upstream/ipython Files · docs/examples/kernel/davinci3.txt

Darren Dale

r3218

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.

We have said, on the other side of this page, that the definition of

a spirit is a power conjoined to a body; because it cannot move of

its own accord, nor can it have any kind of motion in space; and if

you were to say that it moves itself, this cannot be within the

elements. For, if the spirit is an incorporeal quantity, this

quantity is called a vacuum, and a vacuum does not exist in nature;

and granting that one were formed, it would be immediately filled up

by the rushing in of the element in which the vacuum had been

generated. Therefore, from the definition of weight, which is

this--Gravity is an accidental power, created by one element being

drawn to or suspended in another--it follows that an element, not

weighing anything compared with itself, has weight in the element

above it and lighter than it; as we see that the parts of water have

no gravity or levity compared with other water, but if you draw it

up into the air, then it would acquire weight, and if you were to

draw the air beneath the water then the water which remains above

this air would acquire weight, which weight could not sustain itself

by itself, whence collapse is inevitable. And this happens in water;

wherever the vacuum may be in this water it will fall in; and this

would happen with a spirit amid the elements, where it would

continuously generate a vacuum in whatever element it might find

itself, whence it would be inevitable that it should be constantly

flying towards the sky until it had quitted these elements.

AS TO WHETHER A SPIRIT HAS A BODY AMID THE ELEMENTS.

We have proved that a spirit cannot exist of itself amid the

elements without a body, nor can it move of itself by voluntary

motion unless it be to rise upwards. But now we will say how such a

spirit taking an aerial body would be inevitably melt into air;

because if it remained united, it would be separated and fall to

form a vacuum, as is said above; therefore it is inevitable, if it

is to be able to remain suspended in the air, that it should absorb

a certain quantity of air; and if it were mingled with the air, two

difficulties arise; that is to say: It must rarefy that portion of

the air with which it mingles; and for this cause the rarefied air

must fly up of itself and will not remain among the air that is

heavier than itself; and besides this the subtle spiritual essence

disunites itself, and its nature is modified, by which that nature

loses some of its first virtue. Added to these there is a third

difficulty, and this is that such a body formed of air assumed by

the spirits is exposed to the penetrating winds, which are

incessantly sundering and dispersing the united portions of the air,

revolving and whirling amidst the rest of the atmosphere; therefore

the spirit which is infused in this

1215.

air would be dismembered or rent and broken up with the rending of

the air into which it was incorporated.

AS TO WHETHER THE SPIRIT, HAVING TAKEN THIS BODY OF AIR, CAN MOVE OF

ITSELF OR NOT.

It is impossible that the spirit infused into a certain quantity of

air, should move this air; and this is proved by the above passage

where it is said: the spirit rarefies that portion of the air in

which it incorporates itself; therefore this air will rise high

above the other air and there will be a motion of the air caused by

its lightness and not by a voluntary movement of the spirit, and if

this air is encountered by the wind, according to the 3rd of this,

the air will be moved by the wind and not by the spirit incorporated

in it.

AS TO WHETHER THE SPIRIT CAN SPEAK OR NOT.

In order to prove whether the spirit can speak or not, it is

necessary in the first place to define what a voice is and how it is

generated; and we will say that the voice is, as it were, the

movement of air in friction against a dense body, or a dense body in

friction against the air,--which is the same thing. And this

friction of the dense and the rare condenses the rare and causes

resistance; again, the rare, when in swift motion, and the rare in

slow motion condense each other when they come in contact and make a

noise and very great uproar; and the sound or murmur made by the

rare moving through the rare with only moderate swiftness, like a

great flame generating noises in the air; and the tremendous uproar

made by the rare mingling with the rare, and when that air which is

both swift and rare rushes into that which is itself rare and in

motion, it is like the flame of fire which issues from a big gun and

striking against the air; and again when a flame issues from the

cloud, there is a concussion in the air as the bolt is generated.

Therefore we may say that the spirit cannot produce a voice without

movement of the air, and air in it there is none, nor can it emit

what it has not; and if desires to move that air in which it is

incorporated, it is necessary that the spirit should multiply

itself, and that cannot multiply which has no quantity. And in the

4th place it is said that no rare body can move, if it has not a

stable spot, whence it may take its motion; much more is it so when

an element has to move within its own element, which does not move

of itself, excepting by uniform evaporation at the centre of the

thing evaporated; as occurs in a sponge squeezed in the hand held

under water; the water escapes in every direction with equal

movement through the openings between the fingers of the hand in

which it is squeezed.

As to whether the spirit has an articulate voice, and whether the

spirit can be heard, and what hearing is, and seeing; the wave of

the voice passes through the air as the images of objects pass to

the eye.

Nonentity.

1216.

Every quantity is intellectually conceivable as infinitely

divisible.

[Amid the vastness of the things among which we live, the existence

of nothingness holds the first place; its function extends over all

things that have no existence, and its essence, as regards time,

lies precisely between the past and the future, and has nothing in

the present. This nothingness has the part equal to the whole, and

the whole to the part, the divisible to the indivisible; and the

product of the sum is the same whether we divide or multiply, and in

addition as in subtraction; as is proved by arithmeticians by their

tenth figure which represents zero; and its power has not extension

among the things of Nature.]

[What is called Nothingness is to be found only in time and in

speech. In time it stands between the past and future and has no

existence in the present; and thus in speech it is one of the things

of which we say: They are not, or they are impossible.]

With regard to time, nothingness lies between the past and the

future, and has nothing to do with the present, and as to its nature

it is to be classed among things impossible: hence, from what has

been said, it has no existence; because where there is nothing there

would necessarily be a vacuum.

[Footnote: Compare No. 916.]

Reflections on Nature (1217-1219).

1217.

EXAMPLE OF THE LIGHTNING IN CLOUDS.

[O mighty and once living instrument of formative nature. Incapable

of availing thyself of thy vast strength thou hast to abandon a life

of stillness and to obey the law which God and time gave to

procreative nature.]

Ah! how many a time the shoals of terrified dolphins and the huge

tunny-fish were seen to flee before thy cruel fury, to escape;

whilst thy fulminations raised in the sea a sudden tempest with

buffeting and submersion of ships in the great waves; and filling

the uncovered shores with the terrified and desperate fishes which

fled from thee, and left by the sea, remained in spots where they

became the abundant prey of the people in the neighbourhood.

O time, swift robber of all created things, how many kings, how many

nations hast thou undone, and how many changes of states and of

various events have happened since the wondrous forms of this fish

perished here in this cavernous and winding recess. Now destroyed by

time thou liest patiently in this confined space with bones stripped

and bare; serving as a support and prop for the superimposed

mountain.

[Footnote: The character of the handwriting points to an early

period of Leonardo's life. It has become very indistinct, and is at

present exceedingly difficult to decipher. Some passages remain

doubtful.]

[Footnote: Compare No. 1339, written on the same sheet.]

1218.

The watery element was left enclosed between the raised banks of the

rivers, and the sea was seen between the uplifted earth and the

surrounding air which has to envelope and enclose the complicated

machine of the earth, and whose mass, standing between the water and

the element of fire, remained much restricted and deprived of its

indispensable moisture; the rivers will be deprived of their waters,

the fruitful earth will put forth no more her light verdure; the

fields will no more be decked with waving corn; all the animals,

finding no fresh grass for pasture, will die and food will then be

lacking to the lions and wolves and other beasts of prey, and to men

who after many efforts will be compelled to abandon their life, and

the human race will die out. In this way the fertile and fruitful

earth will remain deserted, arid and sterile from the water being

shut up in its interior, and from the activity of nature it will

continue a little time to increase until the cold and subtle air

being gone, it will be forced to end with the element of fire; and

then its surface will be left burnt up to cinder and this will be

the end of all terrestrial nature. [Footnote: Compare No. 1339,

written on the same sheet.]

1219.

Why did nature not ordain that one animal should not live by the

death of another? Nature, being inconstant and taking pleasure in

creating and making constantly new lives and forms, because she

knows that her terrestrial materials become thereby augmented, is

more ready and more swift in her creating, than time in his

destruction; and so she has ordained that many animals shall be food

for others. Nay, this not satisfying her desire, to the same end she

frequently sends forth certain poisonous and pestilential vapours

upon the vast increase and congregation of animals; and most of all

upon men, who increase vastly because other animals do not feed upon

them; and, the causes being removed, the effects would not follow.

This earth therefore seeks to lose its life, desiring only continual

reproduction; and as, by the argument you bring forward and

demonstrate, like effects always follow like causes, animals are the

image of the world.

_XX._

_Humorous Writings._

_Just as Michaelangelo's occasional poems reflect his private life

as well as the general disposition of his mind, we may find in the

writings collected in this section, the transcript of Leonardo's

fanciful nature, and we should probably not be far wrong in

assuming, that he himself had recited these fables in the company of

his friends or at the court festivals of princes and patrons._ Era

tanto piacevole nella conversazione-- _so relates Vasari_--che

tirava a se gli animi delle genti. _And Paulus Jovius says in his

short biography of the artist:_ Fuit ingenio valde comi, nitido,

liberali, vultu autem longe venustissimo, et cum elegantiae omnis

deliciarumque maxime theatralium mirificus inventor ac arbiter

esset, ad lyramque scito caneret, cunctis per omnem aetatem

principibus mire placuit. _There can be no doubt that the fables are

the original offspring of Leonardo's brain, and not borrowed from

any foreign source; indeed the schemes and plans for the composition

of fables collected in division V seem to afford an external proof

of this, if the fables themselves did not render it self-evident.

Several of them-- for instance No._ l279--_are so strikingly

characteristic of Leonardo's views of natural science that we cannot

do them justice till we are acquainted with his theories on such

subjects; and this is equally true of the 'Prophecies'_.

_I have prefixed to these quaint writings the 'Studies on the life

and habits of animals' which are singular from their peculiar

aphoristic style, and I have transcribed them in exactly the order

in which they are written in MS. H. This is one of the very rare

instances in which one subject is treated in a consecutive series of

notes, all in one MS., and Leonardo has also departed from his

ordinary habits, by occasionally not completing the text on the page

it is begun. These brief notes of a somewhat mysterious bearing have

been placed here, simply because they may possibly have been

intended to serve as hints for fables or allegories. They can

scarcely be regarded as preparatory for a natural history, rather

they would seem to be extracts. On the one hand the names of some of

the animals seem to prove that Leonardo could not here be recording

observations of his own; on the other hand the notes on their habits

and life appear to me to dwell precisely on what must have

interested him most--so far as it is possible to form any complete

estimate of his nature and tastes._

_In No._ 1293 _lines_ 1-10, _we have a sketch of a scheme for

grouping the Prophecies. I have not however availed myself of it as

a clue to their arrangement here because, in the first place, the

texts are not so numerous as to render the suggested classification

useful to the reader, and, also, because in reading the long series,

as they occur in the original, we may follow the author's mind; and

here and there it is not difficult to see how one theme suggested

another. I have however regarded Leonardo's scheme for the

classification of the Prophecies as available for that of the Fables

and Jests, and have adhered to it as far as possible._

_Among the humourous writings I might perhaps have included the_

'Rebusses', _of which there are several in the collection of

Leonardo's drawings at Windsor; it seems to me not likely that many

or all of them could be solved at the present day and the MSS. throw

no light on them. Nor should I be justified if I intended to include

in the literary works the well-known caricatures of human faces

attributed to Leonardo-- of which, however, it may be incidentally

observed, the greater number are in my opinion undoubtedly spurious.

Two only have necessarily been given owing to their presence in

text, which it was desired to reproduce: Vol. I page_ 326, _and Pl.

CXXII. It can scarcely be doubted that some satirical intention is

conveyed by the drawing on Pl. LXIV (text No. _688_).

My reason for not presenting Leonardo to the reader as a poet is the

fact that the maxims and morals in verse which have been ascribed to

him, are not to be found in the manuscripts, and Prof. Uzielli has

already proved that they cannot be by him. Hence it would seem that

only a few short verses can be attributed to him with any

certainty._

I.

STUDIES ON THE LIFE AND HABITS OF ANIMALS.

1220.

THE LOVE OF VIRTUE.

The gold-finch is a bird of which it is related that, when it is

carried into the presence of a sick person, if the sick man is going

to die, the bird turns away its head and never looks at him; but if

the sick man is to be saved the bird never loses sight of him but is

the cause of curing him of all his sickness.

Like unto this is the love of virtue. It never looks at any vile or

base thing, but rather clings always to pure and virtuous things and

takes up its abode in a noble heart; as the birds do in green woods

on flowery branches. And this Love shows itself more in adversity

than in prosperity; as light does, which shines most where the place

is darkest.

1221.

ENVY.

We read of the kite that, when it sees its young ones growing too

big in the nest, out of envy it pecks their sides, and keeps them

without food.

CHEERFULNESS.

Cheerfulness is proper to the cock, which rejoices over every little

thing, and crows with varied and lively movements.

SADNESS.

Sadness resembles the raven, which, when it sees its young ones born

white, departs in great grief, and abandons them with doleful

lamentations, and does not feed them until it sees in them some few

black feathers.

1222.

PEACE.

We read of the beaver that when it is pursued, knowing that it is

for the virtue [contained] in its medicinal testicles and not being

able to escape, it stops; and to be at peace with its pursuers, it

bites off its testicles with its sharp teeth, and leaves them to its

enemies.

RAGE.

It is said of the bear that when it goes to the haunts of bees to

take their honey, the bees having begun to sting him he leaves the

honey and rushes to revenge himself. And as he seeks to be revenged

on all those that sting him, he is revenged on none; in such wise

that his rage is turned to madness, and he flings himself on the

ground, vainly exasperating, by his hands and feet, the foes against

which he is defending himself.

1223.

GRATITUDE.

The virtue of gratitude is said to be more [developed] in the birds

called hoopoes which, knowing the benefits of life and food, they

have received from their father and their mother, when they see them

grow old, make a nest for them and brood over them and feed them,

and with their beaks pull out their old and shabby feathers; and

then, with a certain herb restore their sight so that they return to

a prosperous state.

AVARICE.

The toad feeds on earth and always remains lean; because it never

eats enough:-- it is so afraid lest it should want for earth.

1224.

INGRATITUDE.

Pigeons are a symbol of ingratitude; for when they are old enough no

longer to need to be fed, they begin to fight with their father, and

this struggle does not end until the young one drives the father out

and takes the hen and makes her his own.

CRUELTY.

The basilisk is so utterly cruel that when it cannot kill animals by

its baleful gaze, it turns upon herbs and plants, and fixing its

gaze on them withers them up.

1225.

GENEROSITY.

It is said of the eagle that it is never so hungry but that it will

leave a part of its prey for the birds that are round it, which,

being unable to provide their own food, are necessarily dependent on

the eagle, since it is thus that they obtain food.

DISCIPLINE.

When the wolf goes cunningly round some stable of cattle, and by

accident puts his foot in a trap, so that he makes a noise, he bites

his foot off to punish himself for his folly.

1226.

FLATTERERS OR SYRENS.

The syren sings so sweetly that she lulls the mariners to sleep;

then she climbs upon the ships and kills the sleeping mariners.

PRUDENCE.

The ant, by her natural foresight provides in the summer for the

winter, killing the seeds she harvests that they may not germinate,

and on them, in due time she feeds.

FOLLY.

The wild bull having a horror of a red colour, the hunters dress up

the trunk of a tree with red and the bull runs at this with great

frenzy, thus fixing his horns, and forthwith the hunters kill him

there.

1227.

JUSTICE.

We may liken the virtue of Justice to the king of the bees which

orders and arranges every thing with judgment. For some bees are

ordered to go to the flowers, others are ordered to labour, others

to fight with the wasps, others to clear away all dirt, others to

accompagny and escort the king; and when he is old and has no wings

they carry him. And if one of them fails in his duty, he is punished

without reprieve.

TRUTH.

Although partridges steal each other's eggs, nevertheless the young

born of these eggs always return to their true mother.

1228.

FIDELITY, OR LOYALTY.

The cranes are so faithful and loyal to their king, that at night,

when he is sleeping, some of them go round the field to keep watch

at a distance; others remain near, each holding a stone in his foot,

so that if sleep should overcome them, this stone would fall and

make so much noise that they would wake up again. And there are

others which sleep together round the king; and this they do every

night, changing in turn so that their king may never find them

wanting.

FALSEHOOD.

The fox when it sees a flock of herons or magpies or birds of that

kind, suddenly flings himself on the ground with his mouth open to

look as he were dead; and these birds want to peck at his tongue,

and he bites off their heads.

1229.

LIES.

The mole has very small eyes and it always lives under ground; and

it lives as long as it is in the dark but when it comes into the

light it dies immediately, because it becomes known;--and so it is

with lies.

VALOUR.

The lion is never afraid, but rather fights with a bold spirit and

savage onslaught against a multitude of hunters, always seeking to

injure the first that injures him.

FEAR OR COWARDICE.

The hare is always frightened; and the leaves that fall from the

trees in autumn always keep him in terror and generally put him to

flight.

1230.

MAGNANIMITY.

The falcon never preys but on large birds; and it will let itself

die rather than feed on little ones, or eat stinking meat.

VAIN GLORY.

As regards this vice, we read that the peacock is more guilty of it

than any other animal. For it is always contemplating the beauty of

its tail, which it spreads in the form of a wheel, and by its cries

attracts to itself the gaze of the creatures that surround it.

And this is the last vice to be conquered.

1231.

CONSTANCY.

Constancy may be symbolised by the phoenix which, knowing that by

nature it must be resuscitated, has the constancy to endure the

burning flames which consume it, and then it rises anew.

INCONSTANCY.

The swallow may serve for Inconstancy, for it is always in movement,

since it cannot endure the smallest discomfort.

CONTINENCE.

The camel is the most lustful animal there is, and will follow the

female for a thousand miles. But if you keep it constantly with its

mother or sister it will leave them alone, so temperate is its

nature.

1232.

INCONTINENCE.

The unicorn, through its intemperance and not knowing how to control

itself, for the love it bears to fair maidens forgets its ferocity

and wildness; and laying aside all fear it will go up to a seated

damsel and go to sleep in her lap, and thus the hunters take it.

HUMILITY.

We see the most striking example of humility in the lamb which will

submit to any animal; and when they are given for food to imprisoned

lions they are as gentle to them as to their own mother, so that

very often it has been seen that the lions forbear to kill them.

1233.

PRIDE.

The falcon, by reason of its haughtiness and pride, is fain to lord

it and rule over all the other birds of prey, and longs to be sole

and supreme; and very often the falcon has been seen to assault the

eagle, the Queen of birds.

ABSTINENCE.

The wild ass, when it goes to the well to drink, and finds the water

troubled, is never so thirsty but that it will abstain from

drinking, and wait till the water is clear again.

GLUTTONY.

The vulture is so addicted to gluttony that it will go a thousand

miles to eat a carrion [carcase]; therefore is it that it follows

armies.

1234.

CHASTITY.

The turtle-dove is never false to its mate; and if one dies the

other preserves perpetual chastity, and never again sits on a green

bough, nor ever again drinks of clear water.

UNCHASTITY.

The bat, owing to unbridled lust, observes no universal rule in

pairing, but males with males and females with females pair

promiscuously, as it may happen.

MODERATION.

The ermine out of moderation never eats but once in the day; it will

rather let itself be taken by the hunters than take refuge in a

dirty lair, in order not to stain its purity.

1235.

THE EAGLE.

The eagle when it is old flies so high that it scorches its

feathers, and Nature allowing that it should renew its youth, it

falls into shallow water [Footnote 5: The meaning is obscure.]. And

if its young ones cannot bear to gaze on the sun [Footnote 6: The

meaning is obscure.]--; it does not feed them with any bird, that

does not wish to die. Animals which much fear it do not approach its

nest, although it does not hurt them. It always leaves part of its

prey uneaten.

LUMERPA,--FAME.

This is found in Asia Major, and shines so brightly that it absorbs

its own shadow, and when it dies it does not lose this light, and

its feathers never fall out, but a feather pulled out shines no

longer.

1236.

THE PELICAN.

This bird has a great love for its young; and when it finds them in

its nest dead from a serpent's bite, it pierces itself to the heart,

and with its blood it bathes them till they return to life.

THE SALAMANDER.

This has no digestive organs, and gets no food but from the fire, in

which it constantly renews its scaly skin.

The salamander, which renews its scaly skin in the fire,--for

virtue.

THE CAMELEON.

This lives on air, and there it is the prey of all the birds; so in

order to be safer it flies above the clouds and finds an air so

rarefied that it cannot support the bird that follows it.

At that height nothing can go unless it has a gift from Heaven, and

that is where the chameleon flies.

1237.

THE ALEPO, A FISH.

The fish _alepo_ does not live out of water.

THE OSTRICH.

This bird converts iron into nourishment, and hatches its eggs by

its gaze;--Armies under commanders.

THE SWAN.

The swan is white without any spot, and it sings sweetly as it dies,

its life ending with that song.

THE STORK.

This bird, by drinking saltwater purges itself of distempers. If the

male finds his mate unfaithful, he abandons her; and when it grows

old its young ones brood over it, and feed it till it dies.

1238.

THE GRASSHOPPER.

This silences the cuckoo with its song. It dies in oil and revives

in vinegar. It sings in the greatest heats

THE BAT.

The more light there is the blinder this creature becomes; as those

who gaze most at the sun become most dazzled.--For Vice, that cannot

remain where Virtue appears.

THE PARTRIDGE.

This bird changes from the female into the male and forgets its

former sex; and out of envy it steals the eggs from others and

hatches them, but the young ones follow the true mother.

THE SWALLOW.

This bird gives sight to its blind young ones by means of celandine.

1239.

THE OYSTER.--FOR TREACHERY.

This creature, when the moon is full opens itself wide, and when the

crab looks in he throws in a piece of rock or seaweed and the oyster

cannot close again, whereby it serves for food to that crab. This is

what happens to him who opens his mouth to tell his secret. He

becomes the prey of the treacherous hearer.

THE BASILISK.--CRUELTY.

All snakes flie from this creature; but the weasel attacks it by

means of rue and kills it.

THE ASP.

This carries instantaneous death in its fangs; and, that it may not

hear the charmer it stops its ears with its tail.

1240.

THE DRAGON.

This creature entangles itself in the legs of the elephant which

falls upon it, and so both die, and in its death it is avenged.

THE VIPER.

She, in pairing opens her mouth and at last clenches her teeth and

kills her husband. Then the young ones, growing within her body rend

her open and kill their mother.

THE SCORPION.

Saliva, spit out when fasting will kill a scorpion. This may be

likened to abstinence from greediness, which removes and heals the

ills which result from that gluttony, and opens the path of virtue.

1241.

THE CROCODILE. HYPOCRISY.

This animal catches a man and straightway kills him; after he is

dead, it weeps for him with a lamentable voice and many tears. Then,

having done lamenting, it cruelly devours him. It is thus with the

hypocrite, who, for the smallest matter, has his face bathed with

tears, but shows the heart of a tiger and rejoices in his heart at

the woes of others, while wearing a pitiful face.

THE TOAD.

The toad flies from the light of the sun, and if it is held there by

force it puffs itself out so much as to hide its head below and

shield itself from the rays. Thus does the foe of clear and radiant

virtue, who can only be constrainedly brought to face it with puffed

up courage.

1242.

THE CATERPILLAR.--FOR VIRTUE IN GENERAL.

The caterpillar, which by means of assiduous care is able to weave

round itself a new dwelling place with marvellous artifice and fine

workmanship, comes out of it afterwards with painted and lovely

wings, with which it rises towards Heaven.

THE SPIDER.

The spider brings forth out of herself the delicate and ingenious

web, which makes her a return by the prey it takes.

[Footnote: Two notes are underneath this text. The first: _'nessuna

chosa e da ttemere piu che lla sozza fama'_ is a repetition of the

first line of the text given in Vol. I No. 695.

The second: _faticha fugga cholla fama in braccio quasi ochultata c_

is written in red chalk and is evidently an incomplete sentence.]

1243.

THE LION.

This animal, with his thundering roar, rouses his young the third

day after they are born, teaching them the use of all their dormant

senses and all the wild things which are in the wood flee away.

This may be compared to the children of Virtue who are roused by the

sound of praise and grow up in honourable studies, by which they are

more and more elevated; while all that is base flies at the sound,

shunning those who are virtuous.

Again, the lion covers over its foot tracks, so that the way it has

gone may not be known to its enemies. Thus it beseems a captain to

conceal the secrets of his mind so that the enemy may not know his

purpose.

1244.

THE TARANTULA.

The bite of the tarantula fixes a man's mind on one idea; that is on

the thing he was thinking of when he was bitten.

THE SCREECH-OWL AND THE OWL.

These punish those who are scoffing at them by pecking out their

eyes; for nature has so ordered it, that they may thus be fed.

1245.

THE ELEPHANT.

The huge elephant has by nature what is rarely found in man; that is

Honesty, Prudence, Justice, and the Observance of Religion; inasmuch

as when the moon is new, these beasts go down to the rivers, and

there, solemnly cleansing themselves, they bathe, and so, having

saluted the planet, return to the woods. And when they are ill,

being laid down, they fling up plants towards Heaven as though they

would offer sacrifice. --They bury their tusks when they fall out

from old age.--Of these two tusks they use one to dig up roots for

food; but they save the point of the other for fighting with; when

they are taken by hunters and when worn out by fatigue, they dig up

these buried tusks and ransom themselves.

1246.

They are merciful, and know the dangers, and if one finds a man

alone and lost, he kindly puts him back in the road he has missed,

if he finds the footprints of the man before the man himself. It

dreads betrayal, so it stops and blows, pointing it out to the other

elephants who form in a troop and go warily.

These beasts always go in troops, and the oldest goes in front and

the second in age remains the last, and thus they enclose the troop.

Out of shame they pair only at night and secretly, nor do they then

rejoin the herd but first bathe in the river. The females do not

fight as with other animals; and it is so merciful that it is most

unwilling by nature ever to hurt those weaker than itself. And if it

meets in the middle of its way a flock of sheep

1247.

it puts them aside with its trunk, so as not to trample them under

foot; and it never hurts any thing unless when provoked. When one

has fallen into a pit the others fill up the pit with branches,

earth and stones, thus raising the bottom that he may easily get

out. They greatly dread the noise of swine and fly in confusion,

doing no less harm then, with their feet, to their own kind than to

the enemy. They delight in rivers and are always wandering about

near them, though on account of their great weight they cannot swim.

They devour stones, and the trunks of trees are their favourite

food. They have a horror of rats. Flies delight in their smell and

settle on their back, and the beast scrapes its skin making its

folds even and kills them.

1248.

When they cross rivers they send their young ones up against the

stream of the water; thus, being set towards the fall, they break

the united current of the water so that the current does not carry

them away. The dragon flings itself under the elephant's body, and

with its tail it ties its legs; with its wings and with its arms it

also clings round its ribs and cuts its throat with its teeth, and

the elephant falls upon it and the dragon is burst. Thus, in its

death it is revenged on its foe.

THE DRAGON.

These go in companies together, and they twine themselves after the

manner of roots, and with their heads raised they cross lakes, and

swim to where they find better pasture; and if they did not thus

combine

1249.

they would be drowned, therefore they combine.

THE SERPENT.

The serpent is a very large animal. When it sees a bird in the air

it draws in its breath so strongly that it draws the birds into its

mouth too. Marcus Regulus, the consul of the Roman army was

attacked, with his army, by such an animal and almost defeated. And

this animal, being killed by a catapult, measured 123 feet, that is

64 1/2 braccia and its head was high above all the trees in a wood.

THE BOA(?)

This is a very large snake which entangles itself round the legs of

the cow so that it cannot move and then sucks it, in such wise that

it almost dries it up. In the time of Claudius the Emperor, there

was killed, on the Vatican Hill,

1250.

one which had inside it a boy, entire, that it had swallowed.

THE MACLI.--CAUGHT WHEN ASLEEP.

This beast is born in Scandinavia. It has the shape of a great

horse, excepting that the great length of its neck and of its ears

make a difference. It feeds on grass, going backwards, for it has so

long an upper lip that if it went forwards it would cover up the

grass. Its legs are all in one piece; for this reason when it wants

to sleep it leans against a tree, and the hunters, spying out the

place where it is wont to sleep, saw the tree almost through, and

then, when it leans against it to sleep, in its sleep it falls, and

thus the hunters take it. And every other mode of taking it is in

vain, because it is incredibly swift in running.

1251.

THE BISON WHICH DOES INJURY IN ITS FLIGHT.

This beast is a native of Paeonia and has a neck with a mane like a

horse. In all its other parts it is like a bull, excepting that its

horns are in a way bent inwards so that it cannot butt; hence it has

no safety but in flight, in which it flings out its excrement to a

distance of 400 braccia in its course, and this burns like fire

wherever it touches.

LIONS, PARDS, PANTHERS, TIGERS.

These keep their claws in the sheath, and never put them out unless

they are on the back of their prey or their enemy.

THE LIONESS.

When the lioness defends her young from the hand of the hunter, in

order not to be frightened by the spears she keeps her eyes on the

ground, to the end that she may not by her flight leave her young

ones prisoners.

1252.

THE LION.

This animal, which is so terrible, fears nothing more than the noise

of empty carts, and likewise the crowing of cocks. And it is much

terrified at the sight of one, and looks at its comb with a

frightened aspect, and is strangely alarmed when its face is

covered.

THE PANTHER IN AFRICA.

This has the form of the lioness but it is taller on its legs and

slimmer and long bodied; and it is all white and marked with black

spots after the manner of rosettes; and all animals delight to look

upon these rosettes, and they would always be standing round it if

it were not for the terror of its face;

1253.

therefore knowing this, it hides its face, and the surrounding

animals grow bold and come close, the better to enjoy the sight of

so much beauty; when suddenly it seizes the nearest and at once

devours it.

CAMELS.

The Bactrian have two humps; the Arabian one only. They are swift in

battle and most useful to carry burdens. This animal is extremely

observant of rule and measure, for it will not move if it has a

greater weight than it is used to, and if it is taken too far it

does the same, and suddenly stops and so the merchants are obliged

to lodge there.

1254.

THE TIGER.

This beast is a native of Hyrcania, and it is something like the

panther from the various spots on its skin. It is an animal of

terrible swiftness; the hunter when he finds its young ones carries

them off hastily, placing mirrors in the place whence he takes them,

and at once escapes on a swift horse. The panther returning finds

the mirrors fixed on the ground and looking into them believes it

sees its young; then scratching with its paws it discovers the

cheat. Forthwith, by means of the scent of its young, it follows the

hunter, and when this hunter sees the tigress he drops one of the

young ones and she takes it, and having carried it to the den she

immediately returns to the hunter and does

1255.

the same till he gets into his boat.

CATOBLEPAS.

It is found in Ethiopia near to the source Nigricapo. It is not a

very large animal, is sluggish in all its parts, and its head is so

large that it carries it with difficulty, in such wise that it

always droops towards the ground; otherwise it would be a great pest

to man, for any one on whom it fixes its eyes dies immediately.

[Footnote: Leonardo undoubtedly derived these remarks as to the

Catoblepas from Pliny, Hist. Nat. VIII. 21 (al. 32): _Apud Hesperios

Aethiopas fons est Nigris_ (different readings), _ut plerique

existimavere, Nili caput.-----Juxta hunc fera appellatur catoblepas,

modica alioquin, ceterisque membris iners, caput tantum praegrave

aegre ferens; alias internecio humani generis, omnibus qui oculos

ejus videre, confestim morientibus._ Aelian, _Hist. An._ gives a far

more minute description of the creature, but he says that it poisons

beasts not by its gaze, but by its venomous breath. Athenaeus 221 B,

mentions both. If Leonardo had known of these two passages, he would

scarcely have omitted the poisonous breath. (H. MULLER-STRUBING.)]

THE BASILISK.

This is found in the province of Cyrenaica and is not more than 12

fingers long. It has on its head a white spot after the fashion of a

diadem. It scares all serpents with its whistling. It resembles a

snake, but does not move by wriggling but from the centre forwards

to the right. It is said that one

1256.

of these, being killed with a spear by one who was on horse-back,

and its venom flowing on the spear, not only the man but the horse

also died. It spoils the wheat and not only that which it touches,

but where it breathes the grass dries and the stones are split.

THE WEASEL.

This beast finding the lair of the basilisk kills it with the smell

of its urine, and this smell, indeed, often kills the weasel itself.

THE CERASTES.

This has four movable little horns; so, when it wants to feed, it

hides under leaves all of its body except these little horns which,

as they move, seem to the birds to be some small worms at play. Then

they immediately swoop down to pick them and the Cerastes suddenly

twines round them and encircles and devours them.

1257.

THE AMPHISBOENA.

This has two heads, one in its proper place the other at the tail;

as if one place were not enough from which to fling its venom.

THE IACULUS.

This lies on trees, and flings itself down like a dart, and pierces

through the wild beast and kills them.

THE ASP.

The bite of this animal cannot be cured unless by immediately

cutting out the bitten part. This pestilential animal has such a

love for its mate that they always go in company. And if, by mishap,

one of them is killed the other, with incredible swiftness, follows

him who has killed it; and it is so determined and eager for

vengeance that it overcomes every difficulty, and passing by every

troop it seeks to hurt none but its enemy. And it will travel any

distance, and it is impossible to avoid it unless by crossing water

and by very swift flight. It has its eyes turned inwards, and large

ears and it hears better than it sees.

1258.

THE ICHNEUMON.

This animal is the mortal enemy of the asp. It is a native of Egypt

and when it sees an asp near its place, it runs at once to the bed

or mud of the Nile and with this makes itself muddy all over, then

it dries itself in the sun, smears itself again with mud, and thus,

drying one after the other, it makes itself three or four coatings

like a coat of mail. Then it attacks the asp, and fights well with

him, so that, taking its time it catches him in the throat and

destroys him.

THE CROCODILE.

This is found in the Nile, it has four feet and lives on land and in

water. No other terrestrial creature but this is found to have no

tongue, and it only bites by moving its upper jaw. It grows to a

length of forty feet and has claws and is armed with a hide that

will take any blow. By day it is on land and at night in the water.

It feeds on fishes, and going to sleep on the bank of the Nile with

its mouth open, a bird called

1259.

trochilus, a very small bird, runs at once to its mouth and hops

among its teeth and goes pecking out the remains of the food, and so

inciting it with voluptuous delight tempts it to open the whole of

its mouth, and so it sleeps. This being observed by the ichneumon it

flings itself into its mouth and perforates its stomach and bowels,

and finally kills it.

THE DOLPHIN.

Nature has given such knowledge to animals, that besides the

consciousness of their own advantages they know the disadvantages of

their foes. Thus the dolphin understands what strength lies in a cut

from the fins placed on his chine, and how tender is the belly of

the crocodile; hence in fighting with him it thrusts at him from

beneath and rips up his belly and so kills him.

The crocodile is a terror to those that flee, and a base coward to

those that pursue him.

1260.

THE HIPPOPOTAMUS.

This beast when it feels itself over-full goes about seeking thorns,

or where there may be the remains of canes that have been split, and

it rubs against them till a vein is opened; then when the blood has

flowed as much as he needs, he plasters himself with mud and heals

the wound. In form he is something like a horse with long haunches,

a twisted tail and the teeth of a wild boar, his neck has a mane;

the skin cannot be pierced, unless when he is bathing; he feeds on

plants in the fields and goes into them backwards so that it may

seem, as though he had come out.

THE IBIS.

This bird resembles a crane, and when it feels itself ill it fills

its craw with water, and with its beak makes an injection of it.

THE STAG.

These creatures when they feel themselves bitten by the spider

called father-long-legs, eat crabs and free themselves of the venom.

1261.

THE LIZARD.

This, when fighting with serpents eats the sow-thistle and is free.

THE SWALLOW.

This [bird] gives sight to its blind young ones, with the juice of

the celandine.

THE WEASEL.

This, when chasing rats first eats of rue.

THE WILD BOAR.

This beast cures its sickness by eating of ivy.

THE SNAKE.

This creature when it wants to renew itself casts its old skin,

beginning with the head, and changing in one day and one night.

THE PANTHER.

This beast after its bowels have fallen out will still fight with

the dogs and hunters.

1262.

THE CHAMELEON.

This creature always takes the colour of the thing on which it is

resting, whence it is often devoured together with the leaves on

which the elephant feeds.

THE RAVEN.

When it has killed the Chameleon it takes laurel as a purge.

1263.

Moderation checks all the vices. The ermine will die rather than

besmirch itself.

OF FORESIGHT.

The cock does not crow till it has thrice flapped its wings; the

parrot in moving among boughs never puts its feet excepting where it

has first put its beak. Vows are not made till Hope is dead.

Motion tends towards the centre of gravity.

1264.

MAGNANIMITY.

The falcon never seizes any but large birds and will sooner die than

eat [tainted] meat of bad savour.

II.

FABLES.

Fables on animals (1265-1270).

1265.

A FABLE.

An oyster being turned out together with other fish in the house of

a fisherman near the sea, he entreated a rat to take him to the sea.

The rat purposing to eat him bid him open; but as he bit him the

oyster squeezed his head and closed; and the cat came and killed

him.

1266.

A FABLE.

The thrushes rejoiced greatly at seeing a man take the owl and

deprive her of liberty, tying her feet with strong bonds. But this

owl was afterwards by means of bird-lime the cause of the thrushes

losing not only their liberty, but their life. This is said for

those countries which rejoice in seeing their governors lose their

liberty, when by that means they themselves lose all succour, and

remain in bondage in the power of their enemies, losing their

liberty and often their life.

1267.

A FABLE.

A dog, lying asleep on the fur of a sheep, one of his fleas,

perceiving the odour of the greasy wool, judged that this must be a

land of better living, and also more secure from the teeth and nails

of the dog than where he fed on the dog; and without farther

reflection he left the dog and went into the thick wool. There he

began with great labour to try to pass among the roots of the hairs;

but after much sweating had to give up the task as vain, because

these hairs were so close that they almost touched each other, and

there was no space where fleas could taste the skin. Hence, after

much labour and fatigue, he began to wish to return to his dog, who

however had already departed; so he was constrained after long

repentance and bitter tears, to die of hunger.

1268.

A FABLE.

The vain and wandering butterfly, not content with being able to fly

at its ease through the air, overcome by the tempting flame of the

candle, decided to fly into it; but its sportive impulse was the

cause of a sudden fall, for its delicate wings were burnt in the

flame. And the hapless butterfly having dropped, all scorched, at

the foot of the candlestick, after much lamentation and repentance,

dried the tears from its swimming eyes, and raising its face

exclaimed: O false light! how many must thou have miserably deceived

in the past, like me; or if I must indeed see light so near, ought I

not to have known the sun from the false glare of dirty tallow?

A FABLE.

The monkey, finding a nest of small birds, went up to it greatly

delighted. But they, being already fledged, he could only succeed in

taking the smallest; greatly delighted he took it in his hand and

went to his abode; and having begun to look at the little bird he

took to kissing it, and from excess of love he kissed it so much and

turned it about and squeezed it till he killed it. This is said for

those who by not punishing their children let them come to mischief.

1269.

A FABLE.

A rat was besieged in his little dwelling by a weasel, which with

unwearied vigilance awaited his surrender, while watching his

imminent peril through a little hole. Meanwhile the cat came by and

suddenly seized the weasel and forthwith devoured it. Then the rat

offered up a sacrifice to Jove of some of his store of nuts, humbly

thanking His providence, and came out of his hole to enjoy his

lately lost liberty. But he was instantly deprived of it, together

with his life, by the cruel claws and teeth of the lurking cat.

1270.

A FABLE.

The ant found a grain of millet. The seed feeling itself taken

prisoner cried out to her: "If you will do me the kindness to allow

me accomplish my function of reproduction, I will give you a hundred

such as I am." And so it was.

A Spider found a bunch of grapes which for its sweetness was much

resorted to by bees and divers kinds of flies. It seemed to her that

she had found a most convenient spot to spread her snare, and having

settled herself on it with her delicate web, and entered into her

new habitation, there, every day placing herself in the openings

made by the spaces between the grapes, she fell like a thief on the

wretched creatures which were not aware of her. But, after a few

days had passed, the vintager came, and cut away the bunch of grapes

and put it with others, with which it was trodden; and thus the

grapes were a snare and pitfall both for the treacherous spider and

the betrayed flies.

An ass having gone to sleep on the ice over a deep lake, his heat

dissolved the ice and the ass awoke under water to his great grief,

and was forthwith drowned.

A falcon, unable to endure with patience the disappearance of a

duck, which, flying before him had plunged under water, wished to

follow it under water, and having soaked his feathers had to remain

in the water while the duck rising to the air mocked at the falcon

as he drowned.

The spider wishing to take flies in her treacherous net, was cruelly

killed in it by the hornet.

An eagle wanting to mock at the owl was caught by the wings in

bird-lime and was taken and killed by a man.

Fables on lifeless objects (1271--1274).

1271.

The water finding that its element was the lordly ocean, was seized

with a desire to rise above the air, and being encouraged by the

element of fire and rising as a very subtle vapour, it seemed as

though it were really as thin as air. But having risen very high, it

reached the air that was still more rare and cold, where the fire

forsook it, and the minute particles, being brought together, united

and became heavy; whence its haughtiness deserting it, it betook

itself to flight and it fell from the sky, and was drunk up by the

dry earth, where, being imprisoned for a long time, it did penance

for its sin.

1272.

A FABLE.

The razor having one day come forth from the handle which serves as

its sheath and having placed himself in the sun, saw the sun

reflected in his body, which filled him with great pride. And

turning it over in his thoughts he began to say to himself: "And

shall I return again to that shop from which I have just come?

Certainly not; such splendid beauty shall not, please God, be turned

to such base uses. What folly it would be that could lead me to

shave the lathered beards of rustic peasants and perform such menial

service! Is this body destined for such work? Certainly not. I will

hide myself in some retired spot and there pass my life in tranquil

repose." And having thus remained hidden for some months, one day he

came out into the air, and issuing from his sheath, saw himself

turned to the similitude of a rusty saw while his surface no longer

reflected the resplendent sun. With useless repentance he vainly

deplored the irreparable mischief saying to himself: "Oh! how far

better was it to employ at the barbers my lost edge of such

exquisite keenness! Where is that lustrous surface? It has been

consumed by this vexatious and unsightly rust."

The same thing happens to those minds which instead of exercise give

themselves up to sloth. They are like the razor here spoken of, and

lose the keenness of their edge, while the rust of ignorance spoils

their form.

A FABLE.

A stone of some size recently uncovered by the water lay on a

certain spot somewhat raised, and just where a delightful grove

ended by a stony road; here it was surrounded by plants decorated by

various flowers of divers colours. And as it saw the great quantity

of stones collected together in the roadway below, it began to wish

it could let itself fall down there, saying to itself: "What have I

to do here with these plants? I want to live in the company of

those, my sisters." And letting itself fall, its rapid course ended

among these longed for companions. When it had been there sometime

it began to find itself constantly toiling under the wheels of the

carts the iron-shoed feet of horses and of travellers. This one

rolled it over, that one trod upon it; sometimes it lifted itself a

little and then it was covered with mud or the dung of some animal,

and it was in vain that it looked at the spot whence it had come as

a place of solitude and tranquil place.

Thus it happens to those who choose to leave a life of solitary

comtemplation, and come to live in cities among people full of

infinite evil.

1273.

Some flames had already lasted in the furnace of a glass-blower,

when they saw a candle approaching in a beautiful and glittering

candlestick. With ardent longing they strove to reach it; and one of

them, quitting its natural course, writhed up to an unburnt brand on

which it fed and passed at the opposite end out by a narrow chink to

the candle which was near. It flung itself upon it, and with fierce

jealousy and greediness it devoured it, having reduced it almost to

death, and, wishing to procure the prolongation of its life, it

tried to return to the furnace whence it had come. But in vain, for

it was compelled to die, the wood perishing together with the

candle, being at last converted, with lamentation and repentance,

into foul smoke, while leaving all its sisters in brilliant and

enduring life and beauty.

1274.

A small patch of snow finding itself clinging to the top of a rock

which was lying on the topmost height of a very high mountain and

being left to its own imaginings, it began to reflect in this way,

saying to itself: "Now, shall not I be thought vain and proud for

having placed myself--such a small patch of snow--in so lofty a

spot, and for allowing that so large a quantity of snow as I have

seen here around me, should take a place lower than mine? Certainly

my small dimensions by no means merit this elevation. How easily may

I, in proof of my insignificance, experience the same fate as that

which the sun brought about yesterday to my companions, who were

all, in a few hours, destroyed by the sun. And this happened from

their having placed themselves higher than became them. I will flee

from the wrath of the sun, and humble myself and find a place

befitting my small importance." Thus, flinging itself down, it began

to descend, hurrying from its high home on to the other snow; but

the more it sought a low place the more its bulk increased, so that

when at last its course was ended on a hill, it found itself no less

in size than the hill which supported it; and it was the last of the

snow which was destroyed that summer by the sun. This is said for

those who, humbling themselves, become exalted.

Fables on plants (1275-1279).

1275.

The cedar, being desirous of producing a fine and noble fruit at its

summit, set to work to form it with all the strength of its sap. But

this fruit, when grown, was the cause of the tall and upright

tree-top being bent over.

The peach, being envious of the vast quantity of fruit which she saw

borne on the nut-tree, her neighbour, determined to do the same, and

loaded herself with her own in such a way that the weight of the

fruit pulled her up by the roots and broke her down to the ground.

The nut-tree stood always by a road side displaying the wealth of

its fruit to the passers by, and every one cast stones at it.

The fig-tree, having no fruit, no one looked at it; then, wishing to

produce fruits that it might be praised by men, it was bent and

broken down by them.

The fig-tree, standing by the side of the elm and seeing that its

boughs were bare of fruit, yet that it had the audacity to keep the

Sun from its own unripe figs with its branches, said to it: "Oh elm!

art thou not ashamed to stand in front of me. But wait till my

offspring are fully grown and you will see where you are!" But when

her offspring were mature, a troop of soldiers coming by fell upon

the fig-tree and her figs were all torn off her, and her boughs cut

away and broken. Then, when she was thus maimed in all her limbs,

the elm asked her, saying: "O fig-tree! which was best, to be

without offspring, or to be brought by them into so miserable a

plight!"

1276.

The plant complains of the old and dry stick which stands by its

side and of the dry stakes that surround it.

One keeps it upright, the other keeps it from low company.

1277.

A FABLE.

A nut, having been carried by a crow to the top of a tall campanile

and released by falling into a chink from the mortal grip of its

beak, it prayed the wall by the grace bestowed on it by God in

allowing it to be so high and thick, and to own such fine bells and

of so noble a tone, that it would succour it, and that, as it had

not been able to fall under the verdurous boughs of its venerable

father and lie in the fat earth covered up by his fallen leaves it

would not abandon it; because, finding itself in the beak of the

cruel crow, it had there made a vow that if it escaped from her it

would end its life in a little hole. At these words the wall, moved

to compassion, was content to shelter it in the spot where it had

fallen; and after a short time the nut began to split open and put

forth roots between the rifts of the stones and push them apart, and

to throw out shoots from its hollow shell; and, to be brief, these

rose above the building and the twisted roots, growing thicker,

began to thrust the walls apart, and tear out the ancient stones

from their old places. Then the wall too late and in vain bewailed

the cause of its destruction and in a short time, it wrought the

ruin of a great part of it.

1278.

A FABLE.

The privet feeling its tender boughs loaded with young fruit,

pricked by the sharp claws and beak of the insolent blackbird,

complained to the blackbird with pitious remonstrance entreating her

that since she stole its delicious fruits she should not deprive it

of the leaves with which it preserved them from the burning rays of

the sun, and that she should not divest it of its tender bark by

scratching it with her sharp claws. To which the blackbird replied

with angry upbraiding: "O, be silent, uncultured shrub! Do you not

know that Nature made you produce these fruits for my nourishment;

do you not see that you are in the world [only] to serve me as food;

do you not know, base creature, that next winter you will be food

and prey for the Fire?" To which words the tree listened patiently,

and not without tears. After a short time the blackbird was taken in

a net and boughs were cut to make a cage, in which to imprison her.

Branches were cut, among others from the pliant privet, to serve for

the small rods of the cage; and seeing herself to be the cause of

the Blackbird's loss of liberty it rejoiced and spoke as follows: "O

Blackbird, I am here, and not yet burnt by fire as you said. I shall

see you in prison before you see me burnt."

A FABLE.

The laurel and the myrtle seeing the pear tree cut down cried out

with a loud voice: "O pear-tree! whither are you going? Where is the

pride you had when you were covered with ripe fruits? Now you will

no longer shade us with your mass of leaves." Then the pear-tree

replied: "I am going with the husbandman who has cut me down and who

will take me to the workshop of a good sculptor who by his art will

make me take the form of Jove the god; and I shall be dedicated in a

temple and adored by men in the place of Jove, while you are bound

always to remain maimed and stripped of your boughs, which will be

placed round me to do me honour.

A FABLE.

The chesnut, seeing a man upon the fig-tree, bending its boughs down

and pulling off the ripe fruits, which he put into his open mouth

destroying and crushing them with his hard teeth, it tossed its long

boughs and with a noisy rustle exclaimed: "O fig! how much less are

you protected by nature than I. See how in me my sweet offspring are

set in close array; first clothed in soft wrappers over which is the

hard but softly lined husk; and not content with taking this care of

me, and having given them so strong a shelter, on this she has

placed sharp and close-set spines so that the hand of man cannot

hurt me." Then the fig-tree and her offspring began to laugh and

having laughed she said: "I know man to be of such ingenuity that

with rods and stones and stakes flung up among your branches he will

bereave you of your fruits; and when they are fallen, he will

trample them with his feet or with stones, so that your offspring

will come out of their armour, crushed and maimed; while I am

touched carefully by their hands, and not like you with sticks and

stones."

1279.

The hapless willow, finding that she could not enjoy the pleasure of

seeing her slender branches grow or attain to the height she wished,

or point to the sky, by reason of the vine and whatever other trees

that grew near, but was always maimed and lopped and spoiled,

brought all her spirits together and gave and devoted itself

entirely to imagination, standing plunged in long meditation and

seeking, in all the world of plants, with which of them she might

ally herself and which could not need the help of her withes. Having

stood for some time in this prolific imagination, with a sudden

flash the gourd presented itself to her thoughts and tossing all her

branches with extreme delight, it seemed to her that she had found

the companion suited to her purpose, because the gourd is more apt

to bind others than to need binding; having come to this conclusion

she awaited eagerly some friendly bird who should be the mediator of

her wishes. Presently seeing near her the magpie she said to him: "O

gentle bird! by the memory of the refuge which you found this

morning among my branches, when the hungry cruel, and rapacious

falcon wanted to devour you, and by that repose which you have

always found in me when your wings craved rest, and by the pleasure

you have enjoyed among my boughs, when playing with your companions

or making love--I entreat you find the gourd and obtain from her

some of her seeds, and tell her that those that are born of them I

will treat exactly as though they were my own flesh and blood; and

in this way use all the words you can think of, which are of the

same persuasive purport; though, indeed, since you are a master of

language, I need not teach you. And if you will do me this service I

shall be happy to have your nest in the fork of my boughs, and all

your family without payment of any rent." Then the magpie, having

made and confirmed certain new stipulations with the willow,--and

principally that she should never admit upon her any snake or

polecat, cocked his tail, and put down his head, and flung himself

from the bough, throwing his weight upon his wings; and these,

beating the fleeting air, now here, now there, bearing about

inquisitively, while his tail served as a rudder to steer him, he

came to a gourd; then with a handsome bow and a few polite words, he

obtained the required seeds, and carried them to the willow, who

received him with a cheerful face. And when he had scraped away with

his foot a small quantity of the earth near the willow, describing a

circle, with his beak he planted the grains, which in a short time

began to grow, and by their growth and the branches to take up all

the boughs of the willow, while their broad leaves deprived it of

the beauty of the sun and sky. And not content with so much evil,

the gourds next began, by their rude hold, to drag the ends of the

tender shoots down towards the earth, with strange twisting and

distortion.

Then, being much annoyed, it shook itself in vain to throw off the

gourd. After raving for some days in such plans vainly, because the

firm union forbade it, seeing the wind come by it commended itself

to him. The wind flew hard and opened the old and hollow stem of the

willow in two down to the roots, so that it fell into two parts. In

vain did it bewail itself recognising that it was born to no good

end.

III.

JESTS AND TALES.

1280.

A JEST.

A priest, making the rounds of his parish on Easter Eve, and

sprinkling holy water in the houses as is customary, came to a

painter's room, where he sprinkled the water on some of his

pictures. The painter turned round, somewhat angered, and asked him

why this sprinkling had been bestowed on his pictures; then said the

priest, that it was the custom and his duty to do so, and that he

was doing good; and that he who did good might look for good in

return, and, indeed, for better, since God had promised that every

good deed that was done on earth should be rewarded a hundred-fold

from above. Then the painter, waiting till he went out, went to an

upper window and flung a large pail of water on the priest's back,

saying: "Here is the reward a hundred-fold from above, which you

said would come from the good you had done me with your holy water,

by which you have damaged my pictures."

1281.

When wine is drunk by a drunkard, that wine is revenged on the

drinker.

1282.

Wine, the divine juice of the grape, finding itself in a golden and

richly wrought cup, on the table of Mahomet, was puffed up with

pride at so much honour; when suddenly it was struck by a contrary

reflection, saying to itself: "What am I about, that I should

rejoice, and not perceive that I am now near to my death and shall

leave my golden abode in this cup to enter into the foul and fetid

caverns of the human body, and to be transmuted from a fragrant and

delicious liquor into a foul and base one. Nay, and as though so

much evil as this were not enough, I must for a long time lie in

hideous receptacles, together with other fetid and corrupt matter,

cast out from human intestines." And it cried to Heaven, imploring

vengeance for so much insult, and that an end might henceforth be

put to such contempt; and that, since that country produced the

finest and best grapes in the whole world, at least they should not

be turned into wine. Then Jove made that wine drunk by Mahomet to

rise in spirit to his brain; and that in so deleterious a manner

that it made him mad, and gave birth to so many follies that when he

had recovered himself, he made a law that no Asiatic should drink

wine, and henceforth the vine and its fruit were left free.

As soon as wine has entered the stomach it begins to ferment and

swell; then the spirit of that man begins to abandon his body,

rising as it were skywards, and the brain finds itself parting from

the body. Then it begins to degrade him, and make him rave like a

madman, and then he does irreparable evil, killing his friends.

1283.

An artizan often going to visit a great gentleman without any

definite purpose, the gentleman asked him what he did this for. The

other said that he came there to have a pleasure which his lordship

could not have; since to him it was a satisfaction to see men

greater than himself, as is the way with the populace; while the

gentleman could only see men of less consequence than himself; and

so lords and great men were deprived of that pleasure.

1284.

Franciscan begging Friars are wont, at certain times, to keep fasts,

when they do not eat meat in their convents. But on journeys, as

they live on charity, they have license to eat whatever is set

before them. Now a couple of these friars on their travels, stopped

at an inn, in company with a certain merchant, and sat down with him

at the same table, where, from the poverty of the inn, nothing was

served to them but a small roast chicken. The merchant, seeing this

to be but little even for himself, turned to the friars and said:

"If my memory serves me, you do not eat any kind of flesh in your

convents at this season." At these words the friars were compelled

by their rule to admit, without cavil, that this was the truth; so

the merchant had his wish, and eat the chicken and the friars did

the best they could. After dinner the messmates departed, all three

together, and after travelling some distance they came to a river of

some width and depth. All three being on foot--the friars by reason

of their poverty, and the other from avarice--it was necessary by

the custom of company that one of the friars, being barefoot, should

carry the merchant on his shoulders: so having given his wooden

shoes into his keeping, he took up his man. But it so happened that

when the friar had got to the middle of the river, he again

remembered a rule of his order, and stopping short, he looked up,

like Saint Christopher, to the burden on his back and said: "Tell

me, have you any money about you?"--"You know I have", answered the

other, "How do you suppose that a Merchant like me should go about

otherwise?" "Alack!" cried the friar, "our rules forbid as to carry

any money on our persons," and forthwith he dropped him into the

water, which the merchant perceived was a facetious way of being

revenged on the indignity he had done them; so, with a smiling face,

and blushing somewhat with shame, he peaceably endured the revenge.

1285.

A JEST.

A man wishing to prove, by the authority of Pythagoras, that he had

formerly been in the world, while another would not let him finish

his argument, the first speaker said to the second: "It is by this

token that I was formerly here, I remember that you were a miller."

The other one, feeling himself stung by these words, agreed that it

was true, and that by the same token he remembered that the speaker

had been the ass that carried the flour.

A JEST.

It was asked of a painter why, since he made such beautiful figures,

which were but dead things, his children were so ugly; to which the

painter replied that he made his pictures by day, and his children

by night.

1286.

A man saw a large sword which another one wore at his side. Said he

"Poor fellow, for a long time I have seen you tied to that weapon;

why do you not release yourself as your hands are untied, and set

yourself free?" To which the other replied: "This is none of yours,

on the contrary it is an old story." The former speaker, feeling

stung, replied: "I know that you are acquainted with so few things

in this world, that I thought anything I could tell you would be new

to you."

1287.

A man gave up his intimacy with one of his friends because he often

spoke ill of his other friends. The neglected friend one day

lamenting to this former friend, after much complaining, entreated

him to say what might be the cause that had made him forget so much

friendship. To which he answered: "I will no longer be intimate with

you because I love you, and I do not choose that you, by speaking

ill of me, your friend, to others, should produce in others, as in

me, a bad impression of yourself, by speaking evil to them of me,

your friend. Therefore, being no longer intimate together, it will

seem as though we had become enemies; and in speaking evil of me, as

is your wont, you will not be blamed so much as if we continued

intimate.

1288.

A man was arguing and boasting that he knew many and various tricks.

Another among the bystanders said: "I know how to play a trick which

will make whomsoever I like pull off his breeches." The first man--

the boaster--said: "You won't make me pull off mine, and I bet you a

pair of hose on it." He who proposed the game, having accepted the

offer, produced breeches and drew them across the face of him who

bet the pair of hose and won the bet [4].

A man said to an acquaintance: "Your eyes are changed to a strange

colour." The other replied: "It often happens, but you have not

noticed it." "When does it happen?" said the former. "Every time

that my eyes see your ugly face, from the shock of so unpleasing a

sight they suddenly turn pale and change to a strange colour."

A man said to another: "Your eyes are changed to a strange colour."

The other replied: "It is because my eyes behold your strange ugly

face."

A man said that in his country were the strangest things in the

world. Another answered: "You, who were born there, confirm this as

true, by the strangeness of your ugly face."

[Footnote: The joke turns, it appears, on two meanings of trarre and

is not easily translated.]

1289.

An old man was publicly casting contempt on a young one, and boldly

showing that he did not fear him; on which the young man replied

that his advanced age served him better as a shield than either his

tongue or his strength.

1290.

A JEST.

A sick man finding himself in _articulo mortis_ heard a knock at the

door, and asking one of his servants who was knocking, the servant

went out, and answered that it was a woman calling herself Madonna

Bona. Then the sick man lifting his arms to Heaven thanked God with

a loud voice, and told the servants that they were to let her come

in at once, so that he might see one good woman before he died,

since in all his life he had never yet seen one.

1291.

A JEST.

A man was desired to rise from bed, because the sun was already

risen. To which he replied: "If I had as far to go, and as much to

do as he has, I should be risen by now; but having but a little way

to go, I shall not rise yet."

1292.

A man, seeing a woman ready to hold up the target for a jousting

match, exclaimed, looking at the shield, and considering his spear:

"Alack! this is too small a workman for so great a business."

IV.

PROPHECIES.

1293.

THE DIVISION OF THE PROPHECIES.

First, of things relating to animals; secondly, of irrational

creatures; thirdly of plants; fourthly, of ceremonies; fifthly, of

manners; sixthly, of cases or edicts or quarrels; seventhly, of

cases that are impossible in nature [paradoxes], as, for instance,

of those things which, the more is taken from them, the more they

grow. And reserve the great matters till the end, and the small

matters give at the beginning. And first show the evils and then the

punishment of philosophical things.

(Of Ants.)

These creatures will form many communities, which will hide

themselves and their young ones and victuals in dark caverns, and

they will feed themselves and their families in dark places for many

months without any light, artificial or natural.

[Footnote: Lines 1--5l are in the original written in one column,

beginning with the text of line 11. At the end of the column is the

programme for the arrangement of the prophecies, placed here at the

head: Lines 56--79 form a second column, lines 80--97 a third one

(see the reproduction of the text on the facsimile PI. CXVIII).

Another suggestion for the arrangement of the prophecies is to be

found among the notes 55--57 on page 357.]

(Of Bees.)

And many others will be deprived of their store and their food, and

will be cruelly submerged and drowned by folks devoid of reason. Oh

Justice of God! Why dost thou not wake and behold thy creatures thus

ill used?

(Of Sheep, Cows, Goats and the like.)

Endless multitudes of these will have their little children taken

from them ripped open and flayed and most barbarously quartered.

(Of Nuts, and Olives, and Acorns, and Chesnuts, and such like.)

Many offspring shall be snatched by cruel thrashing from the very

arms of their mothers, and flung on the ground, and crushed.

(Of Children bound in Bundles.)

O cities of the Sea! In you I see your citizens--both females and

males--tightly bound, arms and legs, with strong withes by folks who

will not understand your language. And you will only be able to

assuage your sorrows and lost liberty by means of tearful complaints

and sighing and lamentation among yourselves; for those who will

bind you will not understand you, nor will you understand them.

(Of Cats that eat Rats.)

In you, O cities of Africa your children will be seen quartered in

their own houses by most cruel and rapacious beasts of your own

country.

(Of Asses that are beaten.)

[Footnote 48: Compare No. 845.] O Nature! Wherefore art thou so

partial; being to some of thy children a tender and benign mother,

and to others a most cruel and pitiless stepmother? I see children

of thine given up to slavery to others, without any sort of

advantage, and instead of remuneration for the good they do, they

are paid with the severest suffering, and spend their whole life in

benefitting those who ill treat them.

(Of Men who sleep on boards of Trees.)

Men shall sleep, and eat, and dwell among trees, in the forests and

open country.

(Of Dreaming.)

Men will seem to see new destructions in the sky. The flames that

fall from it will seem to rise in it and to fly from it with terror.

They will hear every kind of animals speak in human language. They

will instantaneously run in person in various parts of the world,

without motion. They will see the greatest splendour in the midst of

darkness. O! marvel of the human race! What madness has led you

thus! You will speak with animals of every species and they with you

in human speech. You will see yourself fall from great heights

without any harm and torrents will accompany you, and will mingle

with their rapid course.

(Of Christians.)

Many who hold the faith of the Son only build temples in the name of

the Mother.

(Of Food which has been alive.)

[84] A great portion of bodies that have been alive will pass into

the bodies of other animals; which is as much as to say, that the

deserted tenements will pass piecemeal into the inhabited ones,

furnishing them with good things, and carrying with them their

evils. That is to say the life of man is formed from things eaten,

and these carry with them that part of man which dies . . .

1294.

(Of Funeral Rites, and Processions, and Lights, and Bells, and

Followers.)

The greatest honours will be paid to men, and much pomp, without

their knowledge.

[Footnote: A facsimile of this text is on PI. CXVI below on the

right, but the writing is larger than the other notes on the same

sheet and of a somewhat different style. The ink is also of a

different hue, as may be seen on the original sheet at Milan.]

1295.

(Of the Avaricious.)

There will be many who will eagerly and with great care and

solicitude follow up a thing, which, if they only knew its

malignity, would always terrify them.

(Of those men, who, the older they grow, the more avaricious they

become, whereas, having but little time to stay, they should become

more liberal.)

We see those who are regarded as being most experienced and

judicious, when they least need a thing, seek and cherish it with

most avidity.

(Of the Ditch.)

Many will be busied in taking away from a thing, which will grow in

proportion as it is diminished.

(Of a Weight placed on a Feather-pillow.)

And it will be seen in many bodies that by raising the head they

swell visibly; and by laying the raised head down again, their size

will immediately be diminished.

(Of catching Lice.)

And many will be hunters of animals, which, the fewer there are the

more will be taken; and conversely, the more there are, the fewer

will be taken.

(Of Drawing Water in two Buckets with a single Rope.)

And many will be busily occupied, though the more of the thing they

draw up, the more will escape at the other end.

(Of the Tongues of Pigs and Calves in Sausage-skins.)

Oh! how foul a thing, that we should see the tongue of one animal in

the guts of another.

(Of Sieves made of the Hair of Animals.)

We shall see the food of animals pass through their skin everyway

excepting through their mouths, and penetrate from the outside

downwards to the ground.

(Of Lanterns.)

[Footnote 35: Lanterns were in Italy formerly made of horn.] The

cruel horns of powerful bulls will screen the lights of night

against the wild fury of the winds.

(Of Feather-beds.)

Flying creatures will give their very feathers to support men.

(Of Animals which walk on Trees--wearing wooden Shoes.)

The mire will be so great that men will walk on the trees of their

country.

(Of the Soles of Shoes, which are made from the Ox.)

And in many parts of the country men will be seen walking on the

skins of large beasts.

(Of Sailing in Ships.)

There will be great winds by reason of which things of the East will

become things of the West; and those of the South, being involved in

the course of the winds, will follow them to distant lands.

(Of Worshipping the Pictures of Saints.)

Men will speak to men who hear not; having their eyes open, they

will not see; they will speak to these, and they will not be

answered. They will implore favours of those who have ears and hear

not; they will make light for the blind.

(Of Sawyers.)

There will be many men who will move one against another, holding in

their hands a cutting tool. But these will not do each other any

injury beyond tiring each other; for, when one pushes forward the

other will draw back. But woe to him who comes between them! For he

will end by being cut in pieces.

(Of Silk-spinning.)

Dismal cries will be heard loud, shrieking with anguish, and the

hoarse and smothered tones of those who will be despoiled, and at

last left naked and motionless; and this by reason of the mover,

which makes every thing turn round.

(Of putting Bread into the Mouth of the Oven and taking it out

again.)

In every city, land, castle and house, men shall be seen, who for

want of food will take it out of the mouths of others, who will not

be able to resist in any way.

(Of tilled Land.)

The Earth will be seen turned up side down and facing the opposite

hemispheres, uncovering the lurking holes of the fiercest animals.

(Of Sowing Seed.)

Then many of the men who will remain alive, will throw the victuals

they have preserved out of their houses, a free prey to the birds

and beasts of the earth, without taking any care of them at all.

(Of the Rains, which, by making the Rivers muddy, wash away the

Land.)

[Footnote 81: Compare No. 945.] Something will fall from the sky

which will transport a large part of Africa which lies under that

sky towards Europe, and that of Europe towards Africa, and that of

the Scythian countries will meet with tremendous revolutions

[Footnote 84: Compare No. 945.].

(Of Wood that burns.)

The trees and shrubs in the great forests will be converted into

cinder.

(Of Kilns for Bricks and Lime.)

Finally the earth will turn red from a conflagration of many days

and the stones will be turned to cinders.

(Of boiled Fish.)

The natives of the waters will die in the boiling flood.

(Of the Olives which fall from the Olive trees, shedding oil which

makes light.)

And things will fall with great force from above, which will give us

nourishment and light.

(Of Owls and screech owls and what will happen to certain birds.)

Many will perish of dashing their heads in pieces, and the eyes of

many will jump out of their heads by reason of fearful creatures

come out of the darkness.

(Of flax which works the cure of men.)

That which was at first bound, cast out and rent by many and various

beaters will be respected and honoured, and its precepts will be

listened to with reverence and love.

(Of Books which teach Precepts.)

Bodies without souls will, by their contents give us precepts by

which to die well.

(Of Flagellants.)

Men will hide themselves under the bark of trees, and, screaming,

they will make themselves martyrs, by striking their own limbs.

(Of the Handles of Knives made of the Horns of Sheep.)

We shall see the horns of certain beasts fitted to iron tools, which

will take the lives of many of their kind.

(Of Night when no Colour can be discerned.)

There will come a time when no difference can be discerned between

colours, on the contrary, everything will be black alike.

(Of Swords and Spears which by themselves never hurt any one.)

One who by himself is mild enough and void of all offence will

become terrible and fierce by being in bad company, and will most

cruelly take the life of many men, and would kill many more if they

were not hindered by bodies having no soul, that have come out of

caverns--that is, breastplates of iron.

(Of Snares and Traps.)

Many dead things will move furiously, and will take and bind the

living, and will ensnare them for the enemies who seek their death

and destruction.

(Of Metals.)

That shall be brought forth out of dark and obscure caves, which

will put the whole human race in great anxiety, peril and death. To

many that seek them, after many sorrows they will give delight, and

to those who are not in their company, death with want and

misfortune. This will lead to the commission of endless crimes; this

will increase and persuade bad men to assassinations, robberies and

treachery, and by reason of it each will be suspicious of his

partner. This will deprive free cities of their happy condition;

this will take away the lives of many; this will make men torment

each other with many artifices deceptions and treasons. O monstrous

creature! How much better would it be for men that every thing

should return to Hell! For this the vast forests will be devastated

of their trees; for this endless animals will lose their lives.

(Of Fire.)

One shall be born from small beginnings which will rapidly become

vast. This will respect no created thing, rather will it, by its

power, transform almost every thing from its own nature into

another.

(Of Ships which sink.)

Huge bodies will be seen, devoid of life, carrying, in fierce haste,

a multitude of men to the destruction of their lives.

(Of Oxen, which are eaten.)

The masters of estates will eat their own labourers.

(Of beating Beds to renew them.)

Men will be seen so deeply ungrateful that they will turn upon that

which has harboured them, for nothing at all; they will so load it

with blows that a great part of its inside will come out of its

place, and will be turned over and over in its body.

(Of Things which are eaten and which first are killed.)

Those who nourish them will be killed by them and afflicted by

merciless deaths.

(Of the Reflection of Walls of Cities in the Water of their

Ditches.)

The high walls of great cities will be seen up side down in their

ditches.

(Of Water, which flows turbid and mixed with Soil and Dust; and of

Mist, which is mixed with the Air; and of Fire which is mixed with

its own, and each with each.)

All the elements will be seen mixed together in a great whirling

mass, now borne towards the centre of the world, now towards the

sky; and now furiously rushing from the South towards the frozen

North, and sometimes from the East towards the West, and then again

from this hemisphere to the other.

(The World may be divided into two Hemispheres at any Point.)

All men will suddenly be transferred into opposite hemispheres.

(The division of the East from the West may be made at any point.)

All living creatures will be moved from the East to the West; and in

the same way from North to South, and vice versa.

(Of the Motion of Water which carries wood, which is dead.)

Bodies devoid of life will move by themselves and carry with them

endless generations of the dead, taking the wealth from the

bystanders.

(Of Eggs which being eaten cannot form Chickens.)

Oh! how many will they be that never come to the birth!

(Of Fishes which are eaten unborn.)

Endless generations will be lost by the death of the pregnant.

(Of the Lamentation on Good Friday.)

Throughout Europe there will be a lamentation of great nations over

the death of one man who died in the East.

(Of Dreaming.)

Men will walk and not stir, they will talk to those who are not

present, and hear those who do not speak.

(Of a Man's Shadow which moves with him.)

Shapes and figures of men and animals will be seen following these

animals and men wherever they flee. And exactly as the one moves the

other moves; but what seems so wonderful is the variety of height

they assume.

(Of our Shadow cast by the Sun, and our Reflection in the Water at

one and the same time.)

Many a time will one man be seen as three and all three move

together, and often the most real one quits him.

(Of wooden Chests which contain great Treasures.)

Within walnuts and trees and other plants vast treasures will be

found, which lie hidden there and well guarded.

(Of putting out the Light when going to Bed.)

Many persons puffing out a breath with too much haste, will thereby

lose their sight, and soon after all consciousness.

(Of the Bells of Mules, which are close to their Ears.)

In many parts of Europe instruments of various sizes will be heard

making divers harmonies, with great labour to those who hear them

most closely.

(Of Asses.)

The severest labour will be repaid with hunger and thirst, and

discomfort, and blows, and goadings, and curses, and great abuse.

(Of Soldiers on horseback.)

Many men will be seen carried by large animals, swift of pace, to

the loss of their lives and immediate death.

In the air and on earth animals will be seen of divers colours

furiously carrying men to the destruction of their lives.

(Of the Stars of Spurs.)

By the aid of the stars men will be seen who will be as swift as any

swift animal.

(Of a Stick, which is dead.)

The motions of a dead thing will make many living ones flee with

pain and lamentation and cries.

(Of Tinder.)

With a stone and with iron things will be made visible which before

were not seen.

1296.

(Of going in Ships.)

We shall see the trees of the great forests of Taurus and of Sinai

and of the Appenines and others, rush by means of the air, from East

to West and from North to South; and carry, by means of the air,

great multitudes of men. Oh! how many vows! Oh! how many deaths! Oh!

how many partings of friends and relations! Oh! how many will those

be who will never again see their own country nor their native land,

and who will die unburied, with their bones strewn in various parts

of the world!

(Of moving on All Saints' Day.)

Many will forsake their own dwellings and carry with them all their

belongings and will go to live in other parts.

(Of All Souls' Day.)

How many will they be who will bewail their deceased forefathers,

carrying lights to them.

(Of Friars, who spending nothing but words, receive great gifts and

bestow Paradise.)

Invisible money will procure the triumph of many who will spend it.

(Of Bows made of the Horns of Oxen.)

Many will there be who will die a painful death by means of the

horns of cattle.

(Of writing Letters from one Country to another.)

Men will speak with each other from the most remote countries, and

reply.

(Of Hemispheres, which are infinite; and which are divided by an

infinite number of Lines, so that every Man always has one of these

Lines between his Feet.)

Men standing in opposite hemispheres will converse and deride each

other and embrace each other, and understand each other's language.

(Of Priests who say Mass.)

There will be many men who, when they go to their labour will put on

the richest clothes, and these will be made after the fashion of

aprons [petticoats].

(Of Friars who are Confessors.)

And unhappy women will, of their own free will, reveal to men all

their sins and shameful and most secret deeds.

(Of Churches and the Habitations of Friars.)

Many will there be who will give up work and labour and poverty of

life and goods, and will go to live among wealth in splendid

buildings, declaring that this is the way to make themselves

acceptable to God.

(Of Selling Paradise.)

An infinite number of men will sell publicly and unhindered things

of the very highest price, without leave from the Master of it;

while it never was theirs nor in their power; and human justice will

not prevent it.

(Of the Dead which are carried to be buried.)

The simple folks will carry vast quantities of lights to light up

the road for those who have entirely lost the power of sight.

(Of Dowries for Maidens.)

And whereas, at first, maidens could not be protected against the

violence of Men, neither by the watchfulness of parents nor by

strong walls, the time will come when the fathers and parents of

those girls will pay a large price to a man who wants to marry them,

even if they are rich, noble and most handsome. Certainly this seems

as though nature wished to eradicate the human race as being useless

to the world, and as spoiling all created things.

(Of the Cruelty of Man.)

Animals will be seen on the earth who will always be fighting

against each other with the greatest loss and frequent deaths on

each side. And there will be no end to their malignity; by their

strong limbs we shall see a great portion of the trees of the vast

forests laid low throughout the universe; and, when they are filled

with food the satisfaction of their desires will be to deal death

and grief and labour and wars and fury to every living thing; and

from their immoderate pride they will desire to rise towards heaven,

but the too great weight of their limbs will keep them down. Nothing

will remain on earth, or under the earth or in the waters which will

not be persecuted, disturbed and spoiled, and those of one country

removed into another. And their bodies will become the sepulture and

means of transit of all they have killed.

O Earth! why dost thou not open and engulf them in the fissures of

thy vast abyss and caverns, and no longer display in the sight of

heaven such a cruel and horrible monster.

1297.

PROPHECIES.

There will be many which will increase in their destruction.

(The Ball of Snow rolling over Snow.)

There will be many who, forgetting their existence and their name,

will lie as dead on the spoils of other dead creatures.

(Sleeping on the Feathers of Birds.)

The East will be seen to rush to the West and the South to the North

in confusion round and about the universe, with great noise and

trembling or fury.

(In the East wind which rushes to the West.)

The solar rays will kindle fire on the earth, by which a thing that

is under the sky will be set on fire, and, being reflected by some

obstacle, it will bend downwards.

(The Concave Mirror kindles a Fire, with which we heat the oven, and

this has its foundation beneath its roof.)

A great part of the sea will fly towards heaven and for a long time

will not return. (That is, in Clouds.)

There remains the motion which divides the mover from the thing

moved.

Those who give light for divine service will be destroyed.(The Bees

which make the Wax for Candles)

Dead things will come from underground and by their fierce movements

will send numberless human beings out of the world. (Iron, which

comes from under ground is dead but the Weapons are made of it which

kill so many Men.)

The greatest mountains, even those which are remote from the sea

shore, will drive the sea from its place.

(This is by Rivers which carry the Earth they wash away from the

Mountains and bear it to the Sea-shore; and where the Earth comes

the sea must retire.)

The water dropped from the clouds still in motion on the flanks of

mountains will lie still for a long period of time without any

motion whatever; and this will happen in many and divers lands.

(Snow, which falls in flakes and is Water.)

The great rocks of the mountains will throw out fire; so that they

will burn the timber of many vast forests, and many beasts both wild

and tame.

(The Flint in the Tinder-box which makes a Fire that consumes all

the loads of Wood of which the Forests are despoiled and with this

the flesh of Beasts is cooked.)

Oh! how many great buildings will be ruined by reason of Fire.

(The Fire of great Guns.)

Oxen will be to a great extent the cause of the destruction of

cities, and in the same way horses and buffaloes.

(By drawing Guns.)

1298.

The Lion tribe will be seen tearing open the earth with their clawed

paws and in the caves thus made, burying themselves together with

the other animals that are beneath them.

Animals will come forth from the earth in gloomy vesture, which will

attack the human species with astonishing assaults, and which by

their ferocious bites will make confusion of blood among those they

devour.

Again the air will be filled with a mischievous winged race which

will assail men and beasts and feed upon them with much noise--

filling themselves with scarlet blood.

1299.

Blood will be seen issuing from the torn flesh of men, and trickling

down the surface.

Men will have such cruel maladies that they will tear their flesh

with their own nails. (The Itch.)

Plants will be seen left without leaves, and the rivers standing

still in their channels.

The waters of the sea will rise above the high peaks of the

mountains towards heaven and fall again on to the dwellings of men.

(That is, in Clouds.)

The largest trees of the forest will be seen carried by the fury of

the winds from East to West. (That is across the Sea.)

Men will cast away their own victuals. (That is, in Sowing.)

1300.

Human beings will be seen who will not understand each other's

speech; that is, a German with a Turk.

Fathers will be seen giving their daughters into the power of man

and giving up all their former care in guarding them. (When Girls

are married.)

Men will come out their graves turned into flying creatures; and

they will attack other men, taking their food from their very hand

or table. (As Flies.)

Many will there be who, flaying their mother, will tear the skin

from her back. (Husbandmen tilling the Earth.)

Happy will they be who lend ear to the words of the Dead. (Who read

good works and obey them.)

1031.

Feathers will raise men, as they do birds, towards heaven (that is,

by the letters which are written with quills.)

The works of men's hands will occasion their death. (Swords and

Spears.)

Men out of fear will cling to the thing they most fear. (That is

they will be miserable lest they should fall into misery.)

Things that are separate shall be united and acquire such virtue

that they will restore to man his lost memory; that is papyrus

[sheets] which are made of separate strips and have preserved the

memory of the things and acts of men.

The bones of the Dead will be seen to govern the fortunes of him who

moves them. (By Dice.)

Cattle with their horns protect the Flame from its death. (In a

Lantern [Footnote 13: See note page 357.].)

The Forests will bring forth young which will be the cause of their

death. (The handle of the hatchet.)

1302.

Men will deal bitter blows to that which is the cause of their life.

(In thrashing Grain.)

The skins of animals will rouse men from their silence with great

outcries and curses. (Balls for playing Games.)

Very often a thing that is itself broken is the occasion of much

union. (That is the Comb made of split Cane which unites the threads

of Silk.)

The wind passing through the skins of animals will make men dance.

(That is the Bag-pipe, which makes people dance.)

1303.

(Of Walnut trees, that are beaten.)

Those which have done best will be most beaten, and their offspring

taken and flayed or peeled, and their bones broken or crushed.

(Of Sculpture.)

Alas! what do I see? The Saviour cru- cified anew.

(Of the Mouth of Man, which is a Sepulchre.)

Great noise will issue from the sepulchres of those who died evil

and violent deaths.

(Of the Skins of Animals which have the sense of feeling what is in

the things written.)

The more you converse with skins covered with sentiments, the more

wisdom will you acquire.

(Of Priests who bear the Host in their body.)

Then almost all the tabernacles in which dwells the Corpus Domini,

will be plainly seen walking about of themselves on the various

roads of the world.

1304.

And those who feed on grass will turn night into day (Tallow.)

And many creatures of land and water will go up among the stars

(that is Planets.)

The dead will be seen carrying the living (in Carts and Ships in

various places.)

Food shall be taken out of the mouth of many ( the oven's mouth.)

And those which will have their food in their mouth will be deprived

of it by the hands of others (the oven.)

1305.

(Of Crucifixes which are sold.)

I see Christ sold and crucified afresh, and his Saints suffering

Martyrdom.

(Of Physicians, who live by sickness.)

Men will come into so wretched a plight that they will be glad that

others will derive profit from their sufferings or from the loss of

their real wealth, that is health.

(Of the Religion of Friars, who live by the Saints who have been

dead a great while.)

Those who are dead will, after a thou- sand years be those who will

give a livelihood to many who are living.

(Of Stones converted into Lime, with which prison walls are made.)

Many things that have been before that time destroyed by fire will

deprive many men of liberty.

1306.

(Of Children who are suckled.)

Many Franciscans, Dominicans and Benedictines will eat that which at

other times was eaten by others, who for some months to come will

not be able to speak.

(Of Cockles and Sea Snails which are thrown up by the sea and which

rot inside their shells.)

How many will there be who, after they are dead, will putrefy inside

their own houses, filling all the surrounding air with a fetid

smell.

1307.

(Of Mules which have on them rich burdens of silver and gold.)

Much treasure and great riches will be laid upon four-footed beasts,

which will convey them to divers places.

1308.

(Of the Shadow cast by a man at night with a light.)

Huge figures will appear in human shape, and the nearer you get to

them, the more will their immense size diminish.

[Footnote page 1307: It seems to me probable that this note, which

occurs in the note book used in 1502, when Leonardo, in the service

of Cesare Borgia, visited Urbino, was suggested by the famous

pillage of the riches of the palace of Guidobaldo, whose treasures

Cesare Borgia at once had carried to Cesena (see GREGOROVIUS,

_Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter_. XIII, 5, 4). ]

1309.

(Of Snakes, carried by Storks.)

Serpents of great length will be seen at a great height in the air,

fighting with birds.

(Of great guns, which come out of a pit and a mould.)

Creatures will come from underground which with their terrific noise

will stun all who are near; and with their breath will kill men and

destroy cities and castles.

1310.

(Of Grain and other Seeds.)

Men will fling out of their houses those victuals which were

intended to sustain their life.

(Of Trees, which nourish grafted shoots.)

Fathers and mothers will be seen to take much more delight in their

step-children then in their own children.

(Of the Censer.)

Some will go about in white garments with arrogant gestures

threatening others with metal and fire which will do no harm at all

to them.

1311.

(Of drying Fodder.)

Innumerable lives will be destroyed and innumerable vacant spaces

will be made on the earth.

(Of the Life of Men, who every year change their bodily substance.)

Men, when dead, will pass through their own bowels.

1312.

(Shoemakers.)

Men will take pleasure in seeing their own work destroyed and

injured.

1313.

(Of Kids.)

The time of Herod will come again, for the little innocent children

will be taken from their nurses, and will die of terrible wounds

inflicted by cruel men.

V.

DRAUGHTS AND SCHEMES FOR THE HUMOROUS WRITINGS.

Schemes for fables, etc. (1314-1323).

1314.

A FABLE.

The crab standing under the rock to catch the fish which crept under

it, it came to pass that the rock fell with a ruinous downfall of

stones, and by their fall the crab was crushed.

THE SAME.

The spider, being among the grapes, caught the flies which were

feeding on those grapes. Then came the vintage, and the spider was

cut down with the grapes.

The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the ruin of

that tree, and through that bad companionship must perish with it.

The torrent carried so much earth and stones into its bed, that it

was then constrained to change its course.

The net that was wont to take the fish was seized and carried away

by the rush of fish.

The ball of snow when, as it rolls, it descends from the snowy

mountains, increases in size as it falls.

The willow, which by its long shoots hopes as it grows, to outstrip

every other plant, from having associated itself with the vine which

is pruned every year was always crippled.

1315.

Fable of the tongue bitten by the teeth.

The cedar puffed up with pride of its beauty, separated itself from

the trees around it and in so doing it turned away towards the wind,

which not being broken in its fury, flung it uprooted on the earth.

The traveller's joy, not content in its hedge, began to fling its

branches out over the high road, and cling to the opposite hedge,

and for this it was broken away by the passers by.

1316.

The goldfinch gives victuals to its caged young. Death rather than

loss of liberty. [Footnote: Above this text is another note, also

referring to liberty; see No. 694.]

1317.

(Of Bags.)

Goats will convey the wine to the city.

1318.

All those things which in winter are hidden under the snow, will be

uncovered and laid bare in summer. (for Falsehood, which cannot

remain hidden).

1319.

A FABLE.

The lily set itself down by the shores of the Ticino, and the

current carried away bank and the lily with it.

1320.

A JEST.

Why Hungarian ducats have a double cross on them.

1321.

A SIMILE.

A vase of unbaked clay, when broken, may be remoulded, but not a

baked one.

1322.

Seeing the paper all stained with the deep blackness of ink, it he

deeply regrets it; and this proves to the paper that the words,

composed upon it were the cause of its being preserved.

1323.

The pen must necessarily have the penknife for a companion, and it

is a useful companionship, for one is not good for much without the

other.

Schemes for prophecies (1324-1329).

1324.

The knife, which is an artificial weapon, deprives man of his nails,

his natural weapons.

The mirror conducts itself haughtily holding mirrored in itself the

Queen. When she departs the mirror remains there ...

1325.

Flax is dedicated to death, and to the corruption of mortals. To

death, by being used for snares and nets for birds, animals and

fish; to corruption, by the flaxen sheets in which the dead are

wrapped when they are buried, and who become corrupt in these

winding sheets.-- And again, this flax does not separate its fibre

till it has begun to steep and putrefy, and this is the flower with

which garlands and decorations for funerals should be made.

1326.

(Of Peasants who work in shirts)

Shadows will come from the East which will blacken with great colour

darkness the sky that covers Italy.

(Of the Barbers.)

All men will take refuge in Africa.

1327.

The cloth which is held in the hand in the current of a running

stream, in the waters of which the cloth leaves all its foulness and

dirt, is meant to signify this &c.

By the thorn with inoculated good fruit is signified those natures

which of themselves were not disposed towards virtue, but by the aid

of their preceptors they have the repudation of it.

1328.

A COMMON THING.

A wretched person will be flattered, and these flatterers are always

the deceivers, robbers and murderers of the wretched person.

The image of the sun where it falls appears as a thing which covers

the person who attempts to cover it.

(Money and Gold.)

Out of cavernous pits a thing shall come forth which will make all

the nations of the world toil and sweat with the greatest torments,

anxiety and labour, that they may gain its aid.

(Of the Dread of Poverty.)

The malicious and terrible [monster] will cause so much terror of

itself in men that they will rush together, with a rapid motion,

like madmen, thinking they are escaping her boundless force.

(Of Advice.)

The man who may be most necessary to him who needs him, will be

repaid with ingratitude, that is greatly contemned.

1329.

(Of Bees.)

They live together in communities, they are destroyed that we may

take the honey from them. Many and very great nations will be

destroyed in their own dwellings.

1330.

WHY DOGS TAKE PLEASURE IN SMELLING AT EACH OTHER.

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

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

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

origin as is shown by the faeces ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

bite that dog as they would his master.

1331.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

with the other texts of this section.]

Irony (1332).

1332.

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

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

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

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

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

contemporary poet, as Senatore Morelli informs me.]

Tricks (1333-1335).

1333.

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

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

1334.

TRICKS OF DIVIDING.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRICKS OF DIVIDING.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Footnote 1334: G. Govi _says in the_ 'Saggio' p. 22: _Si dilett

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

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

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

invenzioni del Vinci._]

1335.

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

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

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

_XXI._

_Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes._

_When we consider how superficial and imperfect are the accounts of

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

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

personal circumstances cannot fail to be in the highest degree

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

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

irresistibly dwells in our minds after reading these details of his

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

life of Raphael at Rome._

_I have placed foremost of these documents the very remarkable

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

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

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

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

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

examination no one can doubt that these documents, with the

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

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

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

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

those treating on scientific questions; namely, in these

observations he seems to have taken particular pains to give the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

might unhesitatingly have declared that some unknown Italian

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

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

documents. Under this hypothesis however we should have to state

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

landscape to illustrate the text.

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

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

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

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

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

such importance, we are justified in suggesting theories that have

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

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

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

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

were possible to prove that the interpretation that the documents

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

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

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

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

test of criticism can be brought against the simple and direct

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

disappointment.

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

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

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

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

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

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

the geographical notes Leonardo frequently speaks of the East, and

though such passages afford no direct proof of his having been

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

Euphrates, the Tigris and the Taurus mountains had a special

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

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

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

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

Italy.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leonardo and this prince were certainly far less closely connected,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1336.

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

BABYLON.

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

will terrify not you alone but the whole world, which

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ministry of Finance at Constantinople; the Minister of Finance to

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

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

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

regard to my suggestion that Leonardo's _Diodario_ might be

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

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

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

diodario est Vequivalent de devadar ou plus exactement devatdar,

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

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

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

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

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

Mamelook supremacy over Syria, which corresponded in date with

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

in the State.

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

Cairo in the middle ages. For instance BREIDENBACH, _Itinerarium

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1085, 6.

Egypt was governed from 1382 till 1517 by the Borgite or

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

1487, superintended the construction of the Mole at Alexandria.

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

written in 1488."

3. _Il nuovo accidente accaduto_, or as Leonardo first wrote and

then erased, _e accaduto un nuovo accidente_. From the sequel this

must refer to an earthquake, and indeed these were frequent at that

period, particularly in Asia Minor, where they caused immense

mischief. See No. 1101 note.]

shall be related to you in due order, showing first the effect and

then the cause. [Footnote 4: The text here breaks off. The following

lines are a fresh beginning of a letter, evidently addressed to the

same person, but, as it would seem, written at a later date than the

previous text. The numerous corrections and amendments amply prove

that it is not a copy from any account of a journey by some unknown

person; but, on the contrary, that Leonardo was particularly anxious

to choose such words and phrases as might best express his own

ideas.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

country known later as Turcomania, while Armenia Minor was the

territory between Cappadocia and the Euphrates. It was not till

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

the Ottoman Turks, in the reign of Selim I.

The Mamelook Sultans of Egypt seem to have taken a particular

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

by J. GILDEMEISTER in _Zeitschrift des Deutschen Palaestina Vereins_

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

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

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

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

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

and a large proportion of the Egyptian Army was recruited in

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

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

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

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

frontier provinces. Only to mention a few historical events of

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

Circassians to resist the encroachments of Alaeddoulet, an Asiatic

prince who had allied himself with the Osmanli to threaten the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

important part in the negotiations for peace.

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

is singular and suggests personal intimacy; Leonardo seems to have

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

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

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

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

omit to mention that shortly after I had discovered

these texts in the Codex Atlanticus and published a paper on the

subject in the _Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst (Vol. XVI)_, Prof.

Govi put forward this hypothesis to account for their origin:

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

minore che si contengono negli altri frammenti, esse vennero prese

da qualche geografro o viaggiatore contemporaneo. Dall'indice

imperfetto che accompagna quei frammenti, si potrebbe dedurre che

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

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

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

religione di Maometto, come qualcuno pretenderebbe. Leonardo amava

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

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

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

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

specie di Romanzo in forma epistolare svolgendone Pintreccio

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

qualche viaggiatore amico suo, gli avevano somministrato alcuni

elementi piu o meno_ fantastici. (See Transunti della Reale

Accademia dei Lincei Voi. V Ser. 3).

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

should then be equally justified in supposing some more of

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

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

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

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

to assume that Leonardo purposed from the first to illustrate his

tale; for it needs only a glance at the sketches on PI. CXVI to CXIX

to perceive that they are connected with the texts; and of course

the rest of Leonardo's numerous notes on matters pertaining to the

East, the greater part of which are here published for the first

time, may also be somehow connected with this strange romance.

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

exactly determined, between the valley of the Euphrates and the

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

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

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

Turkish Gulnar. In two Catalonian Portulans in the Bibliotheque

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

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

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

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

that the geographical position is so care- fully determined by

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

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

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

dall'Eitfrates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

foreknowledge of this puzzling topographical question when, in 1876,

I was pursuing archaeological enquiries in the Provinces of Aleppo

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

snow-peaks of Bulghar Dagh and Ala Tepessi.

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

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

to Milan, where Monte Rosa is so conspicuous an object in the

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

rays penetrate to the bottom of the valleys.]

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

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

seemed to me to be most to our purpose, I entered into the city of

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

base of that part of the Taurus mountains which is divided from the

Euphrates and looks towards the peaks of the great Mount Taurus [8]

to the West [9]. These peaks are of such a height that they seem to

touch the sky, and in all the world there is no part of the earth,

higher than its summit[10], and the rays of the sun always fall upon

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

whitest stone [Footnote 11:_Pietra bianchissima_. The Taurus

Mountains consist in great part of limestone.] it shines

resplendently and fulfils the function to these Armenians which a

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

description of the curious reflection in the evening, resembling the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

mountain is intercepted by various intervals of clouds, and

therefore varies in the form of its brightness.

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

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

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

writing.].

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

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

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

Mohammedan official. _Predica_ probably stands as an abbreviation

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

glorification; very probably it may mean some such initial doxology

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

The sudden inundation, to its end.

[23] The destruction of the city.

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

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

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

meaning to be worth hazarding.]

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

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

earthquakes, entitled _kechf aussalssaleb an auasf ezzel-zeleh_, and

written by Djelal eddin].

The mischief it did.

[32] Fall of snow.

The finding of the prophet [33].

His prophesy.

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

draining of which was effected by the cutting through the Taurus

Mountains.

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

profeta_. Mohammed. Leonardo here refers to the Koran:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

as he had foretold.

Description of the Taurus Mountains [43] and the river Euphrates.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

also compelled me to the utmost painstaking in seeking out and

diligently investigating the cause of so great and stupendous an

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

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

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

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

amply satisfied.

[Footnote 36: _Tagliata di Monte Tauro_. The Euphrates flows through

the Taurus range near the influx of the Kura Shai; it rushes through

a rift in the wildest cliffs from 2000 to 3000 feet high and runs on

for 90 miles in 300 falls or rapids till it reaches Telek, near

which at a spot called Gleikash, or the Hart's leap, it measures

only 35 paces across. Compare the map on Pl. CXIX and the

explanation for it on p. 391.]

[Footnote 54: The foregoing sketch of a letter, lines 5. 18, appears

to have remained a fragment when Leonardo received pressing orders

which caused him to write immediately and fully on the subject

mentioned in line 43.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

evidently intended as an improvement on that immediately preceding

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

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

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

the romance-theory held by Prof. Govi.]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

confirm this in the Scythian tongue Caucasus means a very high

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

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

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

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

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

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

to the East.

OF THE STRUCTURE AND SIZE OF MOUNT TAURUS.

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

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

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

is at its meridian, its shadow extends as far as the borders of

Sarmatia, twelve days off; and in the middle of December it extends

as far as the Hyperborean mountains, which are at a month's journey

to the North [75]. And the side which faces the wind is always free

from clouds and mists, because the wind which is parted in beating

on the rock, closes again on the further side of that rock, and in

its motion carries with it the clouds from all quarters and leaves

them where it strikes. And it is always full of thunderbolts from

the great quantity of clouds which accumulate there, whence the rock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

is on its slope).

_Aquilone_ --North, _Antitaurus Antitaurus psis mo_ (probably meant

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

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

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

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

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

Dagh in Pisidia). Celeno is the Greek town of KeAouvat-- see Arian

I, 29, I--now the ruins of Dineir); _oriente_ --East; _africo

libezco_ (for libeccio--South West). In the middle of the Euphrates

river on this small map we see a shaded portion surrounded by

mountains, perhaps to indicate the inundation mentioned in l. 35.

The affluent to the Euphrates shown as coming with many windings

from the high land of 'Argeo' on the West, is the Tochma Su, which

joins the main river at Malatie. I have not been able to discover

any map of Armenia of the XVth or XVIth century in which the course

of the Euphrates is laid down with any thing like the correctness

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

Portulan of Olivez de Majorca, executed in 1584, and it is far

behind Leonardo's.]. This mountain, at its base, is inhabited by a

very rich population and is full of most beautiful springs and

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

particularly in those parts which face to the South. But after

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

trees, and beech and other similar trees; after this, for a space of

three more miles, there are meadows and vast pastures; and all the

rest, as far as the beginning of the Taurus, is eternal snows which

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

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

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

miles, that is, a height of about five miles in a straight line; and

the summit of the peaks of the Taurus are as much, or about that.

There, half way up, we begin to find a scorching air and never feel

a breath of wind; but nothing can live long there; there nothing is

brought forth save a few birds of prey which breed in the high

fissures of Taurus and descend below the clouds to seek their prey.

Above the wooded hills all is bare rock, that is, from the clouds

upwards; and the rock is the purest white. And it is impossible to

walk to the high summit on account of the rough and perilous ascent.

1337.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

position are not mentioned.]

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

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

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

Having several times--

Having many times rejoiced with you by letters over your prosperous

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

of various trees; and every kind of thing flying through the air

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

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

completely burnt up all this neighbourhood and it has not yet

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

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

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

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

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

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

to speak of as churches.

_Maschi e femmini insieme unite_, implies an infringement of the

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Codex Atlanticus, certain texts referring to valleys of the Alps

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Leonardo.]

it had not been for certain people who succoured us with victuals,

all would have died of hunger. Now you see the state we are in. And

all these evils are as nothing compared with those which are

promised to us shortly.

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

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

Notes about events observed abroad (1338-1339).

1338.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

connexion and have been omitted.]

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

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

probable that this refers to the natural phenomena which are so

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

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

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

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

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

1339.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

refer to Leonardo's journeys in Southern Italy.]

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

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

that opposes its furious course ...

No otherwise does the Northern blast whirl round in its tempestuous

progress ...

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

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

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

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

stones and earth through the air together with the flames they

vomit.

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

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

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

delle eruzioni_ (Palermo, 1818, p. 88) tells us, on the authority of

the _Cronaca del Monastero Benedettino di Licordia_ of an eruption

of the Volcano with a great flow of lava on Sept. 21, 1447. The next

records of the mountain are from the years 1533 and 1536. A. Percy

neither does mention any eruptions of Etna during the years to which

this note must probably refer _Memoire des tremblements de terre de

la peninsule italique, Vol. XXII des Memoires couronnees et Memoires

des savants etrangers. Academie Royal de Belgique_).

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

an allusion to any great eruption; particularly in the connection

with Stromboli, where the periodical outbreaks in very short

intervals are very striking to any observer, especially at night

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

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

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

way of its impetuous rage ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

being forbidden by the deep darkness within, and after having

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

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

whether there were any marvellous thing within it ...

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

1340.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

is probably the reason of the conspicuous dissimilarity in the

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

too that here the orthography and abbreviations are also

exceptional. But such superficial peculiarities are not enough to

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Melzi or Mazenta is comparatively unimportant. There are in the

Codex Atlanticus a few other documents not written by Leonardo

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

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

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

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

accepted it as a genuine document.

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

II, p. 3.]

Most illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the

specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of

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

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

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

your Excellency showing your Lordship my secrets, and then offering

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

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

be briefly noted below.

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

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

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

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

of burning and destroying those of the enemy.

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

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

and ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.

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

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

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

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

on a rock, &c.

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

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

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

great detriment and confusion.

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

machines most efficient for offence and defence; and vessels which

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

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

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

to pass under a trench or a river.

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

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

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

could follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.

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

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

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

catapults, mangonels, _trabocchi_ and other machines of marvellous

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

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

offence and defence.

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

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

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

another.

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

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

whom he may.

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

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

happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.

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

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

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

whom I commend myself with the utmost humility &c.

1341.

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

Florence-- Leonardo.

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

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

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

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

of Bari belonged to the Sforza family till 1499.]

1342.

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

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

usefulness.

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

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

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

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

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

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

1343.

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

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

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

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

canal of Martesana.

1344.

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

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

disposed to obey your Excellency.

Perhaps your Excellency did not give further orders to Messer

Gualtieri, believing that I had money enough.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ducats.

1345.

And if any other comission is given me

by any ...

of the reward of my service. Because I am

not [able] to be ...

things assigned because meanwhile they

have ... to them ...

... which they well may settle rather than I ...

not my art which I wish to change and ...

given some clothing if I dare a sum ...

My Lord, I knowing your Excellency's

mind to be occupied ...

to remind your Lordship of my small matters

and the arts put to silence

that my silence might be the cause of making

your Lordship scorn ...

my life in your service. I hold myself ever

in readiness to obey ...

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

Of the horse I will say nothing because

I know the times [are bad]

to your Lordship how I had still to receive

two years' salary of the ...

with the two skilled workmen who are constantly

in my pay and at my cost

that at last I found myself advanced the

said sum about 15 lire ...

works of fame by which I could show to

those who shall see it that I have been

everywhere, but I do not know where I

could bestow my work [more] ...

[Footnote 17: See No. 1344 l. 12.]

I, having been working to gain my

living ...

I not having been informed what it is, I find

myself ...

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

painting the Saletta Nigra of the Castello at Milan.

(See G. MONGERI, _l'Arte in Milano_, 1872, p. 417.)]

remember the commission to paint the

rooms ...

I conveyed to your Lordship only requesting

you ...

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

middle; about half of each line remains.]

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

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

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

the concluding sentence (No. 1346, l. 33. 34 and No. 1347), that

Leonardo, who no doubt compiled this letter, did not forward it to

Piacenza himself, but gave it to some influential patron, under

whose name and signature a copy of it was sent to the Commission.]

1346.

Magnificent Commissioners of Buildings I, understanding that your

Magnificencies have made up your minds to make certain great works

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

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

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

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

insufficiency may cause you to be abused by your descendants,

judging that this age was but ill supplied with men of good counsel

and with good masters; seeing that other cities, and chiefly the

city of the Florentines, has been as it were in these very days,

endowed with beautiful and grand works in bronze; among which are

the doors of their Baptistery. And this town of Florence, like

Piacenza, is a place of intercourse, through which many foreigners

pass; who, seeing that the works are fine and of good quality, carry

away a good impression, and will say that that city is well filled

with worthy inhabitants, seeing the works which bear witness to

their opinion; and on the other hand, I say seeing so much metal

expended and so badly wrought, it were less shame to the city if the

doors had been of plain wood; because, the material, costing so

little, would not seem to merit any great outlay of skill...

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

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

the doors, by which one passes into these churches.

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

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

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

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

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

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

innumerable foreigners. And this dishonour would result if by your

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

carefully lest your money should be spent in buying your own

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

reward of their merit?

1347.

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

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

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

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

Letter to the Cardinal Ippolito d' Este.

1348.

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

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

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

Deputazioni di Storia patria per la provincie modenesi e parmenesi,

Vol. III._ It is the only text throughout this work which I have not

myself examined and copied from the original. The learned discoverer

of this letter--the only letter from Leonardo hitherto known as

having been sent--adds these interesting remarks: _Codesto Cardinale

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

poi d'Agra, aveva conseguito nel 1497 la pingue ed ambita cattedra

di Milano, la dove avra conosciuto il Vinci, sebbene il poco amore

ch'ei professava alle arti lasci credere che le proteste di servitu

di Leonardo piu che a gratitudine per favori ricevuti e per opere a

lui allogate, accennino a speranza per un favore che si aspetta.

Notabile e ancora in questo prezioso documento la ripetuta signatura

del grande artista 'che si scrive Vincio e Vincius, non da Vinci

come si tiene comunemente, sebbene l'una e l'altra possano valere a

significare cosi il casato come il paese; restando a sapere se il

nome del paese di Vinci fosse assunto a cognome della famiglia di

Leonardo nel qual supposto piu propriamento avrebbe a chiamarsi

Leonardo Vinci, o Vincio (latinamente Vincius) com'egli stesso amo

segnarsi in questa lettera, e come scrissero parecchi contenporanei

di lui, il Casio, il Cesariano, Geoffrey Tory, il Gaurico, il

Bandello, Raffaelle Maffei, il Paciolo. Per ultimo non lascero

d'avvertire come la lettera del Vinci e assai ben conservata, di

nitida e larga scrittura in forma pienemente corrispondente a quella

dei suoi manoscritti, vergata all'uso comune da sinistra a destra,

anziche contrariamente come fu suo costume; ma indubbiamente

autentica e fornita della menzione e del suggello che fresca ancora

conserva l'impronta di una testa di profilo da un picciolo antico

cammeo._ (Compare No. 1368, note.)]

Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord.

The Lord Ippolito, Cardinal of Este

at Ferrare.

Most Illustrious and most Reverend Lord.

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

brother refuses to

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

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

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

Reverend Highness a letter of recommendation and favour to Ser

Raphaello Hieronymo, at present one of the illustrious members of

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

particularly it has been laid by his Excellency the Gonfaloniere

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

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

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

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

Raphaello in that admirable and pressing manner which your Highness

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

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

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

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

Raphaello, being most affectionately devoted to your Highness, the

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

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

myself. _Et bene valeat_.

Florence XVIIIa 7bris 1507.

E. V. R. D.

your humble servant

Leonardus Vincius, pictor.

Draft of Letter to the Governor of Milan.

1349.

I am afraid lest the small return I have made for the great

benefits, I have received from your Excellency, have not made you

somewhat angry with me, and that this is why to so many letters

which I have written to your Lordship I have never had an answer. I

now send Salai to explain to your Lordship that I am almost at an

end of the litigation I had with my brother; that I hope to find

myself with you this Easter, and to carry with me two pictures of

two Madonnas of different sizes. These were done for our most

Christian King, or for whomsoever your Lordship may please. I should

be very glad to know on my return thence where I may have to reside,

for I would not give any more trouble to your Lordship. Also, as I

have worked for the most Christian King, whether my salary is to

continue or not. I wrote to the President as to that water which the

king granted me, and which I was not put in possession of because at

that time there was a dearth in the canal by reason of the great

droughts and because [Footnote:Compare Nos. 1009 and 1010. Leonardo

has noted the payment of the pension from the king in 1505.] its

outlets were not regulated; but he certainly promised me that when

this was done I should be put in possession. Thus I pray your

Lordship that you will take so much trouble, now that these outlets

are regulated, as to remind the President of my matter; that is, to

give me possession of this water, because on my return I hope to

make there instruments and other things which will greatly please

our most Christian King. Nothing else occurs to me. I am always

yours to command. [Footnote:1349. Charles d'Amboise, Marechal de

Chaumont, was Governor of Milan under Louis XII. Leonardo was in

personal communication with him so early as in 1503. He was absent

from Milan in the autumn of 1506 and from October l5l0--when he

besieged Pope Julius II. in Bologna--till his death, which took

place at Correggio, February 11, 1511. Francesco Vinci, Leonardo's

uncle, died--as Amoretti tells us--in the winter of l5l0-11 (or

according to Uzielli in 1506?), and Leonardo remained in Florence

for business connected with his estate. The letter written with

reference to this affair, No. 1348, is undoubtedly earlier than the

letters Nos. 1349 and 1350. Amoretti tells us, _Memorie Storiche_,

ch. II, that the following note existed on the same leaf in MS. C.

A. I have not however succeeded in finding it. The passage runs

thus: _Jo sono quasi al fine del mio letizio che io o con mie

fratetgli ... Ancora ricordo a V. Excia la facenda che o cum Ser

Juliana mio Fratello capo delli altri fratelli ricordandoli come se

offerse di conciar le cose nostre fra noi fratelli del comune della

eredita de mio Zio, e quelli costringa alla expeditione, quale

conteneva la lettera che lui me mando._]

Drafts of Letters to the Superintendent of Canals and to Fr. Melzi.

1350.

Magnificent President, I am sending thither Salai, my pupil, who is

the bearer of this, and from him you will hear by word of mouth the

cause of my...

Magnificent President, I...

Magnificent President:--Having ofttimes remembered the proposals

made many times to me by your Excellency, I take the liberty of

writing to remind your Lordship of the promise made to me at my last

departure, that is the possession of the twelve inches of water

granted to me by the most Christian King. Your Lordship knows that I

did not enter into possession, because at that time when it was

given to me there was a dearth of water in the canal, as well by

reason of the great drought as also because the outlets were not

regulated; but your Excellency promised me that as soon as this was

done, I should have my rights. Afterwards hearing that the canal was

complete I wrote several times to your Lordship and to Messer

Girolamo da Cusano,who has in his keeping the deed of this gift; and

so also I wrote to Corigero and never had a reply. I now send

thither Salai, my pupil, the bearer of this, to whom your Lordship

may tell by word of mouth all that happened in the matter about

which I petition your Excellency. I expect to go thither this Easter

since I am nearly at the end of my lawsuit, and I will take with me

two pictures of our Lady which I have begun, and at the present time

have brought them on to a very good end; nothing else occurs to me.

My Lord the love which your Excellency has always shown me and the

benefits that I have constantly received from you I have hitherto...

I am fearful lest the small return I have made for the great

benefits I have received from your Excellency may not have made you

somewhat annoyed with me. And this is why, to many letters which I

have written to your Excellency I have never had an answer. I now

send to you Salai to explain to your Excellency that I am almost at

the end of my litigation with my brothers, and that I hope to be

with you this Easter and carry with me two pictures on which are two

Madonnas of different sizes which I began for the most Christian

King, or for whomsoever you please. I should be very glad to know

where, on my return from this place, I shall have to reside, because

I do not wish to give more trouble to your Lordship; and then,

having worked for the most Christian King, whether my salary is to

be continued or not. I write to the President as to the water that

the king granted me of which I had not been put in possession by

reason of the dearth in the canal, caused by the great drought and

because its outlets were not regulated; but he promised me certainly

that as soon as the regulation was made, I should be put in

possession of it; I therefore pray you that, if you should meet the

said President, you would be good enough, now that the outlets are

regulated, to remind the said President to cause me to be put in

possession of that water, since I understand it is in great measure

in his power. Nothing else occurs to me; always yours to command.

Good day to you Messer Francesco. Why, in God's name, of all the

letters I have written to you, have you never answered one. Now wait

till I come, by God, and I shall make you write so much that perhaps

you will become sick of it.

Dear Messer Francesco. I am sending thither Salai to learn from His

Magnificence the President to what end the regulation of the water

has come since, at my departure this regulation of the outlets of

the canal had been ordered, because His Magnificence the President

promised me that as soon as this was done I should be satisfied. It

is now some time since I heard that the canal was in order, as also

its outlets, and I immediately wrote to the President and to you,

and then I repeated it, and never had an answer. So you will have

the goodness to answer me as to that which happened, and as I am not

to hurry the matter, would you take the trouble, for the love of me,

to urge the President a little, and also Messer Girolamo Cusano, to

whom you will commend me and offer my duty to his Magnificence.

[Footnote: 1350. 28-36. Draft of a letter to Francesco Melzi, born

l493--a youth therefore of about 17 in 1510. Leonardo addresses his

young friend as "Messer", as being the son of a noble house. Melzi

practised art under Leonardo as a dilettante and not as a pupil,

like Cesare da Sesto and others (See LERMOLIEFF, _Die Galerien_ &c.,

p. 476).]

Drafts of a letter to Giuliano de' Medici (1351-1352).

135l.

[Most illustrious Lord. I greatly rejoice most Illustrious Lord at

your...]

I was so greatly rejoiced, most illustrious Lord, by the desired

restoration of your health, that it almost had the effect that [my

own health recovered]--[I have got through my illness]--my own

illness left me-- --of your Excellency's almost restored health. But

I am extremely vexed that I have not been able completely to satisfy

the wishes of your Excellency, by reason of the wickedness of that

deceiver, for whom I left nothing undone which could be done for him

by me and by which I might be of use to him; and in the first place

his allowances were paid to him before the time, which I believe he

would willingly deny, if I had not the writing signed by myself and

the interpreter. And I, seeing that he did not work for me unless he

had no work to do for others, which he was very careful in

solliciting, invited him to dine with me, and to work afterwards

near me, because, besides the saving of expense, he

[Footnote 1351. 1353: It is clear from the contents of this notes

that they refer to Leonardo's residence in Rome in 1513-1515. Nor

can there be any doubt that they were addressed to Leonardo's patron

at the time: Giuliano de' Medici, third son of Lorenzo the

Magnificent and brother of Pope Leo X (born 1478). In 1512 he became

the head of the Florentine Republic. The Pope invited him to Rome,

where he settled; in 1513 he was named patrician with much splendid

ceremonial. The medal struck in honour of the event bears the words

MAG. IVLIAN. MEDICES. Leonardo too uses the style "Magnifico", in

his letter. Compare also No. 1377.

GlNO CAPPONI (_Storia della Repubblica di Firenze_, Vol. III, p.

139) thus describes the character of Giuliano de' Medici, who died

in 1516: _Era il migliore della famiglia, di vita placida, grande

spenditore, tenendo intorno a se uomini ingegnosi, ed ogni nuova

cosa voleva provare._

See too GREGOROVIUS, _Geschichte der Stadi Rom_, VIII (book XIV.

III, 2): _Die Luftschlosser furstlicher Grosse, wozu ihn der Papst

hatte erheben wollen zerfielen. Julian war der edelste aller

damaligen Medici, ein Mensch von innerlicher Richtung, unbefriedigt

durch das Leben, mitten im Sonnenglanz der Herrlichkeit Leo's X.

eine dunkle Gestalt die wie ein Schatten voruberzog._ Giuliano lived

in the Vatican, and it may be safely inferred from No. 1352 l. 2,

and No. 1353 l. 4, that Leonardo did the same.

From the following unpublished notice in the Vatican archives, which

M. Eug. Muntz, librarian of the Ecole des Beaux arts, Paris, has

done me the favour to communicate to me, we get a more accurate view

of Leonardo's relation to the often named GIORGIO TEDESCO:

_Nota delle provisione_ (sic) _a da pagare per me in nome del nostro

ill. S. Bernardo Bini e chompa di Roma, e prima della illma sua

chonsorte ogni mese d. 800.

A Ldo da Vinci per sua provisione d. XXXIII, e piu d. VII al detto

per la provisione di Giorgio tedescho, che sono in tutto d. 40.

From this we learn, that seven ducats formed the German's monthly

wages, but according to No. 1353 l. 7 he pretended that eight ducats

had been agreed upon.]

would acquire the Italian language. He always promised, but would

never do so. And this I did also, because that Giovanni, the German

who makes the mirrors, was there always in the workshop, and wanted

to see and to know all that was being done there and made it known

outside ... strongly criticising it; and because he dined with those

of the Pope's guard, and then they went out with guns killing birds

among the ruins; and this went on from after dinner till the

evening; and when I sent Lorenzo to urge him to work he said that he

would not have so many masters over him, and that his work was for

your Excellency's Wardrobe; and thus two months passed and so it

went on; and one day finding Gian Niccolo of the Wardrobe and asking

whether the German had finished the work for your Magnificence, he

told me this was not true, but only that he had given him two guns

to clean. Afterwards, when I had urged him farther, be left the

workshop and began to work in his room, and lost much time in making

another pair of pincers and files and other tools with screws; and

there he worked at mills for twisting silk which he hid when any one

of my people went in, and with a thousand oaths and mutterings, so

that none of them would go there any more.

I was so greatly rejoiced, most Illustrious Lord, by the desired

restoration of your health, that my own illness almost left me. But

I am greatly vexed at not having been able to completely satisfy

your Excellency's wishes by reason of the wickedness of that German

deceiver, for whom I left nothing undone by which I could have hope

to please him; and secondly I invited him to lodge and board with

me, by which means I should constantly see the work he was doing and

with greater ease correct his errors while, besides this, he would

learn the Italian tongue, by means of which be could with more ease

talk without an interpreter; his moneys were always given him in

advance of the time when due. Afterwards he wanted to have the

models finished in wood, just as they were to be in iron, and wished

to carry them away to his own country. But this I refused him,

telling him that I would give him, in drawing, the breadth, length,

height and form of what he had to do; and so we remained in

ill-will.

The next thing was that he made himself another workshop and pincers

and tools in his room where he slept, and there he worked for

others; afterwards he went to dine with the Swiss of the guard,

where there are idle fellows, in which he beat them all; and most

times they went two or three together with guns, to shoot birds

among the ruins, and this went on till evening.

At last I found how this master Giovanni the mirror-maker was he who

had done it all, for two reasons; the first because he had said that

my coming here had deprived him of the countenance and favour of

your Lordship which always... The other is that he said that his

iron-workers' rooms suited him for working at his mirrors, and of

this he gave proof; for besides making him my enemy, he made him

sell all he had and leave his workshop to him, where he works with a

number of workmen making numerous mirrors to send to the fairs.

1352.

I was so greatly rejoiced, most Illustrious Lord, by the wished for

recovery of your health, that my own ills have almost left me; and I

say God be praised for it. But it vexes me greatly that I have not

been able completely to satisfy your Excellency's wishes by reason

of the wickedness of that German deceiver, for whom I left nothing

undone by which I could hope to please him; and secondly I invited

him to lodge and board with me, by which means I should see

constantly the work he was doing, for which purpose I would have a

table fixed at the foot of one of these windows, where he could work

with the file and finish the things made below; and so I should

constantly see the work he might do, and it could be corrected with

greater ease.

Draft of letter written at Rome.

1353.

This other hindered me in anatomy, blaming it before the Pope; and

likewise at the hospital; and he has filled [4] this whole Belvedere

with workshops for mirrors; and he did the same thing in Maestro

Giorgio's room. He said that he had been promised [7] eight ducats

every month, beginning with the first day, when he set out, or at

latest when he spoke with you; and that you agreed.

Seeing that he seldom stayed in the workshop, and that he ate a

great deal, I sent him word that, if he liked I could deal with him

separately for each thing that he might make, and would give him

what we might agree to be a fair valuation. He took counsel with his

neighbour and gave up his room, selling every thing, and went to

find...

Miscellaneous Records (1354. 1355).

1354.

[Footnote: A puzzling passage, meant, as it would seem, for a jest.

Compare the description of Giants in Dante, _Inf_. XXI and XXII.

Perhaps Leonardo had the Giant Antaeus in his mind. Of him the myth

relates that he was a son of Ge, that he fed on lions; that he

hunted in Libya and killed the inhabitants. He enjoyed the

peculiarity of renewing his strength whenever he fell and came in

contact with his mother earth; but that Hercules lifted him up and

so conquered and strangled him. Lucan gives a full account of the

struggle. Pharsalia IV, 617. The reading of this passage, which is

very indistinctly written, is in many places doubtful.]

Dear Benedetto de' Pertarti. When the proud giant fell because of

the bloody and miry state of the ground it was as though a mountain

had fallen so that the country shook as with an earthquake, and

terror fell on Pluto in hell. From the violence of the shock he lay

as stunned on the level ground. Suddenly the people, seeing him as

one killed by a thunderbolt, turned back; like ants running wildly

over the body of the fallen oak, so these rushing over his ample

limbs.......... them with frequent wounds; by which, the giant being

roused and feeling himself almost covered by the multitude, he

suddenly perceives the smarting of the stabs, and sent forth a roar

which sounded like a terrific clap of thunder; and placing his hands

on the ground he raised his terrible face: and having lifted one

hand to his head he found it full of men and rabble sticking to it

like the minute creatures which not unfrequently are found there;

wherefore with a shake of his head he sends the men flying through

the air just as hail does when driven by the fury of the winds. Many

of these men were found to be dead; stamping with his feet.

And clinging to his hair, and striving to hide in it, they behaved

like sailors in a storm, who run up the ropes to lessen the force of

the wind [by taking in sail].

News of things from the East.

Be it known to you that in the month of June there appeared a Giant,

who came from the Lybian desert... mad with rage like ants....

struck down by the rude.

This great Giant was born in Mount Atlas and was a hero ... and had

to fight against the Egyptians and Arabs, Medes and Persians. He

lived in the sea on whales, grampuses and ships.

Mars fearing for his life took refuge under the... of Jove.

And at the great fall it seemed as though the whole province quaked.

1355.

This spirit returns to the brain whence it had departed, with a loud

voice and with these words, it moved...

And if any man though he may have wisdom or goodness .........

[Footnote: This passage, very difficult to decipher, is on the

reverse of a drawing at Windsor, Pl. CXXII, which possibly has some

connection with it. The drawing is slightly reduced in this

reproduction; the original being 25 cm. high by 19 cm. wide.]

O blessed and happy spirit whence comest thou? Well have I known

this man, much against my will. This one is a receptacle of

villainy; he is a perfect heap of the utmost ingratitude combined

with every vice. But of what use is it to fatigue myself with vain

words? Nothing is to be found in them but every form of sin ... And

if there should be found among them any that possesses any good,

they will not be treated differently to myself by other men; and in

fine, I come to the conclusion that it is bad if they are hostile,

and worse if they are friendly.

Miscellaneous drafts of letters and personal records (1356--1368).

1356.

All the ills that are or ever were, if they could be set to work by

him, would not satisfy the desires of his iniquitous soul; and I

could not in any length of time describe his nature to you, but I

conclude...

1357.

I know one who, having promised me much, less than my due, being

disappointed of his presumptuous desires, has tried to deprive me of

all my friends; and as he has found them wise and not pliable to his

will, he has menaced me that, having found means of denouncing me,

he would deprive me of my benefactors. Hence I have informed your

Lordship of this, to the end [that this man who wishes to sow the

usual scandals, may find no soil fit for sowing the thoughts and

deeds of his evil nature] so that he, trying to make your Lordship,

the instrument of his iniquitous and maliceous nature may be

disappointed of his desire.

1358.

[Footnote: Below this text we read gusstino--Giustino and in another

passage on the same page Justin is quoted (No. 1210, 1. 48). The two

have however no real connection.]

And in this case I know that I shall make few enemies seeing that no

one will believe what I can say of him; for they are but few whom

his vices have disgusted, and he only dislikes those men whose

natures are contrary to those vices. And many hate their fathers,

and break off friendship with those who reprove their vices; and he

will not permit any examples against them, nor any advice.

If you meet with any one who is virtuous do not drive him from you;

do him honour, so that he may not have to flee from you and be

reduced to hiding in hermitages, or caves or other solitary places

to escape from your treachery; if there is such an one among you do

him honour, for these are our Saints upon earth; these are they who

deserve statues from us, and images; but remember that their images

are not to be eaten by you, as is still done in some parts of India

[Footnote 15: In explanation of this passage I have received the

following communication from Dr. G. W. LEITNER of Lahore: "So far as

Indian customs are known to us, this practice spoken of by Leonardo

as 'still existing in some parts of India' is perfectly unknown; and

it is equally opposed to the spirit of Hinduism, Mohammedanism and

Sikhism. In central Thibet the ashes of the dead, when burnt, are

mixed with dough, and small figures--usually of Buddha--are stamped

out of them and some are laid in the grave while others are

distributed among the relations. The custom spoken of by Leonardo

may have prevailed there but I never heard of it." Possibly Leonardo

refers here to customs of nations of America.] where, when the

images have according to them, performed some miracle, the priests

cut them in pieces, being of wood, and give them to all the people

of the country, not without payment; and each one grates his portion

very fine, and puts it upon the first food he eats; and thus

believes that by faith he has eaten his saint who then preserves him

from all perils. What do you think here, Man, of your own species?

Are you so wise as you believe yourselves to be? Are these things to

be done by men?

1359.

As I told you in past days, you know that I am without any....

Francesco d'Antonio. Bernardo di Maestro Jacopo.

1360.

Tell me how the things happened.

1361.

j lorezo\\\ 2 inbiadali\\\ 3 inferri de\\\ 4in lorezo\\\ 5[inno

abuil]\\ 6 in acocatu\\\ 7 per la sella\\\ 8colte di lor\\\ 9v

cavallott\\\ I0el uiagg\\\ IIal\\\ I2a lurez\\\ 13in biada\\\

14inferri\\\ 15abuss\\\ 16in viagg\\\ 17alorz\\\ [Footnote: This

seems to be the beginning of a letter, but only the first words of

the lines have been preserved, the leaf being torn down the middle.

No translation is possible.]

1362.

And so may it please our great Author that I may demonstrate the

nature of man and his customs, in the way I describe his figure.

[Footnote: A preparatory note for the passage given as No. 798, 11.

41--42.]

1363.

This writing distinctly about the kite seems to be my destiny,

because among the first recollections of my infancy, it seemed to me

that, as I was in my cradle, a kite came to me and opened my mouth

with its tail, and struck me several times with its tail inside my

lips.

[Footnote: This note probably refers to the text No. 1221.]

1364.

[When I did well, as a boy you used to put me in prison. Now if I do

it being grown up, you will do worse to me.]

1365.

Tell me if anything was ever done.

1366.

Tell me if ever I did a thing which me ....

1367.

Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison

of love.

[Footnote: This note seems to be a quotation.]

1368.

Maestro Leonardo of Florence.

[Footnote: So Leonardo writes his name on a sheet with sundry short

notes, evidently to try a pen. Compare the signature with those in

Nos. 1341, 1348 and 1374 (see also No. 1346, l. 33). The form

"Lionardo" does not occur in the autographs. The Portrait of the

Master in the Royal Library at Turin, which is reproduced--slightly

diminished--on Pl. I, has in the original two lines of writing

underneath; one in red chalk of two or three words is partly

effaced: _lionardo it... lm_ (or _lai_?); the second written in

pencil is as follows: _fatto da lui stesso assai vecchio_. In both

of these the writing is very like the Master's, but is certainly

only an imitation.]

Notes bearing Dates (1369--1378).

1369.

The day of Santa Maria _della Neve_ [of the Snows] August the 2nd

1473. [Footnote: W. An. I. 1368. 1369. This date is on a drawing of

a rocky landscape. See _Chronique des Arts_ 1881 no. 23: _Leonard de

Vinci a-t-il ete au Righi le 5 aout 1473_? letter by H. de

Geymuller. The next following date in the MSS. is 1478 (see No.

663).

1370.

On the 2nd of April 1489, book entitled 'Of the human figure'.

[Footnote: While the letters in the MS. notes of 1473 and 1478 are

very ornate, this note and the texts on anatomy on the same sheet

(for instance No. 805) are in the same simple hand as we see on Pl.

CXVI and CXIX. No 1370 is the only dated note of the years between

1480 and 1489, and the characters are in all essential points

identical with those that we see in the latest manuscripts written

in France (compare the facsimiles on Pl. CXV and p. 254), so that it

is hardly possible to determine exactly the date of a manuscript

from the style of the handwriting, if it does not betray the

peculiarities of style as displayed in the few notes dated previous

to l480.--Compare the facsimile of the manuscripts 1479 on Pl.LXII,

No. 2; No. 664, note, Vol. I p. 346. This shows already a marked

simplicity as compared with the calligraphy of I478.

The text No. 720 belongs to the year 1490; No. 1510 to the year

1492; No. 1459, No. 1384 and No. 1460 to the year 1493; No. 1463,

No. 1517, No. 1024, 1025 and 1461 to the year 1494; Nos. 1523 and

1524 to the year 1497.

1371.

On the 1st of August 1499, I wrote here of motion and of weight.

[Footnote:1371. _Scrissi qui_. Leonardo does not say where; still we

may assume that it was not in Milan. Amoretti writes, _Memorie

Storiche_, chap. XIX: _Sembra pertanto che non nel 1499 ma nel 1500,

dopo il ritorno e la prigionia del duca, sia da qui partito Lionardo

per andare a Firenze; ed e quindi probabile, che i mesi di governo

nuovo e incerto abbia passati coll' amico suo Francesco Melzi a

Vaprio, ove meglio che altrove studiar potea la natura, e

soprattutta le acque, e l'Adda specialmente, che gia era stato

l'ogetto delle sue idrostatiche ricerche_. At that time Melzi was

only six years of age. The next date is 1502; to this year belong

No. 1034, 1040, 1042, 1048 and 1053. The note No. 1525 belongs to

the year 1503.]

1372.

On the 9th of July 1504, Wednesday, at seven o'clock, died Ser Piero

da Vinci, notary at the Palazzo del Podesta, my father, --at seven

o'clock, being eighty years old, leaving behind ten sons and two

daughters.

[Footnote: This statement of Ser Piero's age contradicts that of the

_Riassunto della portata di Antonio da Vinci_ (Leonardo's

grandfather), who speaks of Ser Piero as being thirty years old in

1457; and that of the _Riassunto della portata di Ser Piero e

Francesco_, sons of Antonia da Vinci, where Ser Piero is mentioned

as being forty in 1469. These documents were published by G.

UZIELLI, _Ricerche intorno a L. da Vinci, Firenze_, 1872, pp. 144

and 146. Leonardo was, as is well known, a natural son. His mother

'La Catarina' was married in 1457 to Acchattabriga di Piero del

Vaccha da Vinci. She died in 1519. Leonardo never mentions her in

the Manuscripts. In the year of Leonardo's birth Ser Piero married

Albiera di Giovanni Amadoci, and after her death at the age of

thirty eight he again married, Francesca, daughter of Ser Giovanni

Lanfredi, then only fifteen. Their children were Leonardo's

halfbrothers, Antonio (b. 1476), Ser Giuliano (b. 1479), Lorenzo (b.

1484), a girl, Violante (b. 1485), and another boy Domenico (b.

1486); Domenico's descendants still exist as a family. Ser Piero

married for the third time Lucrezia di Guglielmo Cortigiani by whom

he had six children: Margherita (b. 1491), Benedetto (b. 1492),

Pandolfo (b. 1494), Guglielmo (b. 1496), Bartolommeo (b. 1497), and

Giovanni) date of birth unknown). Pierino da Vinci the sculptor

(about 1520-1554) was the son of Bartolommeo, the fifth of these

children. The dates of their deaths are not known, but we may infer

from the above passage that they were all still living in 1505.]

1373.

On Wednesday at seven o'clock died Ser Piero da Vinci on the 9th of

July 1504.

[Footnote: This and the previous text it may be remarked are the

only mention made by Leonardo of his father; Nos. 1526, 1527 and No.

1463 are of the year 1504.]

1374.

Begun by me, Leonardo da Vinci, on the l2th of July 1505.

[Footnote: Thus he writes on the first page of the MS. The title is

on the foregoing coversheet as follows: _Libro titolato

disstrafformatione coe_ (cioe) _d'un corpo nvn_ (in un) _altro sanza

diminuitione e acresscemento di materia._]

1375.

Begun at Milan on the l2th of September 1508.

[Footnote: No. 1528 and No. 1529 belong to the same year. The text

Vol. I, No. 4 belongs to the following year 1509 (1508 old style);

so also does No. 1009.-- Nos. 1022, 1057 and 1464 belong to 1511.]

1376.

On the 9th of January 1513.

[Footnote: No. 1465 belongs to the same year. No. 1065 has the next

date 1514.]

1377.

The Magnifico Giuliano de' Medici left Rome on the 9th of January

1515, just at daybreak, to take a wife in Savoy; and on the same day

fell the death of the king of France.

[Footnote: Giuliano de Medici, brother to Pope Leo X.; see note to

Nos. 1351-1353. In February, 1515, he was married to Filiberta,

daughter of Filippo, Duke of Savoy, and aunt to Francis I, Louis

XII's successor on the throne of France. Louis XII died on Jan. 1st,

and not on Jan. 9th as is here stated.-- This addition is written in

paler ink and evidently at a later date.]

1378.

On the 24th of June, St John's day, 1518 at Amboise, in the palace

of...

[Footnote: _Castello del clli_. The meaning of this word is obscure;

it is perhaps not written at full length.]

_XXII._

_Miscellaneous Notes._

_The incidental memoranda scattered here and there throughout the

MSS. can have been for the most part intelligible to the writer

only; in many cases their meaning and connection are all the more

obscure because we are in ignorance about the persons with whom

Leonardo used to converse nor can we say what part he may have

played in the various events of his time. Vasari and other early

biographers give us a very superficial and far from accurate picture

of Leonardo's private life. Though his own memoranda, referring for

the most part to incidents of no permanent interest, do not go far

towards supplying this deficiency, they are nevertheless of some

importance and interest as helping us to solve the numerous

mysteries in which the history of Leonardo's long life remains

involved. We may at any rate assume, from Leonardo's having

committed to paper notes on more or less trivial matters on his

pupils, on his house-keeping, on various known and unknown

personages, and a hundred other trifies--that at the time they must

have been in some way important to him._

_I have endeavoured to make these 'Miscellaneous Notes' as complete

as possible, for in many cases an incidental memorandum will help to

explain the meaning of some other note of a similar kind. The first

portion of these notes (Nos. l379--l457), as well as those referring

to his pupils and to other artists and artificers who lived in his

house (1458--1468,) are arranged in chronological order. A

considerable proportion of these notes belong to the period between

1490 and 1500, when Leonardo was living at Milan under the patronage

of Lodovico il Moro, a time concerning which we have otherwise only

very scanty information. If Leonardo did really--as has always been

supposed,--spend also the greater part of the preceding decade in

Milan, it seems hardly likely that we should not find a single note

indicative of the fact, or referring to any event of that period, on

the numerous loose leaves in his writing that exist. Leonardo's life

in Milan between 1489 and 1500 must have been comparatively

uneventful. The MSS. and memoranda of those years seem to prove that

it was a tranquil period of intellectual and artistic labour rather

than of bustling court life. Whatever may have been the fate of the

MSS. and note books of the foregoing years--whether they were

destroyed by Leonardo himself or have been lost--it is certainly

strange that nothing whatever exists to inform us as to his life and

doings in Milan earlier than the consecutive series of manuscripts

which begin in the year 1489._

_There is nothing surprising in the fact that the notes regarding

his pupils are few and meagre. Excepting for the record of money

transactions only very exceptional circumstances would have prompted

him to make any written observations on the persons with whom he was

in daily intercourse, among whom, of course, were his pupils. Of

them all none is so frequently mentioned as Salai, but the character

of the notes does not--as it seems to me--justify us in supposing

that he was any thing more than a sort of factotum of Leonardo's

(see 1519, note)._

_Leonardo's quotations from books and his lists of titles supply

nothing more than a hint as to his occasional literary studies or

recreations. It was evidently no part of his ambition to be deeply

read (see Nrs. 10, 11, 1159) and he more than once expressly states

(in various passages which will be found in the foregoing sections)

that he did not recognise the authority of the Ancients, on

scientific questions, which in his day was held paramount.

Archimedes is the sole exception, and Leonardo frankly owns his

admiration for the illustrious Greek to whose genius his own was so

much akin (see No. 1476). All his notes on various authors,

excepting those which have already been inserted in the previous

section, have been arranged alphabetically for the sake of

convenience (1469--1508)._

_The passages next in order contain accounts and inventories

principally of household property. The publication of these--often

very trivial entries--is only justifiable as proving that the

wealth, the splendid mode of life and lavish expenditure which have

been attributed to Leonardo are altogether mythical; unless we put

forward the very improbable hypothesis that these notes as to money

in hand, outlay and receipts, refer throughout to an exceptional

state of his affairs, viz. when he was short of money._

_The memoranda collected at the end (No. 1505--1565) are, in the

original, in the usual writing, from left to right. Besides, the

style of the handwriting is at variance with what we should expect

it to be, if really Leonardo himself had written these notes. Most

of them are to be found in juxtaposition with undoubtedly authentic

writing of his. But this may be easily explained, if we take into

account the fact, that Leonardo frequently wrote on loose sheets. He

may therefore have occasionally used paper on which others had made

short memoranda, for the most part as it would seem, for his use. At

the end of all I have given Leonardo's will from the copy of it

preserved in the Melzi Library. It has already been printed by

Amoretti and by Uzielli. It is not known what has become of the

original document._

Memoranda before 1500 (1379-l413).

1379.

Find Longhi and tell him that you wait for him at Rome and will go

with him to Naples; make you pay the donation [Footnote 2: _Libro di

Vitolone_ see No. 1506 note.] and take the book by Vitolone, and the

measurements of the public buildings. [3] Have two covered boxes

made to be carried on mules, but bed-covers will be best; this makes

three, of which you will leave one at Vinci. [4] Obtain

the.............. from Giovanni Lombardo the linen draper of Verona.

Buy handkerchiefs and towels,.... and shoes, 4 pairs of hose, a

jerkin of... and skins, to make new ones; the lake of Alessandro.

[Footnote: 7 and fol. It would seem from the text that Leonardo

intended to have instructions in painting on paper. It is hardly

necessary to point out that the Art of illuminating was quite

separate from that of painting.]

Sell what you cannot take with you. Get from Jean de Paris the

method of painting in tempera and the way of making white [Footnote:

The mysterious looking words, quite distinctly written, in line 1:

_ingol, amor a, ilopan a_ and on line 2: _enoiganod al_ are

obviously in cipher and the solution is a simple one; by reading

them backwards we find for _ingol_: logni-probably _longi_,

evidently the name of a person; for _amor a_: _a Roma_, for _ilopan

a_: _a Napoli_. Leonardo has done the same in two passages treating

on some secrets of his art Nos. 641 and 729, the only other places

in which we find this cipher employed; we may therefore conclude

that it was for the sake of secrecy that he used it.

There can be no doubt, from the tenor of this passage, that Leonardo

projected a secret excursion to Naples. Nothing has hitherto been

known of this journey, but the significance of the passage will be

easily understood by a reference to the following notes, from which

we may infer that Leonardo really had at the time plans for

travelling further than Naples. From lines 3, 4 and 7 it is evident

that he purposed, after selling every thing that was not easily

portable, to leave a chest in the care of his relations at Vinci.

His luggage was to be packed into two trunks especially adapted for

transport by mules. The exact meaning of many sentences in the

following notes must necessarily remain obscure. These brief remarks

on small and irrelevant affairs and so forth are however of no

historical value. The notes referring to the preparations for his

journey are more intelligible.]

salt, and how to make tinted paper; sheets of paper folded up; and

his box of colours; learn to work flesh colours in tempera, learn to

dissolve gum lac, linseed ... white, of the garlic of Piacenza; take

'de Ponderibus'; take the works of Leonardo of Cremona. Remove the

small furnace ... seed of lilies and of... Sell the boards of the

support. Make him who stole it, give you the ... learn levelling and

how much soil a man can dig out in a day.

1380.

This was done by Leone in the piazza of the castle with a chain and

an arrow. [Footnote: This note must have been made in Milan; as we

know from the date of the MS.]

1381.

NAMES OF ENGINEERS.

Callias of Rhodes, Epimachus the Athenian, Diogenes, a philosopher,

of Rhodes, Calcedonius of Thrace, Febar of Tyre, Callimachus the

architect, a master of fires. [Footnote: Callias, Architect of

Aradus, mentioned by Vitruvius (X, 16, 5).--Epimachus, of Athens,

invented a battering-enginee for Demetrius Poliorketes (Vitruvius X,

16, 4).--Callimachus, the inventor of the Corinthian capital (Vitr.

IV, I, 9), and of the method of boring marble (Paus. I, 26, 7), was

also famous for his casts in bronze (Plin. XXXIV, 8, 19). He

invented a lamp for the temple of Athene Polias, on the Acropolis of

Athens (Paus. I, 26, 7)--The other names, here mentioned, cannot be

identified.]

1382.

Ask maestro Lodovico for 'the conduits of water'. [Footnote:

Condotti d'acqua. Possibly a book, a MS. or a map.]

1383.

... at Pistoja, Fioravante di Domenico at Florence is my most

beloved friend, as though he were my [brother]. [Footnote: On the

same sheet is the text No. 663.]

1384.

On the 16th day of July.

Caterina came on 16th day of July, 1493.

Messer Mariolo's Morel the Florentin, has a big horse with a fine

neck and a beautiful head.

The white stallion belonging to the falconer has fine hind quarters;

it is behind the Comasina Gate.

The big horse of Cermonino, of Signor Giulio. [Footnote: Compare

Nos. 1522 and 1517. Caterina seems to have been his housekeeper.]

1385.

OF THE INSTRUMENT.

Any one who spends one ducat may take the instrument; and he will

not pay more than half a ducat as a premium to the inventor of the

instrument and one grosso to the workman every year. I do not want

sub-officials. [Footnote: Refers perhaps to the regulation of the

water in the canals.]

1386.

Maestro Giuliano da Marliano has a fine herbal. He lives opposite to

Strami the Carpenters. [Footnote: Compare No. 616, note. 4.

legnamiere (milanese dialect) = legnajuolo.]

1387.

Christofano da Castiglione who lives at the Pieta has a fine head.

1388.

Work of ... of the stable of Galeazzo; by the road of Brera

[Footnote 4: Brera, see No. 1448, II, 13]; benefice of Stanghe

[Footnote 5:Stanghe, see No. 1509.]; benefice of Porta Nuova;

benefice of Monza; Indaco's mistake; give first the benefices; then

the works; then ingratitude, indignity and lamentations.

1389.

Chiliarch--captain of 1000.

Prefects--captains.

A legion, six thousand and sixty three men.

1390.

A nun lives at La Colomba at Cremona; she works good straw plait,

and a friar of Saint Francis. [Footnote: _La Colomba_ is to this day

the name of a small house at Cremona, decorated with frescoes.]

1391.

Needle,--Niccolao,--thread,--Ferrando, -lacopo

Andrea,--canvas,--stone,--colours, --brushes,--pallet,--sponge,--the

panel of the Duke.

1392.

Messer Gian Domenico Mezzabarba and Messer Giovanni Franceso

Mezzabarba. By the side of Messer Piero d'Anghiera.

1393.

Conte Francesco Torello.

1394.

Giuliano Trombetta,--Antonio di Ferrara, --Oil of .... [Footnote:

Near this text is the sketch of a head drawn in red chalk.]

1395.

Paul was snatched up to heaven. [Footnote: See the facsimile of this

note on Pl. XXIII No. 2.]

1396.

Giuliano da Maria, physician, has a steward without hands.

1397.

Have some ears of corn of large size sent from Florence.

1398.

See the bedstead at Santa Maria. Secret.

1399.

Arrigo is to have 11 gold Ducats. Arrigo is to have 4 gold ducats in

the middle of August.

1400.

Give your master the instance of a captain who does not himself win

the victory, but the soldiers do by his counsels; and so he still

deserves the reward.

1401.

Messer Pier Antonio.

1402.

Oil,--yellow,--Ambrosio,--the mouth, --the farmhouse.

1403.

My dear Alessandro from Parma, by the hand of ...

1404.

Giovannina, has a fantastic face,--is at Santa Caterina, at the

Hospital. [Footnote: Compare the text on the same page: No. 667.]

1405.

24 tavole make 1 perch. 4 trabochi make 1 tavola. 4 braccia and a

half make a trabocco. A perch contains 1936 square braccia, or 1944.

1406.

The road of Messer Mariolo is 13 1/4 braccia wide; the House of

Evangelista is 75.

It enters 7 1/2 braccia in the house of Mariolo. [Footnote: On this

page and that which faces it, MS.I2 7la, are two diagrams with

numerous reference numbers, evidently relating to the measurements

of a street.]

1407.

I ask at what part of its curved motion the moving cause will leave

the thing moved and moveable.

Speak to Pietro Monti of these methods of throwing spears.

1408.

Antonio de' Risi is at the council of Justice.

1409.

Paolo said that no machine that moves another .... [Footnote: The

passage, of which the beginning is here given, deals with questions

in mechanics. The instances in which Leonardo quotes the opinions of

his contemporaries on scientific matters are so rare as to be worth

noticing. Compare No. 901. ]

1410.

Caravaggio. [Footnote: _Caravaggio_, a village not far from the Adda

between Milan and Brescia, where Polidoro and Michelangelo da

Caravaggio were born. This note is given in facsimile on Pl. XIII,

No. I (above, to the left). On Pl. XIII, No. 2 above to the right we

read _cerovazo_.]

1411.

Pulleys,--nails,--rope,--mercury,--cloth, Monday.

1412.

MEMORANDUM.

Maghino, Speculus of Master Giovanni the Frenchman; Galenus on

utility.

1413.

Near to Cordusio is Pier Antonio da Tossano and his brother

Serafino. [Footnote: This note is written between lines 23 and 24 of

the text No. 710. Corduso, Cordusio (_curia ducis_) = Cordus in the

Milanese dialect, is the name of a Piazza between the Via del

Broletto and the Piazza de' Mercanti at Milan.. In the time of il

Moro it was the centre of the town. The persons here named were

members of the noble Milanese family de'Fossani; Ambrogio da

Possano, the contemporary painter, had no connection with them.]

1414.

Memoranda after 1500 (1414--1434)

1414.

Paul of Vannochio at Siena ... The upper chamber for the apostles.

[4] Buildings by Bramante.

The governor of the castle made a prisoner.

[6] Visconti carried away and his son killed. [Footnote 6: Visconti.

_Chi fosse quel Visconte non sapremmo indovinare fra tanti di questo

nome. Arluno narra che allora atterrate furono le case de' Viconti,

de' Castiglioni, de' Sanseverini, e de' Botta e non e improbabile

che ne fossero insultati e morti i padroni. Molti Visconti annovera

lo stesso Cronista che per essersi rallegrati del ritorno del duca

in Milano furono da' Francesi arrestati, e strascinati in Francia

come prigionieri di stato; e fra questi Messer Francesco Visconti, e

suo figliuolo Battista_. (AMORETTI, Mem. Stor. XIX.).]

Giovanni della Rosa deprived of his money.

Borgonzio began ....; and moreover his fortunes fled. [Footnote 8:

Borgonzio o Brugonzio Botta fu regolatore delle ducali entrate sotto

il Moro, alla cui fuga la casa sua fu pur messa a sacco da'

partitanti francesi. (AMORETTI, l. c.)]

The Duke has lost the state, property and liberty and none of his

entreprises was carried out by him.

[Footnote: l. 4--10 This passage evidently refers to events in Milan

at the time of the overthrow of Ludovico il Moro. Amoretti published

it in the '_Memorie Storiche_' and added copious notes.]

1415.

Ambrosio Petri, St. Mark, 4 boards for the window, 2 ..., 3 the

saints of chapels, 5 the Genoese at home.

1416.

Piece of tapestry,--pair of compasses,-- Tommaso's book,--the book

of Giovanni Benci,--the box in the custom-house,--to cut the

cloth,--the sword-belt,--to sole the boots, --a light hat,--the cane

from the ruined houses,--the debt for the table linen,

--swimming-belt,--a book of white paper for drawing,--charcoal.--How

much is a florin ...., a leather bodice.

1417.

Borges shall get for you the Archimedes from the bishop of Padua,

and Vitellozzo the one from Borgo a San Sepolcro [Footnote 3: Borgo

a San Sepolcro, where Luca Paciolo, Leonardo's friend, was born.]

[Footnote: Borges. A Spanish name.]

1418.

Marzocco's tablet.

1419.

Marcello lives in the house of Giacomo da Mengardino.

1420.

Where is Valentino?--boots,--boxes in the

custom-house,...,--[Footnote 5: Carmine. A church and monastery at

Florence.] the monk at the Carmine,--squares,--[Footnotes 7 and 8:

Martelli, Borgherini; names of Florentine families. See No. 4.]

Piero Martelli,--[8] Salvi Borgherini,--send back the bags,--a

support for the spectacles,--[Footnote 11: San Gallo; possibly

Giuliano da San Gallo, the Florentine architect.] the nude study of

San Gallo,--the cloak. Porphyry,--groups,--square,--[Footnote 16:

Pandolfini, see No. 1544 note.] Pandolfino. [Footnote: Valentino.

Cesare Borgia is probably meant. After being made Archbishop of

Valence by Alexander VI he was commonly called Valentinus or

Valentino. With reference to Leonardo's engagements by him see pp.

224 and 243, note.]

1421.

Concave mirrors; philosophy of Aristotle;[Footnote 2: _Avicenna_

(Leonardo here writes it Avinega) the Arab philosopher, 980-1037,

for centuries the unimpeachable authority on all medical questions.

Leonardo possibly points here to a printed edition: _Avicennae

canonum libri V, latine_ 1476 _Patavis._ Other editions are, Padua

1479, and Venice 1490.] the books of Avicenna Italian and Latin

vocabulary; Messer Ottaviano Palavicino or his Vitruvius [Footnote

3: _Vitruvius._ See Vol. I, No. 343 note.]. bohemian knives;

Vitruvius[Footnote 6: _Vitruvius._ See Vol. I, No. 343 note.]; go

every Saturday to the hot bath where you will see naked men;

'Meteora' [Footnote 7: _Meteora._ See No. 1448, 25.],

Archimedes, on the centre of gravity; [Footnote 9: The works of

Archimedes were not printed during Leonardo's life-time.] anatomy

[Footnote 10: Compare No. 1494.] Alessandro Benedetto; The Dante of

Niccolo della Croce; Inflate the lungs of a pig and observe whether

they increase in width and in length, or in width diminishing in

length.

[Footnote 14: _Johannes Marliani sua etate philosophorum et

medicorum principis et ducalis phisic. primi de proportione motuum

velocitate questio subtilissima incipit ex ejusdem Marliani

originali feliciter extracta, M(ilano)_ 1482.

Another work by him has the title: _Marlianus mediolanensis. Questio

de caliditate corporum humanorum tempore hiemis ed estatis et de

antiparistasi ad celebrem philosophorum et medicorum universitatem

ticinensem._ 1474.] Marliano, on Calculation, to Bertuccio.

Albertus, on heaven and earth [Footnote 15: See No. 1469, 1. 7.],

[from the monk Bernardino]. Horace has written on the movements of

the heavens.

[Footnote: _Filosofia d'Aristotele_ see No. 1481 note.]

1422.

Of the three regular bodies as opposed to some commentators who

disparage the Ancients, who were the originators of grammar and the

sciences and ...

1423.

The room in the tower of Vaneri.

[Footnote: This note is written inside the sketch of a plan of a

house. On the same page is the date 1513 (see No. 1376).]

1424.

The figures you will have to reserve for the last book on shadows

that they may appear in the study of Gerardo the illuminator at San

Marco at Florence.

[Go to see Melzo, and the Ambassador, and Maestro Bernardo].

[Footnote: L. 1-3 are in the original written between lines 3 and 4

of No. 292. But the sense is not clear in this connection. It is

scarcely possible to devine the meaning of the following sentence.

2. 3. _Gherardo_ Miniatore, a famous illuminator, 1445-1497, to whom

Vasari dedicated a section of his Lives (Vol. II pp. 237-243, ed.

Sansoni 1879).

5. _Bernardo_, possibly the painter Bernardo Zenale.]

1425.

Hermes the philosopher.

1426.

Suisset, viz. calculator,--Tisber, --Angelo Fossobron,--Alberto.

1427.

The structure of the drawbridge shown me by Donnino, and why _c_ and

_d_ thrust downwards.

[Footnote: The sketch on the same page as this text represents two

poles one across the other. At the ends of the longest are the

letter _c_ and _d_. The sense of the passage is not rendered any

clearer.]

1428.

The great bird will take its first flight;-- on the back of his

great swan,--filling the universe with wonders; filling all writings

with his fame and bringing eternal glory to his birthplace.

[Footnote: This seems to be a speculation about the flying machine

(compare p. 271).]

1429.

This stratagem was used by the Gauls against the Romans, and so

great a mortality ensued that all Rome was dressed in mourning.

[Footnote: Leonardo perhaps alludes to the Gauls under Brennus, who

laid his sword in the scale when the tribute was weighed.]

1430.

Alberto da Imola;--Algebra, that is, the demonstration of the

equality of one thing to another.

1431.

Johannes Rubicissa e Robbia.

1432.

Ask the wife of Biagio Crivelli how the capon nurtures and hatches

the eggs of the hen,--he being drunk.

1433.

The book on Water to Messer Marco Antonio.

[Footnote: Possibly Marc-Antonio della Torre, see p. 97.]

1434.

Have Avicenna's work on useful inventions translated; spectacles

with the case, steel and fork and...., charcoal, boards, and paper,

and chalk and white, and wax;.... .... for glass, a saw for bones

with fine teeth, a chisel, inkstand ........ three herbs, and Agnolo

Benedetto. Get a skull, nut,--mustard.

Boots,--gloves, socks, combs, papers, towels, shirts,....

shoe-tapes,--..... shoes, penknife, pens. A skin for the chest.

[Footnote: 4. Lapis. Compare Condivi, _Vita di Michelagnolo

Buonarotti_, Chap. XVIII.: _Ma egli_ (Michelangelo) _non avendo che

mostrare, prese una penna (percioche in quel tempo il lapis non era

in uso) e con tal leggiadria gli dipinse una mano ecc._ The incident

is of the year l496.--Lapis means pencil, and chalk (_matita_).

Between lines 7 and 8 are the texts given as Nos. 819 and No. 7.]

Undated memoranda (1435-1457).

1435.

The book of Piero Crescenze,--studies from the nude by Giovanni

Ambrosio,--compasses, --the book of Giovanni Giacomo.

1436.

MEMORARDUM.

To make some provisions for my garden, --Giordano, _De

Ponderibus_[Footnote 3: _Giordano_. Jordanus Nemorarius, a

mathematician of the beginning of the XIIIth century. No particulars

of his life are known. The title of his principal work is:

_Arithmetica decem libris demonstrata_, first published at Paris

1496. In 1523 appeared at Nuremberg: _Liber Jordani Nemorarii de

ponderibus, propositiones XIII et earundem demonstrationes,

multarumque rerum rationes sane pulcherrimas complectens, nunc in

lucem editus._],--the peacemaker, the flow and ebb of the sea,--have

two baggage trunks made, look to Beltraffio's [Footnote 6:

_Beltraffio_, see No. 465, note 2.

There are sketches by the side of lines 8 and 10.] lathe and have

taken the stone,--out leave the books belonging to Messer Andrea the

German,-- make scales of a long reed and weigh the substance when

hot and again when cold. The mirror of Master Luigi; _A b_ the flow

and ebb of the water is shown at the mill of Vaprio,--a cap.

1437.

Giovanni Fabre,--Lazaro del Volpe,-- the common,--Ser Piero.

[Footnote: These names are inserted on a plan of plots of land

adjoining the Arno.]

1438.

[Lactantius], [the book of Benozzo], groups,--to bind the book,--a

lantern,--Ser Pecantino,--Pandolfino.--[Rosso]--a square, --small

knives,--carriages,--curry combs-- cup.

1439.

Quadrant of Carlo Marmocchi,--Messer Francesco Araldo,--Ser

Benedetto d'Accie perello,--Benedetto on arithmetic,--Maestro Paulo,

physician,--Domenico di Michelino,-- ...... of the Alberti,--Messer

Giovanni Argimboldi.

1440.

Colours, formula,--Archimedes,--Marcantonio.

Tinned iron,--pierced iron.

1441.

See the shop that was formerly Bartolommeo's, the stationer.

[Footnote: 6. _Marc Antonio_, see No. 1433.]

1442.

The first book is by Michele di Francesco Nabini; it treats on

science.

1443.

Messer Francesco, physician of Lucca, with the Cardinal Farnese.

[Footnote: _Alessandro Farnese_, afterwards Pope Paul III was

created in 1493 Cardinal di San Cosimo e San Damiano, by Alexander

VI.]

1444.

Pandolfino's book [Footnote 1: _Pandolfino, Agnolo_, of Florence. It

is to this day doubtful whether he or L. B. Alberti was the author

of the famous work '_Del Governo della Famiglia_'. It is the more

probable that Leonardo should have meant this work by the words _il

libro_, because no other book is known to have been written by

Pandolfino. This being the case this allusion of Leonardo's is an

important evidence in favour of Pandolfino's authorship (compare No.

1454, line 3).],--knives,--a pen for ruling,--to have the vest

dyed,--The library at St.-Mark's,--The library at Santo

Spirito,--Lactantius of the Daldi [Footnote 7: The works of

Lactantius were published very often in Italy during Leonardo's

lifetime. The first edition published in 1465 "_in monastero

sublacensi_" was also the first book printed in Italy.],--Antonio

Covoni,--A book by Maestro Paolo Infermieri, --Boots, shoes and

hose,--(Shell)lac, --An apprentice to do the models for me. Grammar,

by Lorenzo de Medici,--Giovanni del Sodo,--Sansovino, [Footnote 15:

_Sansovino_, Andrea--the _sculptor_; 1460-1529.]--a ruler,--a very

sharp knife,--Spectacles,--fractions....,

--repair.........,--Tomaso's book,-- Michelagnolo's little chain;

Learn the multiplication of roots from Maestro Luca;--my map of the

world which Giovanni Benci has [Footnote 25: Leonardo here probably

alludes to the map, not executed by him (See p. 224), which is with

the collection of his MSS. at Windsor, and was published in the

_Archaeologia_ Vol. XI (see p. 224).];-Socks,--clothes from the

customhouse-officier,--Red Cordova leather,--The map of the world,

of Giovanni Benci,--a print, the districts about Milan--Market book.

Get the Friar di Brera to show you [the book] '_de Ponderibus_'

[Footnote 11: _Brera_, now _Palazzo delle Scienze ed Arti. Until

1571 it was the monastery of the order of the Umiliati and

afterwards of the Jesuits.

_De ponderibus_, compare No. 1436, 3.],--

Of the measurement of San Lorenzo,--

I lent certain groups to Fra Filippo de Brera, [Footnote 13:

_Brera_, now _Palazzo delle Scienze ed Arti. Until 1571 it was the

monastery of the order of the Umiliati and afterwards of the

Jesuits.

_De ponderibus_, compare No. 1436, 3.]--

Memorandum: to ask Maestro Giovannino as to the mode in which the

tower of Ferrara is walled without loopholes,--

Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars are placed on bastions by day or by

night,--

Ask Benedetto Portinari how the people go on the ice in Flanders,--

On proportions by Alchino, with notes by Marliano, from Messer

Fazio,--

The measurement of the sun, promised me by Maestro Giovanni, the

Frenchman,--

The cross bow of Maestro Gianetto,--

The book by Giovanni Taverna that Messer Fazio,--

You will draw Milan [21],--

The measurement of the canal, locks and supports, and large boats;

and the expense,--

Plan of Milan [Footnote 23: _Fondamento_ is commonly used by

Leonardo to mean ground-plan. See for instance p. 53.],--

Groups by Bramante [Footnote 24: _Gruppi_. See Vol. I p. 355, No.

600, note 9.],--

The book on celestial phenomena by Aristoteles, in Italian [Footnote

25: _Meteora_. By this Leonardo means no doubt the four books. He

must refer here to a MS. translation, as no Italian translation is

known to have been published (see No. 1477 note).],--

Try to get Vitolone, which is in the library at Pavia [Footnote 26:

_Vitolone_ see No. 1506, note.

_Libreria di Pavia_. One of the most famous of Italian libraries.

After the victory of Novara in April 1500, Louis XII had it conveyed

to France, '_come trofeo di vittoria_'!] and which treats of

Mathematics,--He had a master [learned] in waterworks and get him to

explain the repairs and the costs, and a lock and a canal and a mill

in the Lombard fashion.

A grandson of Gian Angelo's, the painter has a book on water which

was his fathers.

Paolino Scarpellino, called Assiolo has great knowledge of water

works.

[Footnote 12: _Sco Lorenzo_. A church at Milan, see pp. 39, 40 and

50.]

[Footnote 13. 24: _Gruppi_. See Vol. I p. 355, No. 600, note 9.]

[Footnote 16: The _Portinari_ were one of the great merchant-

families of Florence.]

1449.

Francesco d'Antonio at Florence.

1450.

Giuliano Condi[1],--Tomaso Ridolfi,-- Tomaso Paganelli,--Nicolo del

Nero,--Simone Zasti,--Nasi,--the heir of Lionardo Manelli,

--Guglielmo di Ser Martino,--Bartolomeo del Tovaglia,--Andrea

Arrigucci,-- Nicolo Capponi,--Giovanni Portinari.

[Footnote: I. _Guiliano Gondi_. Ser Piero da Vinci, Leonardo's

father, lived till 1480, in a house belonging to Giuliano Gondi. In

1498 this was pulled down to make room for the fine Palazzo built on

the Piazza San Firenze by Giuliano di San Gallo, which still exists.

In the _Riassunto del Catasto di Ser Piero da Vinci_, 1480, Leonardo

is not mentioned; it is evident therefore that he was living

elsewhere. It may be noticed incidentally that in the _Catasto di

Giuliano Gondi_ of the same year the following mention is made of

his four eldest sons:

_Lionardo mio figliuolo d'eta d'anni 29, non fa nulla, Giovambatista

d'eta d'anni 28 in Ghostantinopoli, Billichozo d'eta d'anni 24 a

Napoli, Simone d'eta d'anni 23 in Ungheria._

He himself was a merchant of gold filigree (_facciamo lavorare una

bottegha d'arte di seta ... facciamo un pocho di trafico a Napoli_}.

As he was 59 years old in 1480, he certainly would not have been

alive at the time of Leonardo's death. But Leonardo must have been

on intimate terms with the family till the end of his life, for in a

letter dated June 1. 1519, in which Fr. Melzi, writing from Amboise,

announces Leonardo's death to Giuliano da Vinci at Florence (see p.

284), he says at the end "_Datemene risposta per i Gondi_" (see

UZIELLI, _Ricerche_, passim).

Most of the other names on the list are those of well-known

Florentine families.]

1451.

Pandolfino.

1452.

Vespuccio will give me a book of Geometry.

[Footnote: See No. 844, note, p. 130.]

1453.

Marcantonio Colonna at Santi Apostoli.

[Footnote: In July 1506 Pope Julius II gave Donna Lucrezia della

Rovere, the daughter of his sister Lucchina, in marriage to the

youthful Marcantonio Colonna, who, like his brothers Prospero and

Fabrizio, became one of the most famous Captains of his family. He

gave to him Frascati and made him a present of the palazzo he had

built, when Cardinal, near the church of Santi Apostoli which is now

known as the Palazzo Colonna (see GREGOROVIUS, _Gesch. der Stadt

Rom._ Vol. VIII, book XIV I, 3. And COPPI, _Mem. Colonnesi_ p.

251).]

1454.

A box, a cage,-- A square, to make the bird [Footnote 2: Vasari

states that Leonardo invented mechanical birds which moved through

the air. Compare No. 703.],-- Pandolfino's book, mortar [?],-- Small

knives, Venieri for the

[Footnote: Much of No. 1444 is repeated in this memorandum.]

Pen for ruling, stone,--star,--

To have the vest dyed, Alfieri's tazza,--

The Libraries, the book on celestial

phenomena,--

Lactantius of the go to the house of

Daldi,-- the Pazzi,

Book from Maestro small box,--

Paolo Infermieri,--

Boots, shoes and small gimlet,--

hose,

Lac, .......,--

An apprentice for .....,--

models,

Grammar of Lo- the amount of the

renzo de' Medici, ...

Giovanni del Sodo .....

for...,--the broken

Sansovino, the....

Piero di Cosino the wings,--

[Footnote 16: _Pier di Cosimo_ the well known Florentine painter

1462-1521. See VASARI, _Vite_ (Vol. IV, p. 134 ed. Sansoni 1880)

about Leonardo's influence on Piero di Cosimo's style of painting.]

Filippo and Lorenzo [Footnote 17: _Filippo e Lorenzo_; probably the

painters Filippino Lippi and Lorenzo di Credi. L. di Credi's

pictures and Vasari's history of that painter bear ample evidence to

his intimate relations with Leonardo.],--A ruler-,-- Spectacles,--to

do the..... again,--Tomaso's book,--Michelagnolo's chain,--The

multiplication of roots,--Of the bow and strinch,--The map of the

world from Benci,-- Socks,--The clothes from the custom-house

officier,--Cordova leather,--Market books, --waters of

Cronaca,--waters of Tanaglino..., --the caps,--Rosso's mirror; to

see him make it,--1/3 of which I have 5/6,--on the celestial

phenomena, by Aristotle [Footnote 36: _Meteora_. See No. 1448,

25.],--boxes of Lorenzo di Pier Francesco [Footnote 37: _Lorenzo di

Pier Francesco_ and his brother _Giovanni_ were a lateral branch of

the _Medici_ family and changed their name for that of

Popolani.],--Maestro Piero of the Borgo,--To have my book

bound,--Show the book to Serigatto,-- and get the rule of the clock

[Footnote 41: Possibly this refers to the clock on the tower of the

Palazzo Vecchio at Florence. In February 1512 it had been repaired,

and so arranged as to indicate the hours after the French manner

(twelve hours a. m. and as many p. m.).],--

ring,--nutmeg,--gum,--the square,--Giovan' Batista at the piazza,

de' Mozzi,--Giovanni Benci has my book and jaspers,--brass for the

spectacles.

1455.

Search in Florence for......

1456.

Bernardo da Ponte ... Val di Lugano ... many veins for anatomical

demonstration.

[Footnote: This fragmentary note is written on the margin of a

drawing of two legs.]

1457.

Paolo of Tavechia, to see the marks in the German stones.

[Footnote: This note occurs on a pen and ink drawing made by

Leonardo as a sketch for the celebrated large cartoon in the

possession of the Royal Academy of Arts, in London. This cartoon is

commonly supposed to be identical with that described and lauded by

Vasari, which was exhibited in Florence at the time and which now

seems to be lost. Mr. Alfred Marks, of Long Ditton, in his valuable

paper (read before the Royal Soc. of Literature, June 28, 1882) "On

the St. Anne of Leonardo da Vinci", has adduced proof that the

cartoon now in the Royal Academy was executed earlier at Milan. The

note here given, which is written on the sheet containing the study

for the said cartoon, has evidently no reference to the drawing on

which it is written but is obviously of the same date. Though I have

not any opening here for discussing this question of the cartoon, it

seemed to me important to point out that the character of the

writing in this note does not confirm the opinion hitherto held that

the Royal Academy cartoon was the one described by Vasari, but, on

the contrary, supports the hypothesis put forward by Mr. Marks.]

Notes on pupils (1458-1468.)

1458.

Giacomo came to live with me on St.-Mary Magdalen's[Footnote: _Il di

della Maddalena._ July 22.] day, 1490, aged 10 years. The second day

I had two shirts cut out for him, a pair of hose, and a jerkin, and

when I put aside some money to pay for these things he stole 4

_lire_ the money out of the purse; and I could never make him

confess, though I was quite certain of the fact.--Thief, liar,

obstinate, glutton.

The day after, I went to sup with Giacomo Andrea, and the said

Giacomo supped for two and did mischief for four; for he brake 3

cruets, spilled the wine, and after this came to sup where I ....

Item: on the 7th day of September he stole a silver point of the

value of 22 soldi from Marco[Footnote 6: _Marco_, probably

Leonardo's pupil Marco d'Oggionno; 1470 is supposed to be the date

of his birth and 1540 of his death.

_Che stava con meco._ We may infer from this that he left the master

shortly after this, his term of study having perhaps expired.] who

was living with me, 4 _lire_ this being of silver; and he took it

from his studio, and when the said Marco had searched for it a long

while he found it hidden in the said Giacomo's box 4 _lire_.

Item: on the 26th January following, I, being in the house of Messer

Galeazzo da San Severino [Footnote 9: Galeazzo. See No. 718 note.],

was arranging the festival for his jousting, and certain footmen

having undressed to try on some costumes of wild men for the said

festival, Giacomo went to the purse of one of them which lay on the

bed with other clothes, 2 lire 4 S, and took out such money as was

in it.

Item: when I was in the same house, Maestro Agostino da Pavia gave

to me a Turkish hide to have (2 lire.) a pair of short boots made of

it; this Giacomo stole it of me within a month and sold it to a

cobbler for 20 soldi, with which money, by his own confession, he

bought anise comfits.

Item: again, on the 2nd April, Giovan Antonio [Footnote 16: Giovan

Antonio, probably Beltraffio, 1467 to 1516.] having left a silver

point on a drawing of his, Giacomo stole it, and this was of the

value of 24 soldi (1 lira 4 S.)

The first year-

A cloak, 2 lire,

6 shirts, 4 lire,

3 jerkins, 6 lire,

4 pairs of hose, 7 lire 8 soldi,

1 lined doublet, 5 lire,

24 pairs of shoes, 6 lire 5 soldi,

A cap, 1 lira,

laces, 1 lira.

[Footnote: Leonardo here gives a detailed account not only of the

loss he and others incurred through Giacomo but of the wild tricks

of the youth, and we may therefore assume that the note was not made

merely as a record for his own use, but as a report to be forwarded

to the lad's father or other responsible guardian.]

1459.

On the last day but one of September;

Thursday the 27th day of September Maestro Tommaso came back and

worked for himself until the last day but one of February. On the

18th day of March, 1493, Giulio, a German, came to live with

me,--Lucia, Piero, Leonardo.

On the 6th day of October.

1460.

1493. On the 1st day of November we settled accounts. Giulio had to

pay 4 months; and Maestro Tommaso 9 months; Maestro Tommaso

afterwards made 6 candlesticks, 10 days' work; Giulio some

fire-tongs 15 days work. Then he worked for himself till the 27th

May, and worked for me at a lever till the 18th July; then for

himself till the 7th of August, and for one day, on the fifteenth,

for a lady. Then again for me at 2 locks until the 20th of August.

1461.

On the 23rd day of August, 12 lire from Pulisona. On the 14th of

March 1494, Galeazzo came to live with me, agreeing to pay 5 lire a

month for his cost paying on the l4th day of each month.

His father gave me 2 Rhenish florins.

On the l4th of July, I had from Galeazzo 2 Rhenish florins.

1462.

On the 15th day of September Giulio began the lock of my studio

1494.

1463.

Saturday morning the 3rd of August 1504 Jacopo the German came to

live with me in the house, and agreed with me that I should charge

him a carlino a day.

1464.

1511. On the 26th of September Antonio broke his leg; he must rest

40 days.

[Footnote: This note refers possibly to Beltraffio.]

1465.

I left Milan for Rome on the 24th day of September, 1513, with

Giovanni [Footnote 2: _Giovan;_ it is not likely that Leonardo

should have called Giovan' Antonio Beltraffio at one time Giovanni,

as in this note and another time Antonio, as in No. 1464 while in

No. 1458 l. 16 we find _Giovan'Antonio_, and in No. 1436, l.6

_Beltraffio_. Possibly the Giovanni here spoken of is Leonardo's

less known pupil Giovan Pietrino (see No. 1467, 5).], Francesco di

Melzi [Footnote 2,3: _Francesco de' Melzi_ is often mentioned, see

Nos. 1350.], Salai [Footnote 3: _Salai_. See No. 1519 note.],

Lorenzo and il Fanfoia.

[Footnote 4: _Lorenzo_. See No. 1351, l. 10 (p. 408). Amoretti gives

the following note in _Mem. Stor. XXIII:_ 1505. _Martedi--sera a di

14 d'aprile. Venne Lorenzo a stare con mecho: disse essere d'eta

d'anni 17 .. a di 15 del detto aprile ebbi scudi 25 d'oro dal

chamerlingo di Santa Maria nuova._ This, he asserts is derived from

a MS. marked S, in quarto. This MS. seems to have vanished and left

no trace behind; Amoretti himself had not seen it, but copied from a

selection of extracts made by Oltrocchi before the Leonardo MSS.

were conveyed to Paris on the responsibility of the first French

Republic. Lorenzo, by this, must have been born in 1487. The

sculptor Lorenzetto was born in 1490. Amoretti has been led by the

above passage to make the following absurd observations:

_Cotesto Lorenzo, che poi gli fu sempre compagno, almeno sin che

stette in Italia, sarebb' egli Lorenzo Lotto bergamasco? Sappiamo

essere stato questo valente dipintore uno de'bravi scolari del

Vinci_ (?).

_Il Fafoia_, perhaps a nickname. Cesare da Sesto, Leonardo's pupil,

seems to have been in Rome in these years, as we learn from a

drawing by him in the Louvre.

1466.

On the 3rd day of January.

Benedetto came on the 17th of October; he stayed with me two months

and 13 days of last year, in which time he earned 38 lire, 18 soldi

and 8 dinari; he had of this 26 lire and 8 soldi, and there remains

to be paid for the past year 12 lire 10 soldi.

Giodatti (?) came on the 8th day of September, at 4 soldi a month,

and stayed with me 3 months and 24 days, and earned 59 lire 14 soldi

and 8 dinari; he has had 43 lire, 4 soldi, there remains to pay 16

lire, 10 soldi and 8 dinari.

Benedetto, 24 grossoni.

[Footnote: This seems to be an account for two assistants. The name

of the second is scarcely legible. The year is not given. The note

is nevertheless of chronological value. The first line tells us the

date when the note was registered, January 3d, and the observations

that follow refer to events of the previous month 'of last year'

_(dell'anno passato)_. Leonardo cannot therefore have written thus

in Florence where the year was, at that period, calculated as

beginning in the month of March (see Vol. I, No. 4, note 2). He must

then have been in Milan. What is more important is that we thus

learn how to date the beginning of the year in all the notes written

at Milan. This clears up Uzielli's doubts: _A Milano facevasi

cominciar l'anno ab incarnatione, cioe il 25 Marzo e a nativitate,

cioe il 25 Decembre. Ci sembra probabile che Leonardo dovesse

prescegliere lo stile che era in uso a Firenze._ (_Ricerche_, p. 84,

note.)]

1467.

Gian Maria 4,

Benedetto 4,

Gian Pietro [5] 3,

Salai 3,

Bartolomeo 3,

Gherardo 4.

1468.

Salai, 20 lire,

Bonifacio, 2 lire,

Bartolomeo, 4 lire,

Arrigo [Harry], 15 lire.

Quotations and notes on books and authors (1469-1508).

1469.

Book on Arithmetic [Footnote 1: _"La nobel opera de arithmethica ne

la qual se tracta tute cosse amercantia pertinente facta & compilata

per Piero borgi da Veniesia", in-40. In fine: "Nela inclita cita di

Venetia a corni. 2 augusto. 1484. fu imposto fine ala presente

opera." Segn. a--p. quaderni. V'ha pero un' altra opera simile di

Filippo Calandro, 1491. E da consultarsi su quest' ultimo, Federici:

Memorie Trevigiane, Fiore di virtu: pag. 73. "Libricciuolo composto

di bello stile verso il 1320 e piu volte impresso nel secolo XV

(ristampato poi anche piu tardi). Gli accademici della Crusca lo

ammettono nella serie dei testi di lingua. Vedasi Gamba, Razzolini,

Panzer, Brunet, Lechi, ecc._ (G. D'A.)], 'Flowers of Virtue',

Pliny [Footnote 2: _"Historia naturale di C. Plinio Secondo,

tradocta di lingua latina in fiorentina per Christophoro Laudino &

Opus Nicolai Jansonis gallici imp. anno salutis M.CCCC.LXXVI.

Venetiis" in-fol.--Diogene Laertio. Incomincia: "El libro de la vita

de philosophi etc.: Impressum Venetiis" per Bernardinum Celerium de

Luere, 1480", in-40_ (G. D'A.).], 'Lives of the Philosophers',

The Bible [Footnote 3: _"La Bibia volgare historiata (per Nicolo di

Mallermi) Venecia ... M.CCCC.LXXI in kalende di Augusto (per

Vindelino de Spira)" 2 vol. in-fol. a 2 col. di 50 lin,; od altra

ediz. della stessa versione del Mallermi, Venetia 1471, e sempre:

"Venecia per Gabriel de Piero 1477," in-fol.; 2 vol.; Ottavio Scotto

da Modoetia 1481," "Venetia 1487 per Joan Rosso Vercellese," "1490

Giovanni Ragazo di Monteferato a instantia di Luchanthonio di

Giunta, ecc."--Lapidario Teofrasto? Mandebille: "Le grand

lapidaire," versione italiana ms.?... Giorgio Agricola non puo

essere, perche nato nel 1494, forse Alberto Magno: de mineralibus.

Potrebbe essere una traduzione del poema latino (Liber lapidum seu

de gemmis) di Marbordio Veterio di Rennes (morto nel 1123 da lui

stesso tradotto in francese dal greco di Evao re d'Arabia celebre

medico che l'aveva composto per l'imperatore Tiberio. Marbodio

scrisse il suo prima per Filippo Augusto re di Francia. Vi sono

anche traduzioni in prosa. "Il lapidario o la forza e la virtu delle

pietre preziose, delle Erbe e degli Animali."_ (G. D'A.)],

'Lapidary',

'On warfare' [Footnote 4: _Il Vegezio? ... Il Frontino? ... Il

Cornazzano?... Noi crediamo piuttosto il Valturio. Questo libro

doveva essere uno de'favoriti di Leonardo poiche libro di scienza e

d'arte nel tempo stesso._], 'Epistles of Filelfo',

[Footnote: The late Marchese Girolamo d'Adda published a highly

valuable and interesting disquisition on this passage under the

title: _Leonardo da Vinci e la sua Libreria, note di un bibliofilo

(Milano 1873. Ed. di soli 75 esemplari_; privately printed). In the

autumn of 1880 the Marchese d'Adda showed me a considerable mass of

additional notes prepared for a second edition. This, as he then

intended, was to come out after the publication of this work of

mine. After the much regretted death of the elder Marchese, his son,

the Marchese Gioachino d'Adda was so liberal as to place these MS.

materials at my disposal for the present work, through the kind

intervention of Signor Gustavo Frizzoni. The following passages,

with the initials G. d'A. are prints from the valuable notes in that

publication, the MS. additions I have marked. I did not however

think myself justified in reproducing here the acute and interesting

observations on the contents of most of the rare books here

enumerated.]

[Footnote: 1467. 5. See No. 1465, 2.]

The first decade, [5] 'On the preservation of health', The third

decade, [6] Ciecho d'Ascoli, The fourth decade, [7] Albertus Magnus,

Guido, [8] New treatise on rhetorics, Piero Crescentio, [9]

Cibaldone, 'Quadriregio', [10] Aesop,

Donato, [Footnote 11: "_Donatus latine & italice: Impressum Venetiis

impensis Johannis Baptistae de Sessa anno_ 1499, _in_-4deg.".-- "_El

Psalterio de David in lingua volgare (da Malermi Venetia nel

M.CCCC.LXXVI,_" in-fol. s. n._ (G. D'A.)] Psalms,

Justinus, [Footnote 12: Compare No. 1210, 48.--_La versione di

Girolamo Squarzafico:_ "_Il libro di Justino posto diligentemente in

materna lingua. Venetia ale spesse (sic) di Johane de Colonia &

Johane Gheretze_ ... l477," _in-fol._--"_Marsilii Ficini, Theologia

platonica, sive de animarum immortalitate, Florentine, per Ant.

Misconimum_ 1482," _in-fol., ovvero qualche versione italiana di

questo stesso libro, ms._ (G. D'A.)] 'On the immortality of the

soul,

Guido [Footnote 13: _Forse_ "_la Historia Trojana Guidonis_" _od il

_"_manipulus_" _di_ "_Guido da Monterocherii_"_ ma piu probabilmente

_"_Guido d'Arezzo_"_ il di cui libro: _"_Micrologus, seu disciplina

artis musicae_"_ poteva da Leonardo aversi ms.; di questi ne

esistono in molto biblioteche, e fu poi impresso nel 1784 dal

Gerbert._

_Molte sono le edizione dei sonetti di Burchiello Fiorentino,

impresse nel secolo XV. La prima e piu rara e recercata:_

"_Incominciano li sonetti, ecc. (per Christoforo Arnaldo)_"_, in_-4deg.

_senza numeri, richiami o segnature, del_ 1475, _e fors' anche del_

1472, _secondo Morelli e Dibdin, ecc._ (G. D'A.)] Burchiello,

'Doctrinale' [Footnote 14: _Versione italiana det "Doctrinal de

Sapience" di Guy de Roy, e foris'anche l'originale in lingua

francese.--_

_Di Pulci Luigi, benche nell' edizione:_ "_Florentiae_ 1479" _in_-4deg.

si dica: _"_Il Driadeo composto in rima octava per Lucio Pulcro_"_

Altre ediz, del secolo XV, _"_Florentie Miscomini_ 1481, _in_-40,

_Firenze, apud S. Jacob, de Ripoli,_ 1483,_" _in_-4deg. _e "Antoni de

Francesco,_ 1487," _in_-4deg. _e Francesco di Jacopo_ 1489,_in_-4deg. _ed

altre ancora di Venezia e senza alcuna nota ecc._ (G. D'A.)]

Driadeo,

Morgante [Footnote 15: _Una delle edizioni del Morgante impresse nel

secolo XV, ecc.--_

_Quale delle opere di Francesco Petrarca, sarebbe malagevole

l'indovinare, ma probabilmente il Canzoniere._ (G. D'A.)] Petrarch.

John de Mandeville [Footnote 16: _Sono i viaggi del cavaliere_

"_Mandeville_" _gentiluomo inglese. Scrisse il suo libro in lingua

francese. Fu stampato replicatamente nel secolo XV in francese, in

inglese ed in italiano ed in tedesco; del secolo XV ne annoverano

forse piu di 27 edizioni, di cui ne conosciamo_ 8 _in francese,

quattro in latino, sei in tedesco e molte altre in volgare._ (G.

D'A.)]

'On honest recreation' [Footnote 17: _Il Platina (Bartolomeo Sacchi)

la versione italiana_ "_de la honesta voluptate, & valetudine (& de

li obsonnii) Venetia (senza nome di tipografo)_ 1487," _piccolo

in_-4deg. _gotico._ (G. D'A.)--Compare No. 844, 21.]

Manganello, [Footnote 18: _Il Manganello: Satira eccessivamente

vivace contro le donne ad imitazione della Sesta di Giovenale.

Manganello non e soltanto il titolo del libricino, sua ben anche il

nome dell'autore ch'era un_ "_milanese_". _Di questo libercolo

rarissimo, che sembra impresso a Venezia dallo Zoppino (Nicolo

d'Aristotile detto il), senza data, ma dei primissimi anni del

secolo XVI, e forse piu antico, come vedremo in appresso, non se ne

conoscono fra biblioteche pubbliche e private che due soli esemplari

in Europa._ (G. D'A.)]

The Chronicle of Isidoro, [Footnote 19: "_Cronica desidero_",

_sembra si deggia leggere piuttosto_ "_cronico disidoro_"_; ed in

questo caso s'intenderebbe la_ "_cronica d'Isidoro_" _tanto in voga

a quel tempo_ "_Comenza la Cronica di Sancto Isidoro menore con

alchune additione cavate del testo & istorie de la Bibia & del libro

di Paulo Oroso .... Impresso in Ascoli in casa del reverendo misser

Pascale ..... per mano di Guglielmo de Linis de Alamania

M.CCCC.LXXVII_" _in_-4deg. _di_ 157 _ff. E il primo libro impresso ad

Ascoli e l'edizione principe di questa cronica in oggi assai rara.

Non lo e meno l'edizione di Cividal del Friuli_, 1480, _e quella ben

anche di Aquila_, 1482, _sempre in-_4deg.. _Vedasi Panzer, Hain, Brunet

e P. Dechamps._ (G. D'A.)]

The Epistles of Ovid, [Footnote 20: "_Le pistole di Ovidio tradotte

in prosa. Napoli Sixt. Riessinger_", _in_-4deg., _oppure:_ "_Epistole

volgarizzate_ 1489," _in_-4deg. _a due col._ "_impresse ne la cita

(sic) di Bressa per pre: Baptista de Farfengo,_" _(in ottave) o:_

"_El libro dele Epistole di Ovidio in rima volgare per messere

Dominico de Monticelli toschano. Brescia Farfengo_," _in_-4deg. _got.

(in rima volgare)_, 1491, _ed anche la versione di Luca Pulci.

Firenze, Mischomini_, 1481, _in_-4deg.. (G. D'A.) ]

Epistles of Filelfo, [Footnote 21: See l. 4.]

Sphere, [Footnote 22: "_Jo: de Sacrobusto_," _o_ "_Goro Dati_," _o_

"_Tolosano da Colle_" _di cui molteplici edizioni del secolo XV._

(G. D'A.)]

The Jests of Poggio, [Footnote 23: _Tre edizioni delle facezie del

Poggio abbiamo in lingua italiana della fine del secolo XV, tutte

senza data. "Facetie de Poggio fiorentino traducte de latino in

vulgare ornatissimo," in-40, segn. a--e in caratteri romani;

l'altra: "Facetie traducte de latino in vulgare," in-40, caratteri

gotici, ecc._ (G. D'A.)] Chiromancy, [Footnote 24: "_Die Kunst

Cyromantia etc, in tedesco. 26 ff. di testo e figure il tutte

eseguito su tavole di legno verso la fine del secolo XV da Giorgio

Schapff". Dibdin, Heinecken, Sotheby e Chatto ne diedero una lunga

descrizione; i primi tre accompagnati da fac-simili. La data 1448

che si legge alla fine del titolo si riferisce al periodo della

composizione del testo, non a quello della stampa del volume benche

tabellario. Altri molti libri di Chiromanzia si conoscono di quel

tempo e sarebbe opera vana il citarli tutti._ (G. D'A.)]

Formulary of letters, [Footnote 25: _Miniatore Bartolomeo.

"Formulario de epistole vulgare missive e responsive, & altri fiori

de ornali parlamenti al principe Hercule d'Esti ecc. composto ecc.

Bologna per Ugo di Rugerii," in-40, del secolo XV. Altra edizione di

"Venetia Bernardino di Novara, 1487" e "Milano per Joanne Angelo

Scinzenzeler 1500," in-40._ (G. D'A.)

Five books out of this list are noted by Leonardo in another MS.

(Tr. 3): _donato, -- lapidario, -- plinio, -- abacho, -- morgante._]

1470.

Nonius Marcellus, Festus Pompeius, Marcus Varro.

[Footnote: Nonius Marcellus and Sextus Pompeius Festus were Roman

grammarians of about the fourth century A. D. Early publications of

the works of Marcellus are: _De proprietate sermonis, Romae_ (about

1470), and 1471 (place of publication unknown). _Compendiosa

doctrina, ad filium, de proprietate sermonum._ Venice, 1476. BRUNET,

_Manuel du libraire_ (IV, p. 97) notes: _Le texte de cet ancien

grammairien a ete reimprime plusieurs fois a la fin du XVe siecle,

avec ceux de Pomponius Festus et de Terentius Varro. La plus

ancienne edition qui reunisse ces trois auteurs est celle de Parme,

1480 ... Celles de Venise, 1483, 1490, 1498, et de Milan, 1500,

toutes in-fol., ont peu de valeur._]

1471.

Map of Elephanta in India which Antonello Merciaio has from maestro

Maffeo;--there for seven years the earth rises and for seven years

it sinks;--Enquire at the stationers about Vitruvius.

1472.

See 'On Ships' Messer Battista, and Frontinus 'On Acqueducts'

[Footnote 2: 2. _Vitruvius de Arch., et Frontinus de Aquedoctibus._

Florence, 1513.--This is the earliest edition of Frontinus.--The

note referring to this author thus suggests a solution of the

problem of the date of the Leicester Manuscript.].

[Footnote: Compare No. 1113, 25.]

1473.

Anaxagoras: Every thing proceeds from every thing, and every thing

becomes every thing, and every thing can be turned into every thing

else, because that which exists in the elements is composed of those

elements.

1474.

The Archimedes belonging to the Bishop of Padua.

[Footnote: See No. 1421, 1. 3, 6 and Vol. I, No. 343.]

1475.

Archimedes gave the quadrature of a polygonal figure, but not of the

circle. Hence Archimedes never squared any figure with curved sides.

He squared the circle minus the smallest portion that the intellect

can conceive, that is the smallest point visible.

[Footnote: Compare No. 1504.]

1476.

If any man could have discovered the utmost powers of the cannon, in

all its various forms and have given such a secret to the Romans,

with what rapidity would they have conquered every country and have

vanquished every army, and what reward could have been great enough

for such a service! Archimedes indeed, although he had greatly

damaged the Romans in the siege of Syracuse, nevertheless did not

fail of being offered great rewards from these very Romans; and when

Syracuse was taken, diligent search was made for Archimedes; and he

being found dead greater lamentation was made for him by the Senate

and people of Rome than if they had lost all their army; and they

did not fail to honour him with burial and with a statue. At their

head was Marcus Marcellus. And after the second destruction of

Syracuse, the sepulchre of Archimedes was found again by Cato[25],

in the ruins of a temple. So Cato had the temple restored and the

sepulchre he so highly honoured.... Whence it is written that Cato

said that he was not so proud of any thing he had done as of having

paid such honour to Archimedes.

[Footnote: Where Leonardo found the statement that Cato had found

and restored the tomb of Archimedes, I do not know. It is a merit

that Cicero claims as his own (Tusc. V, 23) and certainly with a

full right to it. None of Archimedes' biographers --not even the

diligent Mazzucchelli, mentions any version in which Cato is named.

It is evidently a slip of the memory on Leonardo's part. Besides,

according to the passage in Cicero, the grave was not found _'nelle

ruine d'un tempio'_--which is highly improbable as relating to a

Greek--but in an open spot (H. MULLER-STRUBING).--See too, as to

Archimedes, No. 1417.

Leonardo says somewhere in MS. C.A.: _Architronito e una macchina di

fino rame, invenzlon d' Archimede_ (see _'Saggio'_, p. 20).]

1477.

Aristotle, Book 3 of the Physics, and Albertus Magnus, and Thomas

Aquinas and the others on the rebound of bodies, in the 7th on

Physics, on heaven and earth.

1478.

Aristotle says that if a force can move a body a given distance in a

given time, the same force will move half the same body twice as far

in the same time.

1479.

Aristotle in Book 3 of the Ethics: Man merits praise or blame solely

in such matters as lie within his option to do or not to do.

1480.

Aristotle says that every body tends to maintain its nature.

1481.

On the increase of the Nile, a small book by Aristotle. [Footnote:

_De inundatione Nili_, is quoted here and by others as a work of

Aristotle. The Greek original is lost, but a Latin version of the

beginning exists (Arist. Opp. IV p. 213 ed. Did. Par.).

In his quotations from Aristotle Leonardo possibly refers to one of

the following editions: _Aristotelis libri IV de coelo et mundo; de

anima libri III; libri VIII physi- corum; libri de generatione et

corruptione; de sensu et sensato... omnia latine, interprete

Averroe, Venetiis 1483_ (first Latin edition). There is also a

separate edition of _Liber de coelo et mundo_, dated 1473.]

1482.

Avicenna will have it that soul gives birth to soul as body to body,

and each member to itself.

[Footnote: Avicenna, see too No. 1421, 1. 2.]

1483.

Avicenna on liquids.

1484.

Roger Bacon, done in print. [Footnote: The earliest printed edition

known to Brunet of the works of Roger Bacon, is a French

translation, which appeared about fourty years after Leonardo's

death.]

1485.

Cleomedes the philosopher.

[Footnote: Cleomede. A Greek mathematician of the IVth century B. C.

We have a Cyclic theory of Meteorica by him. His works were not

published before Leonardo's death.]

1486.

CORNELIUS CELSUS.

The highest good is wisdom, the chief evil is suffering in the body.

Because, as we are composed of two things, that is soul and body, of

which the first is the better, the body is the inferior; wisdom

belongs to the better part, and the chief evil belongs to the worse

part and is the worst of all. As the best thing of all in the soul

is wisdom, so the worst in the body is suffering. Therefore just as

bodily pain is the chief evil, wisdom is the chief good of the soul,

that is with the wise man; and nothing else can be compared with it.

[Footnote: _Aulus Cornelius Celsus_, a Roman physician, known as the

Roman Hippocrates, probably contemporary with Augustus. Only his

eight Books 'De Medicina', are preserved. The earliest editions are:

_Cornelius Celsus, de medicina libr. VIII._, Milan 1481 Venice 1493

and 1497.]

1487.

Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the

speech and words of the foolish and ignorant, and the noises and

rumblings of the wind in an inflated stomach. Nor did he say so

without reason, for he saw no difference between the parts whence

the noise issued; whether their lower parts or their mouth, since

one and the other were of equal use and importance.

[Footnote: Compare Vol. I, No. 10.]

1488.

Maestro Stefano Caponi, a physician, lives at the piscina, and has

Euclid _De Ponderibus_.

1489.

5th Book of Euclid. First definition: a part is a quantity of less

magnitude than the greater magnitude when the less is contained a

certain number of times in the greater.

A part properly speaking is that which may be multiplied, that is

when, being multiplied by a certain number, it forms exactly the

whole. A common aggregate part ...

Second definition. A greater magnitude is said to be a multiple of a

less, when the greater is measured by the less.

By the first we define the lesser [magnitude] and by the second the

greater is defined. A part is spoken

1490.

of in relation to the whole; and all their relations lie between

these two extremes, and are called multiples.

1491.

Hippocrates says that the origin of men's sperm derives from the

brain, and from the lungs and testicles of our parents, where the

final decocture is made, and all the other limbs transmit their

substance to this sperm by means of expiration, because there are no

channels through which they might come to the sperm.

[Footnote: The works of Hippocrates were printed first after

Leonardo's death.]

1492.

Lucretius in his third [book] 'De Rerum Natura'. The hands, nails

and teeth were (165) the weapons of ancient man.

They also use for a standard a bunch of grass tied to a pole (167).

[Footnote: _Lucretius, de rerum natura libri VI_ were printed first

about 1473, at Verona in 1486, at Brescia in 1495, at Venice in 1500

and in 1515, and at Florence in 1515. The numbers 165 and 167 noted

by Leonardo at the end of the two passages seem to indicate pages,

but if so, none of the editions just mentioned can here be meant,

nor do these numbers refer to the verses in the poems of Lucretius.]

1493.

Ammianus Marcellinus asserts that seven hundred thousand volumes of

books were burnt in the siege of Alexandria in the time of Julius

Cesar.

[Footnote: _Ammiani Marcellini historiarum libri qui extant XIII_,

published at Rome in 1474.]

1494.

Mondino says that the muscles which raise the toes are in the

outward side of the thigh, and he adds that there are no muscles in

the back [upper side] of the feet, because nature desired to make

them light, so as to move with ease; and if they had been fleshy

they would be heavier; and here experience shows ...

[Footnote: _"Mundini anatomia. Mundinus, Anothomia (sic). Mundini

praestantissimorum doctorum almi studii ticiensis (sic) cura

diligentissime emendata. Impressa Papiae per magistrum Antonium de

Carfano 1478," in-fol.; ristampata: "Bononiae Johan. de Noerdlingen,

1482," in-fol.; "Padova per Mattheum Cerdonis de Vuindischgretz,

1484," in-40; "Lipsia, 1493," in-40; "Venezia, 1494," in-40 e ivi

"1498," con fig. Queste figure per altro non sono, come si e

preteso, le prime che fossero introdotte in un trattato di Notamia.

Nel 'fasciculus Medicinae' di Giovanni Ketham, che riproduce

l''Anatomia' del Mundinus, impresso pure a Venezia da J. e G. de

Gregoriis, 1491, in-fol., contengonsi intagli in legno (si vogliono

disegnati non gia incisi da Andrea Mantegna) di grande dimensione, e

che furono piu volte riprodotti negli anni successivi. Quest'

edizione del "fasciculus" del 1491, sta fra nostri libri e potrebbe

benissimo essere il volume d'Anatomia notato da Leonardo._ (G.

D'A.)]

1495.

Of the error of those who practice without knowledge;--[3] See first

the 'Ars poetica' of Horace [5].

[Footnote: A 3-5 are written on the margin at the side of the title

line of the text given, entire as No. 19]

1496.

The heirs of Maestro Giovanni Ghiringallo have the works of

Pelacano.

1497.

The catapult, as we are told by Nonius and Pliny, is a machine

devised by those &c.

[Footnote: _Plinius_, see No. 946.]

1498.

I have found in a history of the Spaniards that in their wars with

the English Archimedes of Syracuse who at that time was living at

the court of Ecliderides, King of the Cirodastri. And in maritime

warfare he ordered that the ships should have tall masts, and that

on their tops there should be a spar fixed [Footnote 6: Compare No.

1115.] of 40 feet long and one third of a foot thick. At one end of

this was a small grappling iron and at the other a counterpoise; and

there was also attached 12 feet of chain; and, at the end of this

chain, as much rope as would reach from the chain to the base of the

top, where it was fixed with a small rope; from this base it ran

down to the bottom of the mast where a very strong spar was attached

and to this was fastened the end of the rope. But to go on to the

use of his machine; I say that below this grappling iron was a fire

[Footnote 14: Compare No. 1128.] which, with tremendous noise, threw

down its rays and a shower of burning pitch; which, pouring down on

the [enemy's] top, compelled the men who were in it to abandon the

top to which the grappling-iron had clung. This was hooked on to the

edges of the top and then suddenly the cord attached at the base of

the top to support the cord which went from the grappling iron, was

cut, giving way and drawing in the enemy's ship; and if the

anchor--was cast ...

[Footnote: Archimedes never visited Spain, and the names here

mentioned cannot be explained. Leonardo seems to quote here from a

book, perhaps by some questionable mediaeval writer. Prof. C. Justi

writes to me from Madrid, that Spanish savants have no knowledge of

the sources from which this story may have been derived.]

1499.

Theophrastus on the ebb and flow of the tide, and of eddies, and on

water. [Footnote: The Greek philosophers had no opportunity to study

the phenomenon of the ebb and flow of the tide and none of them

wrote about it. The movement of the waters in the Euripus however

was to a few of them a puzzling problem.]

1500.

Tryphon of Alexandria, who spent his life at Apollonia, a city of

Albania (163). [Footnote: Tryphon of Alexandria, a Greek Grammarian

of the time of Augustus. His treatise TtaOY Aeijecu appeared first

at Milan in 1476, in Constantin Laskaris's Greek Grammar.]

1501.

Messer Vincenzio Aliprando, who lives near the Inn of the Bear, has

Giacomo Andrea's Vitruvius.

1502.

Vitruvius says that small models are of no avail for ascertaining

the effects of large ones; and I here propose to prove that this

conclusion is a false one. And chiefly by bringing forward the very

same argument which led him to this conclusion; that is, by an

experiment with an auger. For he proves that if a man, by a certain

exertion of strength, makes a hole of a given diameter, and

afterwards another hole of double the diameter, this cannot be made

with only double the exertion of the man's strength, but needs much

more. To this it may very well be answered that an auger

1503.

of double the diameter cannot be moved by double the exertion, be-

cause the superficies of a body of the same form but twice as large

has four times the extent of the superficies of the smaller, as is

shown in the two figures a and n.

1504.

OF SQUARING THE CIRCLE, AND WHO IT WAS THAT FIRST DISCOVERED IT BY

ACCIDENT.

Vitruvius, measuring miles by means of the repeated revolutions of

the wheels which move vehicles, extended over many Stadia the lines

of the circumferences of the circles of these wheels. He became

aware of them by the animals that moved the vehicles. But he did not

discern that this was a means of finding a square equal to a circle.

This was first done by Archimedes of Syracuse, who by multiplying

the second diameter of a circle by half its circumference produced a

rectangular quadrilateral equal figure to the circle [Footnote 10:

Compare No. 1475.].

[Footnote: _Vitruvius_, see also Nos. 1113 and 343.]

1505.

Virgil says that a blank shield is devoid of merit because among the

people of Athens the true recognition confirmed by testimonies ...

[Footnote: The end of the text cannot be deciphered.]

1506.

In Vitolone there are 805 conclusions [problems] in perspective.

[Footnote: _(Witelo, Vitellion, Vitellon) Vitellione. E da vedersi

su questo ottico prospettico del secolo XIII Luca Pacioli, Paolo

Lomazzo, Leonardo da Vinci, ecc. e fra i moderni il Graesse, il

Libri, il Brunet, e le Memorie pubblicate dal principe Boncompagni,

e 'Sur l' orthographe du nom et sur la patrie de Witelo (Vitellion)

note de Maximilien Curtze, professeur a Thorn', ove sono descritti i

molti codici esistenti nelle biblioteche d' Europa. Bernardino Baldi

nelle sue 'Vite de'matematici', manoscritto presso il principe

Boncompagni, ha una biografia del Vitellione. Questo scritto del

Baldi reca la data 25 agosto 1588. Discorsero poi di lui Federigo

Risnerio e Giovanni di Monteregio nella prefazione dell' Alfagrano,

Giovanni Boteone, Girolamo Cardano, 'De subtilitate', che nota gli

errori di Vitellione. Visse, secondo il Baldi, intorno all' anno

1269, ma secondo il Reinoldo fioriva nel 1299, avendo dedicata la

sua opera ad un frate Guglielmo di Monteca, che visse di que' tempi.

Intorno ad un manoscritto dell' ottica di Vitellione, citato da Luca

Pacioli v'ha un secondo esemplare del Kurlz, con aggiunte del

principe Boncompagni, e le illustrazioni del cav. Enrico Narducci.

Nel 'Catalogo di manoscritti' posseduti da D. Baldassare de'

principi Boncompagni, compilato da esso Narducci, Roma, 1862, sotto

al n. 358, troviamo citato: Vitellio, 'Perspectiva', manoscritto del

secolo XIV. La 'Prospettiva di Vitelleone' (sic) Thuringo-poloni e

citata due volte da Paolo Lomazzo nel Trattato dell' arte della

pittura. Vitellio o Vitello o Witelo. Il suo libro fu impresso in

foglio a Norimberga nel 1535; la secondo edizione e del 1551, sempre

di Norimberga, ed una terza di Basilea, 1572._ (See _Indagini

Storiche ... sulla Libreria-Visconteo-Sforzesca del Castello di

Pavia ... per cura di_ G. D'A., _Milano 1879. P. I. Appendice p.

113. 114)._]

1507.

Vitolone, at Saint Mark's.

[Footnote: _Altro codice di cotesta 'Prospettiva' del Vitolone

troviamo notato nel 'Canone bibliographico di Nicolo V', conservato

alla, Magliabecchiana, in copia dell' originale verosimilmente

inviato dal Parentucelli a Cosimo de' Medici (Magliab. cod. segn. 1

VII, 30 carte da 193 a 198). Proviene dal Convento di San Marco e lo

aveva trascritto frate Leonardo Scruberti fiorentino, dell' ordine

dei predicatori che fu anche bibliotecario della Medicea pubblica in

San Marco_ (See _Indagini Storiche ... per cura di_ G. D'A. _Parte

I, p. 97)._]

1508.

How this proposition of Xenophon is false.

If you take away unequal quantities from unequal quantities, but in

the same proportion, &c. [Footnote: Xenophon's works were published

several times during Leonardo's lifetime.]

Inventories and accounts (1509--1545).

1509.

On the 28th day of April I received from the Marchesino 103 lire and

12 dinari. [Footnote: Instead of the indication of the year there is

a blank space after _d'aprile_.--Marchesino Stange was one of

Lodovico il Moro's officials.--Compare No. 1388.]

1510.

On the 10th day of July 1492 in 135

Rhenish florins 1. 445

in dinari of 6 soldi 1. 112 S 16

in dinari of 5 1/2 soldi 1. 29 S 13

9 in gold and 3 scudi 1. 53

-----------------------------

1. 811 in all

1511.

On the first day of February, lire 1200.

1512.

The hall towards the court is 126 paces long and 27 braccia wide.

1513.

The narrow cornice above the hall lire 30.

The cornice beneath that, being one for each picture, lire 7, and

for the cost of blue, gold, white, plaster, indigo and glue 3 lire;

time 3 days.

The pictures below these mouldings with their pilasters, 12 lire

each.

I calculate the cost for smalt, blue and gold and other colours at 1

1/2 lire.

The days I calculate at 3, for the invention of the composition,

pilasters and other things.

1514.

Item for each vault 7 lire

outlay for blue and gold 3 1/2

time, 4 days

for the windows 1 1/2

The cornice below the windows 16 soldi per braccio

item for 24 pictures of Roman history 14 lire each

The philosophers 10 lire

the pilasters, one ounce of blue 10 soldi

for gold 15 soldi

Total 2 and 1/2 lire.

1515.

The cornice above lire 30

The cornice below lire 7

The compositions, one with another lire 13

1516.

Salai, 6 lire ... 4 soldi ... 10 soldi for a chain;--

On the l4th of March I had 13 lire S. 4; 16 lire remain.

1517.

How many braccia high is the level of the walls?--

123 braccia

How large is the hall?

How large is the garland?

30 ducats.

On the 29th day of January, 1494

cloth for hose lire 4 S 3

lining S 16

making S 8

to Salai S 3

a jasper ring S 13

a sparkling stone S 11

to Caterina S 10

1518.

The wheel lire 7

the tire lire 10

the shield lire 4

the cushion lire 8

the ends of the axle-tree lire 2

bed and frame lire 30

conduit lire 10

S.K.M.II.2 4a]

1519.

Parsley 10 parts

mint 1 part

thyme 1 part

Vinegar ... and a little salt two pieces of canvas for Salai.

[Footnote: This note, of about the year 1494, is the earliest

mention of Salai, and the last is of the year 1513 (see No. 1465,

3). From the various notes in the MSS. he seems to have been

Leonardo's assistant and keeper only, and scarcely himself a

painter. At any rate no signed or otherwise authenticated picture by

him is known to exist. Vasari speaks somewhat doubtfully on this

point.]

1520.

On Tuesday I bought wine for morning [drinking]; on Friday the 4th

day of September the same.

[Footnote: This note enables us to fix the date of the Manuscript,

in which it is to be found. In 1495 the 4th of September fell on a

Friday; the contents of the Manuscript do not permit us to assign it

to a much earlier or later date (Compare No. 1522, and Note).]

1521.

The cistern ... at the Hospital, --2 ducats, --beans, --white maize,

--red maize, --millet, --buckwheat, --kidney beans, --beans, --peas.

1522.

EXPENSES OF THE INTERMENT OF CATERINA.

For the 3 lbs of tapers 27 S

For the bier 8 S

A pall over the bier 12 S

For bearing and placing the cross 4 S

For bearing the body 8 S

For 4 priests and 4 clerks 20 S

Bell, book and sponge 2 S

For the gravediggers 16 S

To the senior 8 S

For a license from the authorities 1 S

106 S

The doctor 2 S

Sugar and candles 12 S

120 S

[Footnote: See Nos. 1384 and 1517.]

1523.

Salai's cloak, the 4th of April 1497.

4 braccia of silver cloth l. 15 S 4

green velvet to trim it l. 9 S --

binding l.-- S 9

loops l.-- S 12

the making l. 1 S 5

binding for the front l.-- S 5

stitching _________

here are 13 grossoni of his l. 26 S 5

Salai stole the soldi.

1524.

On Monday I bought 4 braccia of cloth lire 13 S 14 1/2 on the 17th

of, October 1497.

1525.

Memorandum. That on the 8th day of April 1503, I, Leonardo da Vinci,

lent to Vante, miniature painter 4 gold ducats, in gold. Salai

carried them to him and gave them into his own hand, and he said he

would repay within the space of 40 days.

Memorandum. That on the same day I paid to Salai 3 gold ducats which

he said he wanted for a pair of rose-coloured hose with their

trimming; and there remain 9 ducats due to him--excepting that he

owes me 20 ducats, that is 17 I lent him at Milan, and 3 at Venice.

Memorandum. That I gave Salai 21 braccia of cloth to make a shirt,

at 10 soldi the braccio, which I gave him on the 20th day of April

1503.

[Footnote: With regard to Vante or Attavante, the miniature painter

(not Nanni as I formerly deciphered this name, which is difficult to

read; see _Zeitschrift fur Bild. Kunst_, 1879, p. 155), and Vasari,

Lives of Frate Giovanni da Fiesole, of Bartolommeo della Gatta, and

of Gherardo, _miniatore._ He, like Leonardo, was one of the

committee of artists who, in 1503, considered the erection and

placing of Michel Angelo's David. The date of his death is not

known; he was of the same age as Leonardo. Further details will be

found in '_Notizie di Attavante miniatore, e di alcuni suoi lavori_'

(Milanese's ed. of Vasari, III, 231-235).]

1526.

On the morning of San Peter's day, June 29th, 1504, I took io

ducats, of which I gave one to Tommaso my servant to spend.

On Monday morning 1 florin to Salai to spend on the house.

On Thursday I took 1 florin for my own spending.

Wednesday evening 1 florin to Tommaso, before supper.

Saturday morning 1 florin to Tommaso.

Monday morning 1 florin less 10 soldi.

Thursday to Salai 1 florin less 10 soldi.

For a jerkin, 1 florin.

For a jerkin And a cap 2 florins.

To the hosier, 1 florin.

To Salai, 1 florin.

Friday morning, the 19th of July, 1 florin, less 6 soldi. I have 7

fl. left, and 22 in the box.

Tuesday, the 23th day of July, 1 florin to Tommaso.

Monday morning, to Tommaso 1 florin.

[Wednesday morning 1 fl. to Tommaso.]

Thursday morning the 1st day of August 1 fl. to Tommaso.

Sunday, the 4th of August, 1 florin.

Friday, the 9th day of August 1504, I took 10 ducats out of the box.

1527.

1504. On the 9th day of August, 1504, I took 10 florins in gold[2]

... [3] on Friday the 9th day of August fifteen grossoni that is fl.

5 S 5 ... given to me 1 florin in gold on the 12th day of August [4]

... on the 14th of August, 32 grossoni to Tommaso. On the 18th of

the same 5 grossoni to Salai. On the 8th of September 6 grossoni to

the workman to spend; that is on the day of our Lady's birth. On the

16th day of September I gave 4 grossoni to Tommaso: on a Sunday.

[Footnote: In the original, the passage given as No. 1463 is written

between lines 2 and 3 of this text, and it is possible that the

entries in lines 3 and 4 refer to the payments of Jacopo Tedesco,

who is there mentioned. The first words of these lines are very

illegible.]

[Footnote 7: _Al fattore._ Il Fattore, was, as is well known, the

nick-name of Giovanni Franceso Penni, born in Florence in 1486, and

subsequently a pupil of Raphael's. According to Vasari he was known

by it even as a boy. Whether he is spoken of in this passage, or

whether the word Fattore should be translated literally, I will not

undertake to decide. The latter seems to me more probably right.]

1528.

On the day of October, 1508, I had 30 scudi; 13 I lent to Salai to

make up his sister's dowry, and 17 I have left.

1529.

Memorandum of the money I have had from the King as my salary from

July 1508 till April next 1509. First 100 scudi, then 70, then 50,

then 20 and then 200 florins at 48 soldi the florin. [Footnote:

Compare No. 1350 and 1561.]

1530.

Saturday the 2nd day of March I had from Santa Maria Novella 5 gold

ducats, leaving 450. Of these I gave 2 the same day to Salai, who

had lent them to me. [Footnote: See '_Conto corrente di Leonardo da

Vinci con lo Spedale di S. Maria Nuova_' [1500 a 1507, 1513-1520]

published by G. UZIELLI, _Ricerche intorno a Leonardo da Vinci,

Firenze,_ 1872, pp. 164, 165, 218 and 219. The date here given by

Leonardo does not occur in either of the accounts.]

1531.

Thursday, the eighth day of June, I took 17 grossoni, 18 soldi; on

the same Thursday in the morning I gave to Salai 22 soldi for the

expenses.

1532.

To Salai 4 grossoni, and for one braccio of velvet, 5 lire, and 1/2;

viz. 10 soldi for loops of silver; Salai 14 soldi for binding, the

making of the cloak 25 soldi. [Footnote: Compare No. 1523.]

1533.

I gave to Salai 93 lire 6 soldi, of which I have had 67 lire and

there remain 26 lire 6 soldi.

1534.

To Salai S 42

2 dozen of laces S 8

for papers S 3 d 8

a pair of shoes S 14

for velvet S 14

a sword and knife S 21

to the barber S 11

to Paolo for a ... S 20

For having his fortune told S 6

1535.

On Friday morning,

one florin to Salai to

spend; 3 soldi received

bread S.. d

wine S.. d

grapes S.. d

mushrooms S.. d

fruit S.. d

[Footnote 6: Compare Nos. 1545, l. 4 and 5,

with similar entries for horse's fodder.]

bran S.. d

at the barber's S.. d

for shoes S.. d

1536.

On Thursday morning one florin.

1537.

On Saint Ambrose's day from the morning to Thursday 36 soldi.

1538.

The moneys I have had from Ser Matteo;

first 20 grassoni, then on 13 occasions 3 f.

and then 61 grassoni, then 3, and then 33;

46 soldi 12 grossoni.

1539.

For paper S 18

for canvas S 30

for paper S 10 d 19

Total S 73

1540.

20 pounds of German

blue, at one ducat the pound lire 80 S d

60 pounds of white, S..

the pound lire 15 S d

1 1/2 pound at 4 S the pound lire 6 S d

2 pounds of cinnabar at

S 18 the pound lire 1 S 16 d

6 pounds of green at S 12

the pound lire 3 S 12 d

4 pounds of yellow at S 12

the pound lire 2 S 8 d

1 pound of minium at S 8

the pound lire 0 S 8 d

4 pounds of ... at S 2

the pound lire 0 S 8 d

6 pounds of ochre at S 1

the pound lire 0 S 6 d

black ... at S 2 the pound

for 20 lire 2 S 0 d

wax to make the stars

29 pounds at S--the pound lire 0 S 0 d

40 pounds of oil for painting

at 5 soldi the pound lire 10 S 0 d

Altogether lire 120 d 18

without the gold. 18

tin for putting on the gold 120 18

58

1541.

Two large hatchets and one very small one, 8 brass spoons, 4

tablecloths, 2 towels, 15 small napkins, 2 coarse napkins, 2 coarse

cloths, 2 wrappers, 3 pairs of sheets, 2 pairs new and 1 old.

1542.

Bed 7 0 S

ring 7 0

crockery 2 5

gardener 1 2

..... 2 8

porters 2 1

glasses 1

fuel 3 6

a lock 1

Section title: Miscellaneous Notes.

1543.

New tin-ware 3 pairs of sheets

6 small bowls, each of 4 breadths,

6 bowls, 2 small sheets,

2 large dishes, 2 tablecloths and 1/2,

2 dishes medium size, 16 coarse cloths,

2 small ones 8 shirts,

Old tin-ware 9 napkins,

3 small bowls, 2 hand-towels.

4 bowls,

3 square stones,

2 small bowls,

1 large bowl,

1 platter,

4 candlesticks,

1 small candlestick.

1544.

Hose S 40

straw S 60

wheat S 42

wine S 54

bread S 18

meat S 54

eggs S 5

salad S 3

the Barber S 2 d 6

horses S 1

1545.

Sunday

meat S 10 d

wine S 12 d

bran S 5 d 4

herbs S 10 d

buttermilk S 4 d 4

melon S 3 d

bread S 3 d 1

____________________

Monday S 9 8

____________________

..... S 6 d

wine S 12 d

bran S 9 d 4

buttermilk S 4 d 4

herbs S 8 d

____________________

Tuesday S d

_____________________

meat S 0 d 8

wine S 12 d

bread S 3 d

meal S 5 d 4

herbs S 8 d

_____________________

Wednesday

_____________________

wine S 5 d

melon S 2 d

meal S 5 d 4

vegetables S 8

Notes by unknown persons among the MSS. (1546-1565).

1546.

Miseracione divina sacro sancte Romane ecclesie tituli n cardinalis

2wulgariter nuncupatus venerabili religioso fratri Johanni Mair

d'Nustorf 3ordinis praedicatorum provintie teutonie (?) conventus

Wiennensis capellano 4 nostro commensali salutem in dno sempiternam

Religione zelus rite ac in [ferite?] 5honestas aliarumque

laudabilium probitatis et virtutum merita quibus apud nos fide

6digno commendationis testimonio Magistri videlicet ordinis felicis

recordacionis Leonardi de 7Mansuetis de Perusio sigillo suo ... us

dans tibi ad ... opera virtutum comen(salem)? 8 locum et tempus

success(ores) cujus similiter officium ministratus qui

praedecessoris sui donum (?) 9confirmavit et de novo dedit

aliorumque plurima [laudatis] qui opera tua laudant 10nos inducunt

ut tibi (?) reddamus ad gratiam liberalem hinc est quod nos

cupientes. [Footnote: The meaning of this document, which is very

difficult to decipher, and is written in unintelligible Latin, is,

that Leonardo di Mansuetis recommends the Rev. Mair of Nusdorf,

chaplain at Vienna, to some third person; and says also that

something, which had to be proved, has been proved. The rest of the

passages on the same leaf are undoubtedly in Leonardo's hand. (Nos.

483, 661, 519, 578, 392, 582, 887 and 894.)]

1547.

Johannes Antonius di Johannes Ambrosius de Bolate. He who lets time

pass and does not grow in virtue, the more I think of it the more I

grieve. No man has it in him to be virtuous who will give up honour

for gain. Good fortune is valueless to him who knows not toil. The

man becomes happy who follows Christ. There is no perfect gift

without great suffering. Our glories and our triumphs pass away.

Foul lust, and dreams, and luxury, and sloth have banished every

virtue from the world; so that our Nature, wandering and perplexed,

has almost lost the old and better track. Henceforth it were well to

rouse thyself from sleep. The master said that lying in down will

not bring thee to Fame; nor staying beneath the quilts. He who,

without Fame, burns his life to waste, leaves no more vestige of

himself on earth than wind-blown smoke, or the foam upon the sea.

[Footnote: From the last sentence we may infer that this text is by

the hand of a pupil of Leonardo's.-- On the same sheet are the notes

Nos.1175 and 715 in Leonardo's own handwriting.]

1548.

On the morning of Santo Zanobio the

29th of May 1504, I had from Lionardo Vinci

15 gold ducats and began to spend them.

to Mona Margarita S 62 d 4

to remake the ring S 19 d 8

clothes S 13

good beef S 4

eggs S 6

debt at the bank S 7

velvet S 12

wine S 6 d 4

meat S 4

mulberries S 2 d 4

mushrooms S 3 d 4

salad S 1

fruit S 1 d 4

candles S 3

... S 1

flour S 2

Sunday 198 8

bread S 6

wine S 9 d 4

meat S 7

soup S 2

fruit S 3 d 4

candles S 3 d

Monday 31

bread S 6 d 4

meat S 10 d 8

wine S 9 d 4

fruit S 4

soup S 1 d 8

32

1549.

Tuesday

bread S 6

meat S 11

wine S 7

fruit S 9

soup S 2

salad S 1

[Footnote 1548 and 1549: On the same sheet is the text No. 1015 in Leonardo's own handwriting.]

1550.

To Monna Margarita S 5

to Tomaso S 14

to Monna Margarita d 5 S 2

on the day of San Zanobi

left ... after

payment d 13 S 2 d 4

of Monna Margarita

altogether d 14 S 5 d 4

1551.

On Monday, the l3th of February, I lent lire S 7 to Lionardo to

spend, Friday d 7.

[Footnote: This note is followed by an account very like the one

given as No. 1549.]

1552.

Stephano Chigi, Canonico ..., servant of the honorable Count Grimani

at S. Apostoli.

[Footnote: Compare No. 674, 21-23.]

1553.

Having become anxious ... Bernardo di Simone, Silvestro di Stefano,

Bernardo di Jacopo, Francesco di Matteo Bonciani, Antonio di

Giovanni Ruberti, Antonio da Pistoia.... Antonio; He who has time

and waits for time, will lose his friends and his money.

1554.

Reverend Maestro, Domino Giovanni, I spoke to Maestro Zacaria as a

brother about this business, and I made him satisfied with the

arrangement that I had wished; that is, as regards the commission

that I had from the parties and I say that between us there is no

need to pay money down, as regard the pictures of the ...

1555.

Of things seen through a mist that which is nearest its farthest

limit will be least visible, and all the more so as they are more

remote.

1556.

Theodoricus Rex Semper Augustus.

1557.

Either you say Hesperia alone, and it will mean Italy, or you add

ultima, and it will mean Spain. Umbria, part of Tuscany.

[Footnote: The notes in Greek, Nos. 1557, 1558 and 1562 stand in

close connection with each other, but the meaning of some words is

very doubtful, and a translation is thus rendered impossible.]

1558.

[Footnote: Greek Characters]

1559.

Canonica of ... on the 5th of July 1507; my dearly beloved mother,

sisters and cousin I herewith inform you that thanks to God I am ...

about the sword which I ... bring it to Maso at the piazza ... and I

will settle the business of Piero so that ...

[Footnote: AMORETTI, _Mem. Stor. XXIV_, quotes the first three lines

of this letter as by Leonardo. The character of the writing however

does not favour this hypothesis, and still less the contents. I

should regard it rather a rough draft of a letter by young Melzi. I

have not succeeded in deciphering completely the 13 lines of this

text. Amoretti reads at the beginning _Canonica di Vaprio_, but

_Vaprio_ seems to me a very doubtful reading.]

1560.

Ut bene respondet Naturae ars docta! dedisset

Vincius, ut tribuit cetera - sic animam -

Noluit ut similis magis haec foret: altera sic est:

Possidet illius Maurus amans animam.

[Footnote: These three epigrams on the portrait of Lucrezia

Crivelli, a picture by Leonardo which must have been lost at a very

early date, seem to have been dedicated to Leonardo by the poet.

Leonardo used the reverse of the sheet for notes on geometry.]

Hujus quam cernis nomen Lucretia, Divi Omnia cui larga contribuere

manu. Rara huic forma data est; pinxit Leonardos, amavit Maurus,

pictorum primus hic, ille ducum.

Naturam, ac superas hac laesit imagine Divas Pictor: tantum hominis

posse manum haec doluit, Illae longa dari tam magnae tempera formae,

Quae spatio fuerat deperitura brevi.

1561.

Egidius Romanus on the formation of the human body in the mother's

womb [Footnote 1: _Liber magistri Egidii de pulsibus matrice

conipositus (cum commentario Gentilis de Fulgineo)_ published in

1484 at Padova, in 1494 and in 1514 at Venice, and in 1505 at

Lyons.].

[Footnote 2:2. This text appears to be in a handwriting different

from that in the note, l. 1. Here the reading is not so simple as

AMORETTI gave it, _Mem. Star. XXV: A Monsieur Lyonard Peintre du Roy

pour Amboyse_. He says too that this address is of the year 1509,

and Mr. Ravaisson remarks: "_De cette suscription il semble qu'on

peut inferer que Leonard etait alors en France, a la cour de Louis

XII ... Pour conclure je crois qu'il n'est pas prouve que Leonard de

Vinci n'ait pas fait un voyage de quelques mois en France sous Louis

XII, entre le printemps de 1509 et l'automne de_ 1510."--I must

confess that I myself have not succeeded in deciphering completely

this French writing of which two words remain to me doubtful. But so

much seems to be quite evident that this is not an address of a

letter at all, but a certificate or note. _Amboise_[l. 6] I believe

to be the signature of Charles d'Amboise the Governor of Milan. If

this explanation is the right one, it can be easily explained by the

contents of Nos. 1350 and 1529. The note, line 1, was perhaps added

later by another hand; and Leonardo himself wrote afterwards on the

same sheet some geometrical explanations. I must also point out that

the statement that this sheet belongs to the year 1509 has

absolutely no foundation in fact. There is no clue whatever for

giving a precise date to this note.] To Monsieur le Vinci,--the

horses of the king's equerry.... Continue the payment to Ms.

Lyonard, Painter to the King.

[6] Amboise.

1562.

[Footnote: Greek Characters]

1563.

Memorandum to Maestro Lionardo to have ... the state of Florence.

1564.

To remind your Excellency that Ridolfo Manini brought to Florence a

quantity of crystal besides other stones such as are ...

1565.

XVI C. 6 de Ciuitate Dei, se Antipodes.

[Footnote: A facsimile of this note, which refers to a well known

book by St. Augustin, is given on page 254.]

1566.

Leonardo's Will.

Be it known to all persons, present and to come that at the court of

our Lord the King at Amboise before ourselves in person, Messer

Leonardo da Vinci painter to the King, at present staying at the

place known as Cloux near Amboise, duly considering the certainty of

death and the uncertainty of its time, has acknowledged and declared

in the said court and before us that he has made, according to the

tenor of these presents, his testament and the declaration of his

last will, as follows. And first he commends his soul to our Lord,

Almighty God, and to the Glorious Virgin Mary, and to our lord Saint

Michael, to all the blessed Angels and Saints male and female in

Paradise.

Item. The said Testator desires to be buried within the church of

Saint Florentin at Amboise, and that his body shall be borne thither

by the chaplains of the church.

Item. That his body may be followed from the said place to the said

church of Saint Florentin by the _collegium_ of the said church,

that is to say by the rector and the prior, or by their vicars and

chaplains of the church of Saint Denis of Amboise, also the lesser

friars of the place, and before his body shall be carried to the

said church this Testator desires, that in the said church of Saint

Florentin three grand masses shall be celebrated by the deacon and

sub-deacon and that on the day when these three high masses are

celebrated, thirty low masses shall also be performed at Saint

Gregoire.

Item. That in the said church of Saint Denis similar services shall

be performed, as above.

Item. That the same shall be done in the church of the said friars

and lesser brethren.

Item. The aforesaid Testator gives and bequeaths to Messer Francesco

da Melzo, nobleman, of Milan, in remuneration for services and

favours done to him in the past, each

[Footnote: See page 420.]

and all of the books the Testator is at present possessed of, and

the instruments and portraits appertaining to his art and calling as

a painter.

Item. The same Testator gives and bequeaths henceforth for ever to

Battista de Vilanis his servant one half, that is the moity, of his

garden which is outside the walls of Milan, and the other half of

the same garden to Salai his servant; in which garden aforesaid

Salai has built and constructed a house which shall be and remain

henceforth in all perpetuity the property of the said Salai, his

heirs and successors; and this is in remuneration for the good and

kind services which the said de Vilanis and Salai, his servants have

done him in past times until now.

Item. The said Testator gives to Maturina his waiting woman a cloak

of good black cloth lined with fur, a ... of cloth and two ducats

paid once only; and this likewise is in remuneration for good

service rendered to him in past times by the said Maturina.

Item. He desires that at his funeral sixty tapers shall be carried

which shall be borne by sixty poor men, to whom shall be given money

for carrying them; at the discretion of the said Melzo, and these

tapers shall be distributed among the four above mentioned churches.

Item. The said Testator gives to each of the said churches ten lbs.

of wax in thick tapers, which shall be placed in the said churches

to be used on the day when those said services are celebrated.

Item. That alms shall be given to the poor of the Hotel-Dieu, to the

poor of Saint Lazare d'Amboise and, to that end, there shall be

given and paid to the treasurers of that same fraternity the sum and

amount of seventy soldi of Tours.

Item. The said Testator gives and bequeaths to the said Messer

Francesco Melzo, being present and agreeing, the remainder of his

pension and the sums of money which are owing to him from the past

time till the day of his death by the receiver or treasurer-general

M. Johan Sapin, and each and every sum of money that he has already

received from the aforesaid Sapin of his said pension, and in case

he should die before the said Melzo and not otherwise; which moneys

are at present in the possession of the said Testator in the said

place called Cloux, as he says. And he likewise gives and bequeaths

to the said Melzo all and each of his clothes which he at present

possesses at the said place of Cloux, and all in remuneration for

the good and kind services done by him in past times till now, as

well as in payment for the trouble and annoyance he may incur with

regard to the execution of this present testament, which however,

shall all be at the expense of the said Testator.

And he orders and desires that the sum of four hundred scudi del

Sole, which he has deposited in the hands of the treasurer of Santa

Maria Nuova in the city of Florence, may be given to his brothers

now living in Florence with all the interest and usufruct that may

have accrued up to the present time, and be due from the aforesaid

treasurer to the aforesaid Testator on account of the said four

hundred crowns, since they were given and consigned by the Testator

to the said treasurers.

Item. He desires and orders that the said Messer Francesco de Melzo

shall be and remain the sole and only executor of the said will of

the said Testator; and that the said testament shall be executed in

its full and complete meaning and according to that which is here

narrated and said, to have, hold, keep and observe, the said Messer

Leonardo da Vinci, constituted Testator, has obliged and obliges by

these presents the said his heirs and successors with all his goods

moveable and immoveable present and to come, and has renounced and

expressly renounces by these presents all and each of the things

which to that are contrary. Given at the said place of Cloux in the

presence of Magister Spirito Fieri vicar, of the church of Saint

Denis at Amboise, of M. Guglielmo Croysant priest and chaplain, of

Magister Cipriane Fulchin, Brother Francesco de Corion, and of

Francesco da Milano, a brother of the Convent of the Minorites at

Amboise, witnesses summoned and required to that end by the

indictment of the said court in the presence of the aforesaid M.

Francesco de Melze who accepting and agreeing to the same has

promised by his faith and his oath which he has administered to us

personally and has sworn to us never to do nor say nor act in any

way to the contrary. And it is sealed by his request with the royal

seal apposed to legal contracts at Amboise, and in token of good

faith.

Given on the XXIIIrd day of April MDXVIII, before Easter.

And on the XXIIIrd day of this month of April MDXVIII, in the

presence of M. Guglielmo Borian, Royal notary in the court of the

bailiwick of Amboise, the aforesaid M. Leonardo de Vinci gave and

bequeathed, by his last will and testament, as aforesaid, to the

said M. Baptista de Vilanis, being present and agreeing, the right

of water which the King Louis XII, of pious memory lately deceased

gave to this same de Vinci, the stream of the canal of Santo

Cristoforo in the duchy of Milan, to belong to the said Vilanis for

ever in such wise and manner that the said gentleman made him this

gift in the presence of M. Francesco da Melzo, gentleman, of Milan

and in mine.

And on the aforesaid day in the said month of April in the said year

MDXVIII the same M. Leonardo de Vinci by his last will and testament

gave to the aforesaid M. Baptista de Vilanis, being present and

agreeing, each and all of the articles of furniture and utensils of

his house at present at the said place of Cloux, in the event of the

said de Vilanis surviving the aforesaid M. Leonardo de Vinci, in the

presence of the said M. Francesco Melzo and of me Notary &c. Borean.

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VINCI, COMPLETE ***

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