddenly left Rome, in 1506, he

entertained some intention of going to Constantinople, there to

serve the Sultan, who sought to engage him, by means of certain

Franciscan Monks, for the purpose of constructing a bridge to

connect Constantinople with Pera. See VASARI, _Vite_ (ed. Sansoni

VII, 168): _Michelangelo, veduto questa furia del papa, dubitando di

lui, ebbe, secondo che si dice, voglia di andarsene in

Gostantinopoli a servire il Turco, per mezzo di certi frati di San

Francesco, che desiderava averlo per fare un ponte che passassi da

Gostantinopoli a Pera._ And CONDIVI, _Vita di M. Buonaroti chap._

30_; Michelangelo allora vedendosi condotto a questo, temendo

dell'ira del papa, penso d'andarsene in Levante; massimamente

essendo stato dal Turco ricercato con grandissime promesse per mezzo

di certi frati di San Francesco, per volersene servire in fare un

ponte da Costantinopoli a Pera ed in altri affari._ Leonardo's plan

for this bridge was made in 1502. We may therefore conclude that at

about that time the Sultan Bajazet II. had either announced a

competition in this matter, or that through his agents Leonardo had

first been called upon to carry out the scheme.]

The Euphrates.

1110.

If the river will turn to the rift farther on it will never return

to its bed, as the Euphrates does, and this may do at Bologna the

one who is disappointed for his rivers.

Centrae Asia.

1111.

Mounts Caucasus, Comedorum, and Paropemisidae are joined together

between Bactria and India, and give birth to the river Oxus which

takes its rise in these mountains and flows 500 miles towards the

North and as many towards the West, and discharges its waters into

the Caspian sea; and is accompanied by the Oxus, Dargados, Arthamis,

Xariaspes, Dargamaim, Ocus and Margus, all very large rivers. From

the opposite side towards the South rises the great river Indus

which sends its waters for 600 miles Southwards and receives as

tributaries in this course the rivers Xaradrus, Hyphasis, Vadris,

Vandabal Bislaspus to the East, Suastes and Coe to the West, uniting

with these rivers, and with their waters it flows 800 miles to the

West; then, turning back by the Arbiti mountains makes an elbow and

turns Southwards, where after a course of about 100 miles it finds

the Indian Sea, in which it pours itself by seven branches. On the

side of the same mountains rises the great Ganges, which river flows

Southwards for 500 miles and to the Southwest a thousand ... and

Sarabas, Diarnuna, Soas and Scilo, Condranunda are its tributaries.

It flows into the Indian sea by many mouths.

On the natives of hot countries.

1112.

Men born in hot countries love the night because it refreshes them

and have a horror of light because it burns them; and therefore they

are of the colour of night, that is black. And in cold countries it

is just the contrary.

[Footnote: The sketch here inserted is in MS. H3 55b.]

_XVIII._

_Naval Warfare.--Mechanical Appliances.--Music._

_Such theoretical questions, as have been laid before the reader in

Sections XVI and XVII, though they were the chief subjects of

Leonardo's studies of the sea, did not exclusively claim his

attention. A few passages have been collected at the beginning of

this section, which prove that he had turned his mind to the

practical problems of navigation, and more especially of naval

warfare. What we know for certain of his life gives us no data, it

is true, as to when or where these matters came under his

consideration; but the fact remains certain both from these notes in

his manuscripts, and from the well known letter to Ludovico il Moro

(No._ 1340_), in which he expressly states that he is as capable as

any man, in this very department._

_The numerous notes as to the laws and rationale of the flight of

birds, are scattered through several note-books. An account of these

is given in the Bibliography of the manuscripts at the end of this

work. It seems probable that the idea which led him to these

investigations was his desire to construct a flying or aerial

machine for man. At the same time it must be admitted that the notes

on the two subjects are quite unconnected in the manuscripts, and

that those on the flight of birds are by far the most numerous and

extensive. The two most important passages that treat of the

construction of a flying machine are those already published as Tav.

XVI, No._ 1 _and Tav. XVIII in the_ "Saggio delle opere di Leonardo

da Vinci" _(Milan_ 1872_). The passages--Nos._ 1120-1125--_here

printed for the first time and hitherto unknown--refer to the same

subject and, with the exception of one already published in the

Saggio-- No._ 1126--_they are, so far as I know, the only notes,

among the numerous observations on the flight of birds, in which the

phenomena are incidentally and expressly connected with the idea of

a flying machine._

_The notes on machines of war, the construction of fortifications,

and similar matters which fall within the department of the

Engineer, have not been included in this work, for the reasons given

on page_ 26 _of this Vol. An exception has been made in favour of

the passages Nos._ 1127 _and_ 1128, _because they have a more

general interest, as bearing on the important question: whence the

Master derived his knowledge of these matters. Though it would be

rash to assert that Leonardo was the first to introduce the science

of mining into Italy, it may be confidently said that he is one of

the earliest writers who can be proved to have known and understood

it; while, on the other hand, it is almost beyond doubt that in the

East at that time, the whole science of besieging towns and mining

in particular, was far more advanced than in Europe. This gives a

peculiar value to the expressions used in No._ 1127.

_I have been unable to find in the manuscripts any passage whatever

which throws any light on Leonardo's great reputation as a musician.

Nothing therein illustrates VASARPS well-known statement:_ Avvenne

che morto Giovan Galeazze duca di Milano, e creato Lodovico Sforza

nel grado medesimo anno 1494, fu condotto a Milano con gran

riputazione Lionardo al duca, il quale molto si dilettava del suono

della lira, perche sonasse; e Lionardo porto quello strumento

ch'egli aveva di sua mano fabbricato d'argento gran parte, in forma

d'un teschio di cavallo, cosa bizzarra e nuova, acciocche l'armonia

fosse con maggior tuba e piu sonora di voce; laonde supero tutti i

musici che quivi erano concorsi a sonare.

_The only notes on musical matters are those given as Nos._ 1129

_and_ 1130, _which explain certain arrangements in instruments._

The ship's logs of Vitruvius, of Alberti and of Leonardo

1113.

ON MOVEMENTS;--TO KNOW HOW MUCH A SHIP ADVANCES IN AN HOUR.

The ancients used various devices to ascertain the distance gone by

a ship each hour, among which Vitruvius [Footnote 6: See VITRUVIUS,

_De Architectura lib. X._ C. 14 (p. 264 in the edition of Rose and

Muller- Strubing). The German edition published at Bale in 1543 has,

on fol. 596, an illustration of the contrivance, as described by

Vitruvius.] gives one in his work on Architecture which is just as

fallacious as all the others; and this is a mill wheel which touches

the waves of the sea at one end and in each complete revolution

describes a straight line which represents the circumference of the

wheel extended to a straightness. But this invention is of no worth

excepting on the smooth and motionless surface of lakes. But if the

water moves together with the ship at an equal rate, then the wheel

remains motionless; and if the motion of the water is more or less

rapid than that of the ship, then neither has the wheel the same

motion as the ship so that this invention is of but little use.

There is another method tried by experiment with a known distance

between one island and another; and this is done by a board or under

the pressure of wind which strikes on it with more or less

swiftness. This is in Battista Alberti [Footnote 25: LEON BATTISTA

ALBERTI, _De Architectura lib. V._, c. 12 treats '_de le navi e

parti loro_', but there is no reference to the machine, mentioned by

Leonardo. Alberti says here: _Noi abbiamo trattato lungamente in

altro luogo de' modi de le navi, ma in questo luogo ne abbiamo detto

quel tanto che si bisogna_. To this the following note is added in

the most recent Italian edition: _Questo libro e tuttora inedito e

porta il titolo, secondo Gesnero di_ '_Liber navis_'.].

Battista Alberti's method which is made by experiment on a known

distance between one island and another. But such an invention does

not succeed excepting on a ship like the one on which the experiment

was made, and it must be of the same burden and have the same sails,

and the sails in the same places, and the size of the waves must be

the same. But my method will serve for any ship, whether with oars

or sails; and whether it be small or large, broad or long, or high

or low, it always serves [Footnote 52: Leonardo does not reveal the

method invented by him.].

Methods of staying and moving in water

1114.

How an army ought to cross rivers by swimming with air-bags ... How

fishes swim [Footnote 2: Compare No. 821.]; of the way in which they

jump out of the water, as may be seen with dolphins; and it seems a

wonderful thing to make a leap from a thing which does not resist

but slips away. Of the swimming of animals of a long form, such as

eels and the like. Of the mode of swimming against currents and in

the rapid falls of rivers. Of the mode of swimming of fishes of a

round form. How it is that animals which have not long hind quartres

cannot swim. How it is that all other animals which have feet with

toes, know by nature how to swim, excepting man. In what way man

ought to learn to swim. Of the way in which man may rest on the

water. How man may protect himself against whirlpools or eddies in

the water, which drag him down. How a man dragged to the bottom must

seek the reflux which will throw him up from the depths. How he

ought to move his arms. How to swim on his back. How he can and how

he cannot stay under water unless he can hold his breath [13]. How

by means of a certain machine many people may stay some time under

water. How and why I do not describe my method of remaining under

water, or how long I can stay without eating; and I do not publish

nor divulge these by reason of the evil nature of men who would use

them as means of destruction at the bottom of the sea, by sending

ships to the bottom, and sinking them together with the men in them.

And although I will impart others, there is no danger in them;

because the mouth of the tube, by which you breathe, is above the

water supported on bags or corks [19].

[Footnote: L. 13-19 will also be found in Vol. I No. 1.]

On naval warfare (1115. 1116).

1115.

Supposing in a battle between ships and galleys that the ships are

victorious by reason of the high of heir tops, you must haul the

yard up almost to the top of the mast, and at the extremity of the

yard, that is the end which is turned towards the enemy, have a

small cage fastened, wrapped up below and all round in a great

mattress full of cotton so that it may not be injured by the bombs;

then, with the capstan, haul down the opposite end of this yard and

the top on the opposite side will go up so high, that it will be far

above the round-top of the ship, and you will easily drive out the

men that are in it. But it is necessary that the men who are in the

galley should go to the opposite side of it so as to afford a

counterpoise to the weight of the men placed inside the cage on the

yard.

1116.

If you want to build an armada for the sea employ these ships to ram

in the enemy's ships. That is, make ships 100 feet long and 8 feet

wide, but arranged so that the left hand rowers may have their oars

to the right side of the ship, and the right hand ones to the left

side, as is shown at M, so that the leverage of the oars may be

longer. And the said ship may be one foot and a half thick, that is

made with cross beams within and without, with planks in contrary

directions. And this ship must have attached to it, a foot below the

water, an iron-shod spike of about the weight and size of an anvil;

and this, by force of oars may, after it has given the first blow,

be drawn back, and driven forward again with fury give a second

blow, and then a third, and so many as to destroy the other ship.

The use of swimming belts.

1117.

A METHOD OF ESCAPING IN A TEMPEST AND SHIPWRECK AT SEA.

Have a coat made of leather, which must be double across the breast,

that is having a hem on each side of about a finger breadth. Thus it

will be double from the waist to the knee; and the leather must be

quite air-tight. When you want to leap into the sea, blow out the

skirt of your coat through the double hems of the breast; and jump

into the sea, and allow yourself to be carried by the waves; when

you see no shore near, give your attention to the sea you are in,

and always keep in your mouth the air-tube which leads down into the

coat; and if now and again you require to take a breath of fresh

air, and the foam prevents you, you may draw a breath of the air

within the coat.

[Footnote: AMORETTI, _Memorie Storiche_, Tav. II. B. Fig. 5, gives

the same figure, somewhat altered. 6. _La canna dell' aria_. Compare

Vol. I. No. I. Note]

On the gravity of water.

1118.

If the weight of the sea bears on its bottom, a man, lying on that

bottom and having l000 braccia of water on his back, would have

enough to crush him.

Diving apparatus and Skating (1119-1121).

1119.

Of walking under water. Method of walking on water.

[Footnote: The two sketches belonging to this passage are given by

AMORETTI, _Memorie Storiche_. Tav. II, Fig. 3 and 4.]

1120.

Just as on a frozen river a man may run without moving his feet, so

a car might be made that would slide by itself.

[Footnote: The drawings of carts by the side of this text have no

direct connection with the problem as stated in words.--Compare No.

1448, l. 17.]

1121.

A definition as to why a man who slides on ice does not fall.

[Footnote: An indistinct sketch accompanies the passage, in the

original.]

On Flying machines (1122-1126).

1122.

Man when flying must stand free from the waist upwards so as to be

able to balance himself as he does in a boat so that the centre of

gravity in himself and in the machine may counterbalance each other,

and be shifted as necessity demands for the changes of its centre of

resistance.

1123.

Remember that your flying machine must imitate no other than the

bat, because the web is what by its union gives the armour, or

strength to the wings.

If you imitate the wings of feathered birds, you will find a much

stronger structure, because they are pervious; that is, their

feathers are separate and the air passes through them. But the bat

is aided by the web that connects the whole and is not pervious.

1124.

TO ESCAPE THE PERIL OF DESTRUCTION.

Destruction to such a machine may occur in two ways; of which the

first is the breaking of the machine. The second would be when the

machine should turn on its edge or nearly on its edge, because it

ought always to descend in a highly oblique direction, and almost

exactly balanced on its centre. As regards the first--the breaking

of the machine--, that may be prevented by making it as strong as

possible; and in whichever direction it may tend to turn over, one

centre must be very far from the other; that is, in a machine 30

braccia long the centres must be 4 braccia one from the other.

[Footnote: Compare No. 1428.]

1125.

Bags by which a man falling from a height of 6 braccia may avoid

hurting himself, by a fall whether into water or on the ground; and

these bags, strung together like a rosary, are to be fixed on one's

back.

1126.

An object offers as much resistance to the air as the air does to

the object. You may see that the beating of its wings against the

air supports a heavy eagle in the highest and rarest atmosphere,

close to the sphere of elemental fire. Again you may see the air in

motion over the sea, fill the swelling sails and drive heavily laden

ships. From these instances, and the reasons given, a man with wings

large enough and duly connected might learn to overcome the

resistance of the air, and by conquering it, succeed in subjugating

it and rising above it. [Footnote: A parachute is here sketched,

with an explanatory remark. It is reproduced on Tav. XVI in the

Saggio, and in: _Leonardo da Vinci als Ingenieur etc., Ein Beitrag

zur Geschichte der Technik und der induktiven Wissenschaften, von

Dr. Hermann Grothe, Berlin_ 1874, p. 50.]

Of mining.

1127.

If you want to know where a mine runs, place a drum over all the

places where you suspect that it is being made, and upon this drum

put a couple of dice, and when you are over the spot where they are

mining, the dice will jump a little on the drum at every blow which

is given underground in the mining.

There are persons who, having the convenience of a river or a lake

in their lands, have made, close to the place where they suspect

that a mine is being made, a great reservoir of water, and have

countermined the enemy, and having found them, have turned the water

upon them and destroyed a great number in the mine.

Of Greek fire.

1128.

GREEK FIRE.

Take charcoal of willow, and saltpetre, and sulphuric acid, and

sulphur, and pitch, with frankincense and camphor, and Ethiopian

wool, and boil them all together. This fire is so ready to burn that

it clings to the timbers even under water. And add to this

composition liquid varnish, and bituminous oil, and turpentine and

strong vinegar, and mix all together and dry it in the sun, or in an

oven when the bread is taken out; and then stick it round hempen or

other tow, moulding it into a round form, and studding it all over

with very sharp nails. You must leave in this ball an opening to

serve as a fusee, and cover it with rosin and sulphur.

Again, this fire, stuck at the top of a long plank which has one

braccio length of the end pointed with iron that it may not be burnt

by the said fire, is good for avoiding and keeping off the ships, so

as not to be overwhelmed by their onset.

Again throw vessels of glass full of pitch on to the enemy's ships

when the men in them are intent on the battle; and then by throwing

similar burning balls upon them you have it in your power to burn

all their ships.

[Footnote: Venturi has given another short text about the Greek fire

in a French translation (Essai Section XIV). He adds that the

original text is to be found in MS. B. 30 (?). Libri speaks of it in

a note as follows (_Histoire des sciences mathematiques en Italie

Vol. II_ p. 129): _La composition du feu gregeois est une des chases

qui ont ete les plus cherchees et qui sont encore les plus

douteuses. On dit qu'il fut invente au septieme siecle de l'ere

chretienne par l'architecte Callinique (Constantini Porphyrogenetae

opera, Lugd. Batav._ 1617,-- _in-_8vo; p. 172, _de admin, imper.

exp._ 48_), et il se trouve souvent mentionne par les Historiens

Byzantins. Tantot on le langait avec des machines, comme on

lancerait une banche, tantot on le soufflait avec de longs tubes,

comme on soufflerait un gaz ou un liquide enflamme (Annae Comnenae

Alexias_, p. 335, _lib. XI.--Aeliani et Leonis, imperatoris tactica,

Lugd.-Bat._ 1613, _in_-4. part. 2 a, p. 322, _Leonis tact. cap._

l9.--_Joinville, histoire du Saint Louis collect. Petitot tom. II,_

p. 235). _Les ecrivains contemporains disent que l'eau ne pouvait

pas eteindre ce feu, mais qu'avec du vinaigre et du sable on y

parvenait. Suivant quelques historiens le feu gregeois etait compose

de soufre et de resine. Marcus Graecus (Liber ignium, Paris,_ 1804,

_in_-40_) donne plusieurs manieres de le faire qui ne sont pas tres

intelligibles, mais parmi lesquelles on trouve la composition de la

poudre a canon. Leonard de Vinci (MSS. de Leonard de Vinci, vol. B.

f. 30,) dit qu'on le faisait avec du charbon de saule, du salpetre,

de l'eau de vie, de la resine, du soufre, de la poix et du camphre.

Mais il est probable que nous ne savons pas qu'elle etait sa

composition, surtout a cause du secret qu'en faisaient les Grecs. En

effet, l'empereur Constantin Porphyrogenete recommende a son fils de

ne jamais en donner aux Barbares, et de leur repondre, s'ils en

demandaient, qu'il avait ete apporti du ciel par un ange et que le

secret en avait ete confie aux Chretiens (Constantini

Porphyrogennetae opera,_ p. 26-27, _de admin. imper., cap. _12_)._]

Of Music (1129. 1130).

1129.

A drum with cogs working by wheels with springs [2].

[Footnote: This chapter consists of explanations of the sketches

shown on Pl. CXXI. Lines 1 and 2 of the text are to be seen at the

top at the left hand side of the first sketch of a drum. Lines 3-5

refer to the sketch immediately below this. Line 6 is written as the

side of the seventh sketch, and lines 7 and 8 at the side of the

eighth. Lines 9-16 are at the bottom in the middle. The remainder of

the text is at the side of the drawing at the bottom.]

A square drum of which the parchment may be drawn tight or slackened

by the lever _a b_ [5].

A drum for harmony [6].

[7] A clapper for harmony; that is, three clappers together.

[9] Just as one and the same drum makes a deep or acute sound

according as the parchments are more or less tightened, so these

parchments variously tightened on one and the same drum will make

various sounds [16].

Keys narrow and close together; (bicchi) far apart; these will be

right for the trumpet shown above.

_a_ must enter in the place of the ordinary keys which have the ...

in the openings of a flute.

1130.

Tymbals to be played like the monochord, or the soft flute.

[6] Here there is to be a cylinder of cane after the manner of

clappers with a musical round called a Canon, which is sung in four

parts; each singer singing the whole round. Therefore I here make a

wheel with 4 teeth so that each tooth takes by itself the part of a

singer.

[Footnote: In the original there are some more sketches, to which

the text, from line 6, refers. They are studies for a contrivance

exactly like the cylinder in our musical boxes.]

1131.

Of decorations.

White and sky-blue cloths, woven in checks to make a decoration.

Cloths with the threads drawn at _a b c d e f g h i k_, to go round

the decoration.

_XIX._

_Philosophical Maxims. Morals. Polemics and Speculations_.

_Vasari indulges in severe strictures on Leonardo's religious views.

He speaks, among other things, of his_ "capricci nel filosofar delle

cose naturali" _and says on this point:_ "Per il che fece nell'animo

un concetto si eretico che e' non si accostava a qualsi voglia

religione, stimando per avventura assai piu lo esser filosofo che

cristiano" _(see the first edition of_ 'Le Vite'_). But this

accusation on the part of a writer in the days of the Inquisition is

not a very serious one--and the less so, since, throughout the

manuscripts, we find nothing to support it._

_Under the heading of "Philosophical Maxims" I have collected all

the passages which can give us a clear comprehension of Leonardo's

ideas of the world at large. It is scarcely necessary to observe

that there is absolutely nothing in them to lead to the inference

that he was an atheist. His views of nature and its laws are no

doubt very unlike those of his contemporaries, and have a much

closer affinity to those which find general acceptance at the

present day. On the other hand, it is obvious from Leonardo's will

(see No._ 1566_) that, in the year before his death, he had

professed to adhere to the fundamental doctrines of the Roman

Catholic faith, and this evidently from his own personal desire and

impulse._

_The incredible and demonstrably fictitious legend of Leonardo's

death in the arms of Francis the First, is given, with others, by

Vasari and further embellished by this odious comment:_ "Mostrava

tuttavia quanto avea offeso Dio e gli uomini del mondo, non avendo

operato nell'arte come si conveniva." _This last accusation, it may

be remarked, is above all evidence of the superficial character of

the information which Vasari was in a position to give about

Leonardo. It seems to imply that Leonardo was disdainful of diligent

labour. With regard to the second, referring to Leonardo's morality

and dealings with his fellow men, Vasari himself nullifies it by

asserting the very contrary in several passages. A further

refutation may be found in the following sentence from the letter in

which Melsi, the young Milanese nobleman, announces the Master's

death to Leonardo's brothers:_ Credo siate certificati della morte

di Maestro Lionardo fratello vostro, e mio quanto optimo padre, per

la cui morte sarebbe impossibile che io potesse esprimere il dolore

che io ho preso; e in mentre che queste mia membra si sosterranno

insieme, io possedero una perpetua infelicita, e meritamente perche

sviscerato et ardentissimo amore mi portava giornalmente. E dolto ad

ognuno la perdita di tal uomo, quale non e piu in podesta della

natura, ecc.

_It is true that, in April_ 1476, _we find the names of Leonardo and

Verrocchio entered in the_ "Libro degli Uffiziali di notte e de'

Monasteri" _as breaking the laws; but we immediately after find the

note_ "Absoluti cum condizione ut retamburentur" (Tamburini _was the

name given to the warrant cases of the night police). The acquittal

therefore did not exclude the possibility of a repetition of the

charge. It was in fact repeated, two months later, and on this

occasion the Master and his pupil were again fully acquitted.

Verrocchio was at this time forty and Leonardo four-and-twenty. The

documents referring to this affair are in the State Archives of

Florence; they have been withheld from publication, but it seemed to

me desirable to give the reader this brief account of the leading

facts of the story, as the vague hints of it, which have recently

been made public, may have given to the incident an aspect which it

had not in reality, and which it does not deserve._

_The passages here classed under the head "Morals" reveal Leonardo

to us as a man whose life and conduct were unfailingly governed by

lofty principles and aims. He could scarcely have recorded his stern

reprobation and unmeasured contempt for men who do nothing useful

and strive only for riches, if his own life and ambitions had been

such as they have so often been misrepresented._

_At a period like that, when superstition still exercised unlimited

dominion over the minds not merely of the illiterate crowd, but of

the cultivated and learned classes, it was very natural that

Leonardo's views as to Alchemy, Ghosts, Magicians, and the like

should be met with stern reprobation whenever and wherever he may

have expressed them; this accounts for the argumentative tone of all

his utterances on such subjects which I have collected in

Subdivision III of this section. To these I have added some passages

which throw light on Leonardo's personal views on the Universe. They

are, without exception, characterised by a broad spirit of

naturalism of which the principles are more strictly applied in his

essays on Astronomy, and still more on Physical Geography._

_To avoid repetition, only such notes on Philosophy, Morals and

Polemics, have been included in this section as occur as independent

texts in the original MSS. Several moral reflections have already

been given in Vol. I, in section "Allegorical representations,

Mottoes and Emblems". Others will be found in the following section.

Nos._ 9 _to_ 12, _Vol. I, are also passages of an argumentative

character. It did not seem requisite to repeat here these and

similar passages, since their direct connection with the context is

far closer in places where they have appeared already, than it would

be here._

I.

PHILOSOPHICAL MAXIMS.

Prayers to God (1132. 1133).

1132.

I obey Thee Lord, first for the love I ought, in all reason to bear

Thee; secondly for that Thou canst shorten or prolong the lives of

men.

1133.

A PRAYER.

Thou, O God, dost sell us all good things at the price of labour.

The powers of Nature (1134-1139).

1134.

O admirable impartiality of Thine, Thou first Mover; Thou hast not

permitted that any force should fail of the order or quality of its

necessary results.

1135.

Necessity is the mistress and guide of nature.

Necessity is the theme and the inventress, the eternal curb and law

of nature.

1136.

In many cases one and the same thing is attracted by two strong

forces, namely Necessity and Potency. Water falls in rain; the earth

absorbs it from the necessity for moisture; and the sun evaporates

it, not from necessity, but by its power.

1137.

Weight, force and casual impulse, together with resistance, are the

four external powers in which all the visible actions of mortals

have their being and their end.

1138.

Our body is dependant on heaven and heaven on the Spirit.

1139.

The motive power is the cause of all life.

Psychology (1140-1147).

1140.

And you, O Man, who will discern in this work of mine the wonderful

works of Nature, if you think it would be a criminal thing to

destroy it, reflect how much more criminal it is to take the life of

a man; and if this, his external form, appears to thee marvellously

constructed, remember that it is nothing as compared with the soul

that dwells in that structure; for that indeed, be it what it may,

is a thing divine. Leave it then to dwell in His work at His good

will and pleasure, and let not your rage or malice destroy a

life--for indeed, he who does not value it, does not himself deserve

it [Footnote 19: In MS. II 15a is the note: _chi no stima la vita,

non la merita._].

[Footnote: This text is on the back of the drawings reproduced on

Pl. CVII. Compare No. 798, 35 note on p. 111: Compare also No. 837

and 838.]

1141.

The soul can never be corrupted with the corruption of the body,,

but is in the body as it were the air which causes the sound of the

organ, where when a pipe bursts, the wind would cease to have any

good effect. [Footnote: Compare No. 845.]

1142.

The part always has a tendency to reunite with its whole in order to

escape from its imperfection.

The spirit desires to remain with its body, because, without the

organic instruments of that body, it can neither act, nor feel

anything.

1143.

If any one wishes to see how the soul dwells in its body, let him

observe how this body uses its daily habitation; that is to say, if

this is devoid of order and confused, the body will be kept in

disorder and confusion by its soul.

1144.

Why does the eye see a thing more clearly in dreams than with the

imagination being awake?

1145.

The senses are of the earth; Reason, stands apart in contemplation.

[Footnote: Compare No. 842.]

1146.

Every action needs to be prompted by a motive.

To know and to will are two operations of the human mind.

Discerning, judging, deliberating are acts of the human mind.

1147.

All our knowledge has its origin in our preceptions.

Science, its principles and rules (1148--1161)

1148.

Science is the observation of things possible, whether present or

past; prescience is the knowledge of things which may come to pass,

though but slowly.

1149.

Experience, the interpreter between formative nature and the human

race, teaches how that nature acts among mortals; and being

constrained by necessity cannot act otherwise than as reason, which

is its helm, requires her to act.

1150.

Wisdom is the daughter of experience.

1151.

Nature is full of infinite causes that have never occured in

experience.

1152.

Truth was the only daughter of Time.

1153.

Experience never errs; it is only your judgments that err by

promising themselves effects such as are not caused by your

experiments.

Experience does not err; only your judgments err by expecting from

her what is not in her power. Men wrongly complain of Experience;

with great abuse they accuse her of leading them astray but they set

Experience aside, turning from it with complaints as to our

ignorance causing us to be carried away by vain and foolish desires

to promise ourselves, in her name, things that are not in her power;

saying that she is fallacious. Men are unjust in complaining of

innocent Experience, constantly accusing her of error and of false

evidence.

1154.

Instrumental or mechanical science is of all the noblest and the

most useful, seeing that by means of this all animated bodies that

have movement perform all their actions; and these movements are

based on the centre of gravity which is placed in the middle

dividing unequal weights, and it has dearth and wealth of muscles

and also lever and counterlever.

1155.

OF MECHANICS.

Mechanics are the Paradise of mathematical science, because here we

come to the fruits of mathematics. [Footnote: Compare No. 660, 11.

19--22 (Vol. I., p. 332). 1156.

Every instrument requires to be made by experience.

1157.

The man who blames the supreme certainty of mathematics feeds on

confusion, and can never silence the contradictions of sophistical

sciences which lead to an eternal quackery.

1158.

There is no certainty in sciences where one of the mathematical

sciences cannot be applied, or which are not in relation with these

mathematics.

1159.

Any one who in discussion relies upon authority uses, not his

understanding, but rather his memory. Good culture is born of a good

disposition; and since the cause is more to be praised than the

effect, I will rather praise a good disposition without culture,

than good culture without the disposition.

1160.

Science is the captain, and practice the soldiers.

1161.

OF THE ERRORS OF THOSE WHO DEPEND ON PRACTICE WITHOUT SCIENCE.

Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a

sailor who enters a ship without a helm or a compass, and who never

can be certain whither he is going.

II.

MORALS.

What is life? (1162. 1163).

1162.

Now you see that the hope and the desire of returning home and to

one's former state is like the moth to the light, and that the man

who with constant longing awaits with joy each new spring time, each

new summer, each new month and new year--deeming that the things he

longs for are ever too late in coming--does not perceive that he is

longing for his own destruction. But this desire is the very

quintessence, the spirit of the elements, which finding itself

imprisoned with the soul is ever longing to return from the human

body to its giver. And you must know that this same longing is that

quintessence, inseparable from nature, and that man is the image of

the world.

1163.

O Time! consumer of all things; O envious age! thou dost destroy all

things and devour all things with the relentless teeth of years,

little by little in a slow death. Helen, when she looked in her

mirror, seeing the withered wrinkles made in her face by old age,

wept and wondered why she had twice been carried away.

O Time! consumer of all things, and O envious age! by which all

things are all devoured.

Death.

1164.

Every evil leaves behind a grief in our memory, except the supreme

evil, that is death, which destroys this memory together with life.

How to spend life (1165-1170).

1165.

0 sleepers! what a thing is slumber! Sleep resembles death. Ah, why

then dost thou not work in such wise as that after death thou mayst

retain a resemblance to perfect life, when, during life, thou art in

sleep so like to the hapless dead? [Footnote: Compare No. 676, Vol.

I. p. 353.]

1166.

One pushes down the other.

By these square-blocks are meant the life and the studies of men.

1167.

The knowledge of past times and of the places on the earth is both

an ornament and nutriment to the human mind.

1168.

To lie is so vile, that even if it were in speaking well of godly

things it would take off something from God's grace; and Truth is so

excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble.

Beyond a doubt truth bears the same relation to falsehood as light

to darkness; and this truth is in itself so excellent that, even

when it dwells on humble and lowly matters, it is still infinitely

above uncertainty and lies, disguised in high and lofty discourses;

because in our minds, even if lying should be their fifth element,

this does not prevent that the truth of things is the chief

nutriment of superior intellects, though not of wandering wits.

But you who live in dreams are better pleased by the sophistical

reasons and frauds of wits in great and uncertain things, than by

those reasons which are certain and natural and not so far above us.

1169.

Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.

1170.

Men are in error when they lament the flight of time, accusing it of

being too swift, and not perceiving that it is sufficient as it

passes; but good memory, with which nature has endowed us, causes

things long past to seem present.

1171.

Learning acquired in youth arrests the evil of old age; and if you

understand that old age has wisdom for its food, you will so conduct

yourself in youth that your old age will not lack for nourishment.

1172.

The acquisition of any knowledge is always of use to the intellect,

because it may thus drive out useless things and retain the good.

For nothing can be loved or hated unless it is first known.

1173.

As a day well spent procures a happy sleep, so a life well employed

procures a happy death.

1174.

The water you touch in a river is the last of that which has passed,

and the first of that which is coming. Thus it is with time present.

Life if well spent, is long.

1175.

Just as food eaten without caring for it is turned into loathsome

nourishment, so study without a taste for it spoils memory, by

retaining nothing which it has taken in.

1176.

Just as eating against one's will is injurious to health, so study

without a liking for it spoils the memory, and it retains nothing it

takes in.

1177.

On Mount Etna the words freeze in your mouth and you may make ice of

them.[Footnote 2: There is no clue to explain this strange

sentence.]

Just as iron rusts unless it is used, and water putrifies or, in

cold, turns to ice, so our intellect spoils unless it is kept in

use.

You do ill if you praise, and still worse if you reprove in a matter

you do not understand.

When Fortune comes, seize her in front with a sure hand, because

behind she is bald.

1178.

It seems to me that men of coarse and clumsy habits and of small

knowledge do not deserve such fine instruments nor so great a

variety of natural mechanism as men of speculation and of great

knowledge; but merely a sack in which their food may be stowed and

whence it may issue, since they cannot be judged to be any thing

else than vehicles for food; for it seems to me they have nothing

about them of the human species but the voice and the figure, and

for all the rest are much below beasts.

1179.

Some there are who are nothing else than a passage for food and

augmentors of excrement and fillers of privies, because through them

no other things in the world, nor any good effects are produced,

since nothing but full privies results from them.

On foolishness and ignorance (1180--1182).

1180.

The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.

1181.

Folly is the shield of shame, as unreadiness is that of poverty

glorified.

1182.

Blind ignorance misleads us thus and delights with the results of

lascivious joys.

Because it does not know the true light. Because it does not know

what is the true light.

Vain splendour takes from us the power of being .... behold! for its

vain splendour we go into the fire, thus blind ignorance does

mislead us. That is, blind ignorance so misleads us that ...

O! wretched mortals, open your eyes.

On riches (1183--1187).

1183.

That is not riches, which may be lost; virtue is our true good and

the true reward of its possessor. That cannot be lost; that never

deserts us, but when life leaves us. As to property and external

riches, hold them with trembling; they often leave their possessor

in contempt, and mocked at for having lost them.

1184.

Every man wishes to make money to give it to the doctors, destroyers

of life; they then ought to be rich. [Footnote 2: Compare No. 856.]

Man has much power of discourse which for the most part is vain and

false; animals have but little, but it is useful and true, and a

small truth is better than a great lie.

1185.

He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss.

1186.

He who wishes to be rich in a day will be hanged in a year.

1187.

That man is of supreme folly who always wants for fear of wanting;

and his life flies away while he is still hoping to enjoy the good

things which he has with extreme labour acquired.

Rules of Life (1188-1202).

1188.

If you governed your body by the rules of virtue you would not walk

on all fours in this world.

You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child.

[Footnote: The first sentence is obscure. Compare Nos. 825, 826.]

1189.

Savage he is who saves himself.

1190.

We ought not to desire the impossible. [Footnote: The writing of

this note, which is exceedingly minute, is reproduced in facsimile

on Pl. XLI No. 5 above the first diagram.

1191.

Ask counsel of him who rules himself well.

Justice requires power, insight, and will; and it resembles the

queen-bee.

He who does not punish evil commands it to be done.

He who takes the snake by the tail will presently be bitten by it.

The grave will fall in upon him who digs it.

1192.

The man who does not restrain wantonness, allies himself with

beasts.

You can have no dominion greater or less than that over yourself.

He who thinks little, errs much.

It is easier to contend with evil at the first than at the last.

No counsel is more loyal than that given on ships which are in

peril: He may expect loss who acts on the advice of an inexperienced

youth.

1193.

Where there is most feeling, there is the greatest martyrdom;--a

great martyr.

1194.

The memory of benefits is a frail defence against ingratitude.

Reprove your friend in secret and praise him openly.

Be not false about the past.

1195.

A SIMILE FOR PATIENCE.

Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against

the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases,

that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience

under great offences, and they cannot hurt your feelings.

1196.

To speak well of a base man is much the same as speaking ill of a

good man.

1197.

Envy wounds with false accusations, that is with detraction, a thing

which scares virtue.

1198.

We are deceived by promises and time disappoints us ... [Footnote 2:

The rest of this passage may be rendered in various ways, but none

of them give a satisfactory meaning.]

1199.

Fear arises sooner than any thing else.

1200.

Just as courage imperils life, fear protects it.

Threats alone are the weapons of the threatened man.

Wherever good fortune enters, envy lays siege to the place and

attacks it; and when it departs, sorrow and repentance remain

behind.

He who walks straight rarely falls.

It is bad if you praise, and worse if you reprove a thing, I mean,

if you do not understand the matter well.

It is ill to praise, and worse to reprimand in matters that you do

not understand.

1201.

Words which do not satisfy the ear of the hearer weary him or vex

him, and the symptoms of this you will often see in such hearers in

their frequent yawns; you therefore, who speak before men whose good

will you desire, when you see such an excess of fatigue, abridge

your speech, or change your discourse; and if you do otherwise, then

instead of the favour you desire, you will get dislike and

hostility.

And if you would see in what a man takes pleasure, without hearing

him speak, change the subject of your discourse in talking to him,

and when you presently see him intent, without yawning or wrinkling

his brow or other actions of various kinds, you may be certain that

the matter of which you are speaking is such as is agreeable to him

&c.

1202.

The lover is moved by the beloved object as the senses are by

sensible objects; and they unite and become one and the same thing.

The work is the first thing born of this union; if the thing loved

is base the lover becomes base.

When the thing taken into union is perfectly adapted to that which

receives it, the result is delight and pleasure and satisfaction.

When that which loves is united to the thing beloved it can rest

there; when the burden is laid down it finds rest there.

Politics (1203. 1204).

1203.

There will be eternal fame also for the inhabitants of that town,

constructed and enlarged by him.

All communities obey and are led by their magnates, and these

magnates ally themselves with the lords and subjugate them in two

ways: either by consanguinity, or by fortune; by consanguinity, when

their children are, as it were, hostages, and a security and pledge

of their suspected fidelity; by property, when you make each of

these build a house or two inside your city which may yield some

revenue and he shall have...; 10 towns, five thousand houses with

thirty thousand inhabitants, and you will disperse this great

congregation of people which stand like goats one behind the other,

filling every place with fetid smells and sowing seeds of pestilence

and death;

And the city will gain beauty worthy of its name and to you it will

be useful by its revenues, and the eternal fame of its

aggrandizement.

[Footnote: These notes were possibly written in preparation for a

letter. The meaning is obscure.]

1204.

To preserve Nature's chiefest boon, that is freedom, I can find

means of offence and defence, when it is assailed by ambitious

tyrants, and first I will speak of the situation of the walls, and

also I shall show how communities can maintain their good and just

Lords.

[Footnote: Compare No. 1266.]

III.

POLEMICS.--SPECULATION.

Against Speculators (1205. 1206).

1205.

Oh! speculators on things, boast not of knowing the things that

nature ordinarily brings about; but rejoice if you know the end of

those things which you yourself devise.

1206.

Oh! speculators on perpetual motion how many vain projects of the

like character you have created! Go and be the companions of the

searchers for gold. [Footnote: Another short passage in MS. I,

referring also to speculators, is given by LIBRI (_Hist, des

Sciences math._ III, 228): _Sicche voi speculatori non vi fidate

delli autori che anno sol col immaginatione voluto farsi interpreti

tra la natura e l'omo, ma sol di quelli che non coi cienni della

natura, ma cogli effetti delle sue esperienze anno esercitati i loro

ingegni._]

Against alchemists (1207. 1208).

1207.

The false interpreters of nature declare that quicksilver is the

common seed of every metal, not remembering that nature varies the

seed according to the variety of the things she desires to produce

in the world.

1208.

And many have made a trade of delusions and false miracles,

deceiving the stupid multitude.

Against friars.

1209.

Pharisees--that is to say, friars.

[Footnote: Compare No. 837, 11. 54-57, No. 1296 (p. 363 and 364),

and No. 1305 (p. 370).]

Against writers of epitomes.

1210.

Abbreviators do harm to knowledge and to love, seeing that the love

of any thing is the offspring of this knowledge, the love being the

more fervent in proportion as the knowledge is more certain. And

this certainty is born of a complete knowledge of all the parts,

which, when combined, compose the totality of the thing which ought

to be loved. Of what use then is he who abridges the details of

those matters of which he professes to give thorough information,

while he leaves behind the chief part of the things of which the

whole is composed? It is true that impatience, the mother of

stupidity, praises brevity, as if such persons had not life long

enough to serve them to acquire a complete knowledge of one single

subject, such as the human body; and then they want to comprehend

the mind of God in which the universe is included, weighing it

minutely and mincing it into infinite parts, as if they had to

dissect it!

Oh! human stupidity, do you not perceive that, though you have been

with yourself all your life, you are not yet aware of the thing you

possess most of, that is of your folly? and then, with the crowd of

sophists, you deceive yourselves and others, despising the

mathematical sciences, in which truth dwells and the knowledge of

the things included in them. And then you occupy yourself with

miracles, and write that you possess information of those things of

which the human mind is incapable and which cannot be proved by any

instance from nature. And you fancy you have wrought miracles when

you spoil a work of some speculative mind, and do not perceive that

you are falling into the same error as that of a man who strips a

tree of the ornament of its branches covered with leaves mingled

with the scented blossoms or fruit....... [Footnote 48: _Givstino_,

Marcus Junianus Justinus, a Roman historian of the second century,

who compiled an epitome from the general history written by Trogus

Pompeius, who lived in the time of Augustus. The work of the latter

writer no longer exist.] as Justinus did, in abridging the histories

written by Trogus Pompeius, who had written in an ornate style all

the worthy deeds of his forefathers, full of the most admirable and

ornamental passages; and so composed a bald work worthy only of

those impatient spirits, who fancy they are losing as much time as

that which they employ usefully in studying the works of nature and

the deeds of men. But these may remain in company of beasts; among

their associates should be dogs and other animals full of rapine and

they may hunt with them after...., and then follow helpless beasts,

which in time of great snows come near to your houses asking alms as

from their master....

On spirits (1211--1213).

1211.

O mathematicians shed light on this error.

The spirit has no voice, because where there is a voice there is a

body, and where there is a body space is occupied, and this prevents

the eye from seeing what is placed behind that space; hence the

surrounding air is filled by the body, that is by its image.

1212.

There can be no voice where there is no motion or percussion of the

air; there can be no percussion of the air where there is no

instrument, there can be no instrument without a body; and this

being so, a spirit can have neither voice, nor form, nor strength.

And if it were to assume a body it could not penetrate nor enter

where the passages are closed. And if any one should say that by

air, compressed and compacted together, a spirit may take bodies of

various forms and by this means speak and move with strength--to him

I reply that when there are neither nerves nor bones there can be no

force exercised in any kind of movement made by such imaginary

spirits.

Beware of the teaching of these speculators, because their reasoning

is not confirmed by experience.

1213.

Of all human opinions that is to be reputed the most foolish which

deals with the belief in Necromancy, the sister of Alchemy, which

gives birth to simple and natural things. But it is all the more

worthy of reprehension than alchemy, because it brings forth nothing

but what is like itself, that is, lies; this does not happen in

Alchemy which deals with simple products of nature and whose

function cannot be exercised by nature itself, because it has no

organic instruments with which it can work, as men do by means of

their hands, who have produced, for instance, glass &c. but this

Necromancy the flag and flying banner, blown by the winds, is the

guide of the stupid crowd which is constantly witness to the

dazzling and endless effects of this art; and there are books full,

declaring that enchantments and spirits can work and speak without

tongues and without organic instruments-- without which it is

impossible to speak-- and can carry heaviest weights and raise

storms and rain; and that men can be turned into cats and wolves and

other beasts, although indeed it is those who affirm these things

who first became beasts.

And surely if this Necromancy did exist, as is believed by small

wits, there is nothing on the earth that would be of so much

importance alike for the detriment and service of men, if it were

true that there were in such an art a power to disturb the calm

serenity of the air, converting it into darkness and making

coruscations or winds, with terrific thunder and lightnings rushing

through the darkness, and with violent storms overthrowing high

buildings and rooting up forests; and thus to oppose armies,

crushing and annihilating them; and, besides these frightful storms

may deprive the peasants of the reward of their labours.--Now what

kind of warfare is there to hurt the enemy so much as to deprive him

of the harvest? What naval warfare could be compared with this? I

say, the man who has power to command the winds and to make ruinous

gales by which any fleet may be submerged, --surely a man who could

command such violent forces would be lord of the nations, and no

human ingenuity could resist his crushing force. The hidden

treasures and gems reposing in the body of the earth would all be

made manifest to him. No lock nor fortress, though impregnable,

would be able to save any one against the will of the necromancer.

He would have himself carried through the air from East to West and

through all the opposite sides of the universe. But why should I

enlarge further upon this? What is there that could not be done by

such a craftsman? Almost nothing, except to escape death. Hereby I

have explained in part the mischief and the usefulness, contained in

this art, if it is real; and if it is real why has it not remained

among men who desire it so much, having nothing to do with any

deity? For I know that there are numberless people who would, to

satisfy a whim, destroy God and all the universe; and if this

necromancy, being, as it were, so necessary to men, has not been

left among them, it can never have existed, nor will it ever exist

according to the definition of the spirit, which is invisible in

substance; for within the elements there are no incorporate things,

because where there is no body, there is a vacuum; and no vacuum can

exist in the elements because it would be immediately filled up.

Turn over.

1214.

OF SPIRITS.