64. Vecce 1998, 329. There is an epitaph in two canzoni by Ariosto.
65. CA 471r/172r-a, v-b. Partly illegible, but enough remains to read ‘fatto alli [… ]sto 1516’.
66. Though his brother-in-law Tommaso Mapello acted as his agent in Milan, and collected rent on his behalf, Salai probably stayed to deal with a legal dispute over the building work done in the vineyard the previous year. On 27 October 1516 (Shell and Sironi 1992, doc. 37), two engineers of the Comune were called on to arbitrate the claims. Salai was certainly in France with Leonardo, and is mentioned in the royal accounts (see n. 68), but he was not there continuously.
67. CA 237v/87v-b. On CA 1024v/367v-c is a list of French and Flemish cities where fairs were held (Perpignan, Paris, Rouen, Anvers, Ghent, Bruges). It also has a list of names, all members of Florentine merchant families (Portinari, Tovaglia, Ridolfi, etc.), probably commercial contacts in France.
68. Archive Nationale, Paris, KK 289; Shell and Sironi 1992, no. 38.
69. B. Cellini, Discorso dell’architettura, in Opere, ed. B. Maier (Milan, 1968), 858–60.
70. Frescos in the chapel, probably later sixteenth century, include a Madonna standing on a shining crescent, identified as ‘Virgo lucis’ (‘Virgin of light’): this may be the origin of the name Clos Lucé. In Leonardo’s time it was simply Cloux, or as he writes it ‘Clu’. These paragraphs are based on my own visit to Clos Lucé in December 2002, and on information from J. Saint-Bris, Le Château du Clos-Lucé (Amboise, n.d.).
71. RL 12727. The shading is right-handed. Clark attributes the drawing to Melzi, though finding it ‘unusually sensitive’ in its handling; he earlier thought it might be by Andrea del Sarto, who was in Amboise in 1518 (Clark and Pedretti 1968 1.185–6).
72. CA 476v/174r-b; Ar 71v.
73. Ar 269r. The same spelling is in CA 284r/103r-b: ‘dí dell’Asensione in Anbosa 1517 di Maggio nel Clu’, the earliest dated note (21 May 1517) of Leonardo in Amboise.
74. On the interweavings of fact and imagination in Webster’s play see Banks 2002, xvii-xxii.
75. Thomas Spinelly to Cardinal Wolsey, July 1517, in Banks 2002, 186–7.
76. Beatis 1979, 131–4. The original of his journal is in the Biblioteca Nazionale, Naples, X.F.28.
77. Pacioli’s comments about Leonardo’s mirror-writing (see Part I n. 79) are certainly earlier than 1517, but had not been published. There would obviously have been some knowledge of this Leonardian quirk in Rome, where the Cardinal lived, but Beatis’s silence on the matter is surprising.
78. The inscription, probably sixteenth century, is in imitation of Leonardo’s hand: see Richter 1970, 2.343n, Popham 1946, 154. The line of the shoulders: Pedretti 1992, 36.
79. RL 12581. Kemp 1989, 153; Dante, Purgatorio, Canto 28, 52ff.
80. CA 582r; 583r/217v-c, v-b; 209r/76v-b.
81. Romorantin to Amboise: CA 920r/336v-b. Requisition of horses: CA 476r/ 174r-b, v-c.
82. Letters of Stazio Gadio and Luigi Gonzaga, May 1518, Beltrami 1919, docs. 240, 242.
83. Solmi 1976, 621–6; Vecce 1998, 338.
84. Rider: RL 12574 (illustrated). Hunter: RL 12575. Man in drag: RL 12577. Prisoner: RL 12573 (illustrated). On Leonardo’s late mastery of black chalk, see Ames-Lewis 2002.
85. Shell and Sironi 1992, doc. 39. The sum he lent was nearly 500 lire: a sizeable amount of disposable cash. His recorded annual income (French accounts plus rent on the vineyard house) was about 320 lire per annum. He may well have been doing good business as a painter.
86. Galeazzo Visconti to the Gonzaga, Beltrami 1919, doc. 240.
87. CA 673r/249r-b; 8o3r/294r-a.
88. R 1566. The original will was in the Vinci family in the eighteenth century: it was published by Amoretti (1804, 121) from a transcript made in the 1770s by Vincenzio de Pagave.
89. Shell and Sironi 1992, 114 and doc. 41. Further mysterious dealings are revealed in a document which apparently shows that ‘Messire Salay’ received over 6,000 lire for certain ‘tables de paintures’ supplied to King François (Jestaz 1999, 69). The inference is that these were Leonardo’s paintings, commandeered in some way by Salai despite being bequeathed by Leonardo to Melzi. After Leonardo’s death Salai lived in Milan, in the house in the vineyard. On 14 June 1523 he married Bianca Caldiroli, who brought a handsome dowry of 1,700 lire, but he died six months later, on 15 January 1524, ‘ex sclopeto’ (i.e. of wounds): a violent death at the age of forty-four.
90. The Anonimo Gaddiano, writing in the early 1540s, gives some details of the bequests. His source was probably one of Leonardo’s half-brothers, since he adds, ‘He left 400 ducats to his brothers, which he had deposited at the Spedale di Santa Maria Nuova, but after his death they found only 300 ducats there.’ In fact the sums they drew out of the account in 1520–21 (Uzielli 1872, nos. 28–31) add up to 325 florins.
91. ‘O slumberer’: CA 207v/76v-a, folio dated 23 April 1490. ‘Every hurt’: H2, 33v, R 1164. ‘The soul desires’: CA 166r/59r-b, R 1142.
92. RL 19001r (Anatomical MS A, 2r).
93. In his Rime (Milan, 1587), 93, Lomazzo implies the absence of the King from the bedside: ‘Pianse mesto Francesco re di Franza / quando il Melzi che morto era gli dissi / Il Vinci’ (‘His Majesty François, King of France, wept when Melzi told him that Vinci was dead’). This would be strong evidence, given that Lomazzo knew Melzi personally, but in other accounts in the Sogni and the Idea del Tempio (Lomazzo 1973, 1.109, 293) he follows the Vasarian version of the story.
94. Uzielli 1872, no. 26. Like the will, the original of Melzi’s letter was seen and transcribed at Vinci in the eighteenth century, but has since disappeared.
95. A. Houssaye, Histoire de Léonard de Vinci (Paris, 1869), 312–19.
Sources
LEONARDO’S MANUSCRIPTS
Miscellanies
Ar Codex Arundel. British Library, London (Arundel MS 263). 283 folios, with a typical format of 210 x 150 mm.
Facsimile edition: Il Codice Arundel 263, ed. Carlo Pedretti and Carlo Vecce (Florence, 1998), with chronological re-ordering of folios.
CA Codex Atlanticus. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan. Miscellaneous collection of drawings and writings, formerly of 401 folios in large format, 645 × 435 mm, compiled by Pompeo Leoni in the sixteenth century, recently reorganized (1962-1970) into 12 volumes with a total of 1,119 folios. The discrepancy is because many of the folios of the original compilation had smaller pieces glued or mounted on them; in the new arrangement these smaller items have been separated. As is conventional, I give both the new and the old folio references: e.g. CA 520r/191r-a refers to the recto of new folio 520, which was formerly item ‘a’ on the recto of old folio 191.
Facsmile edition: Il Codice Atlantico, ed. Augusto Marinoni (24 vols., Florence, 1973–80).
RL Royal Library, Windsor. A collection of 655 drawings and manuscripts, catalogued as folios 12275–12727 (general) and 19000–19152 (anatomical). The anatomical folios were previously bound into three volumes: Anatomical MS A (= RL 19000–19017), B (= RL 19018–59) and C, divided into six ‘quaderni di anatomia’, or anatomical notebooks, numbered I–VI (= RL 19060–19152).
Facsimile edition: The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen, ed. Kenneth Clark and Carlo Pedretti (3 vols., London, 1968).
Paris manuscripts
A Paris MS A. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2172). 64 folios, 212 x 147 mm. See also BN 2038.
B Paris MS B. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2173). 84 folios, 231 × 167 mm. See also BN 2037.
C Paris MS C. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2174). 42 folios, 310 x 222 mm.
D Paris MS D. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2175). 10 folios, 158 x 220 mm.
E Paris MS E. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2176). 96 folios, 150 x 105 mm.
F Paris MS F. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2177). 96 folios, 145 x 100 mm.
G Paris MS G. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2178). 93 folios, (originally 96), 139 × 97 mm.
H Paris M
S H. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2179). 142 folios, 128 × 90 mm, consisting of three pocket-books bound together: H1(fols. 1–48), H2 (fols. 49–94) and H3 (fols. 95–142).
I Paris MS I. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2180). 139 folios, 100 x 75 mm, consisting of two pocket-books bound together: I1 (fols. 1–48) and I2(fols. 49–139).
K Paris MS K. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2181). 128 folios, 96 x 65 mm, consisting of three pocket-books bound together: K1 (fols. 1–48), K2 (fols. 49–80) and K3(fols. 81–128).
L Paris MS L. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2182). 94 folios, 109 x 72 mm.
M Paris MS M. Institut de France, Paris (MS 2183). 94 folios, 96 x 67 mm.
BN 2037 Institut de France, Paris (MS 2184). 13 folios, 231 x 167 mm. Formerly part of MS B, stolen by G. Libri in c. 1840, and returned by Lord Ashburnham (hence also known as Ashburnham 1875/1); thereafter at the Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris. Though now at the Institut de France, the BN collocation is generally used.
BN 2038 Institut de France, Paris (MS 2185). 33 folios, 212 x 147 mm. Formerly part of MS A (subsequent history as for BN 2037). Also known as MS Ashburnham 1875/2.
Facsimile edition: I manuscritti dell’ Institut de France, ed. Augusto Marinoni (12 vols., Florence, 1986–90).
Other notebooks and manuscripts
Fors Forster Codices. Victoria & Albert Museum, London. Three volumes containing five notebooks. Fors I1, 40 folios; Fors I2, 14 folios, 135 x 103 mm. Fors 21, 63 folios; Fors 22, 96 folios, 95 x 70 mm. Fors 3, 88 folios, 94 x 65 mm.
Facsimile edition: I Codici Forster, ed. Augusto Marinoni (3 vols., Florence, 1992).
Leic Codex Leicester. Bill Gates Collection, Seattle. 88 folios, 94 x 65 mm. Previously known as the Codex Hammer.
Facsimile edition: The Codex Hammer, ed. Carlo Pedretti (Florence, 1987).
Ma Madrid Codices. Biblioteca Nacional, Madrid (MSS 8936, 8937). Ma I,184 folios, 149 x 212 mm. Ma II, 157 folios, mostly 148 x 212 mm.
Facsimile edition: The Madrid Codices, ed. Ladislaus Reti (New York, 1974).
Tn Codex on the Flight of Birds. Biblioteca Reale, Turin. 13 folios, 213 x 153 mm.
Facsimile edition: Il Codice sul volo degli uccelli, ed. Augusto Marinoni (Florence, 1976).
Triv Trivulzian Codex. Castello Sforzesco, Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana MS N2162. 55 folios, 195 x 135 mm.
Facsimile edition: Il Codice nella Biblioteca Trivulziana, ed. A. Brizio (Florence, 1980).
Selections and Commentaries
CU Vatican Library, Codex Urbinus Latinus 1270. Selections from various notebooks and manuscripts made c. 1530 by Francesco Melzi; abbreviated edition published as Trattato della pittura (Paris 1651).
McM A. Philip McMahon, The Treatise on Painting by Leonardo da Vinci (2 vols., Princeton, NJ, 1956). Translation (vol. 1) and facsimile (vol. 2) of CU; cited by numbered section (McM 1–1008).
R Jean-Paul Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci (2 vols., London, 1st edn 1883, 2nd edn 1939, repr. 1970). Cited by numbered extract (R 1–1566).
PC Carlo Pedretti, Commentary on the Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci compiled by Jean Paul Richter (2 vols., Berkeley, Cal., 1977).
FREQUENTLY CITED SOURCES
ALV Achademia Leonardo Vinci: Yearbook of the Armand Hammer Center for Leonardo Studies at UCLA (Florence, 1988– )
ASF Archivio di Stato, Florence
ASM Archivio di Stato, Milan
BM British Museum, London
DBI Dizionario biografico degli Italiani (currently up to ‘G’) (Rome, 1960– )
GDA Grove Dictionary of Art, ed. Jane Turner (34 vols., London, 1996)
GDS Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe (Department of Drawings and Prints), Uffizi, Florence
RV Raccolta Vinciana (Milan, 1905– )
Early biographies
For reasons of space I do not give individual page references for my very frequent citations from the four main early biographical sources on Leonardo (Antonio Billi, Anonimo Gaddiano, Paolo Giovio, Giorgio Vasari). The ‘biographies’ by Billi, the Anonimo and Giovio are a couple of pages long; the Life of Leonardo in Vasari’s Lives of the Artists is longer, but the interested reader can easily locate the quotation in George Bull’s translation (see Vasari 1987), where the Life is pp. 255–71, and can pursue it further by consulting Milanesi’s annotated edition (see Vasari 1878–85). For details of these sources, see Introduction nn. 17–20, and ‘Books and articles’ below.
BOOKS AND ARTICLES
Acton, Harold. 1972. The Pazzi Conspiracy. London
Alberici, Clelia. 1984. Leonardo e l’incisione: Stampe derivate da Leonardo e Bramante dal xv al xix secolo (exhibition catalogue). Milan
Ames-Lewis, Francis. 2002. ‘La matita nera nella pratica di disegno di Leonardo da Vinci’. Lettura Vinciana 41. Florence
Ammirato, Scipione. 1637. Opusculi. 3 vols. Florence
Amoretti, Carlo. 1804. Memorie storiche su la vita, gli studi e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milan
Argan, Giulio Carlo. 1957. Botticelli. New York
Bambach, Carmen. 2003 a. ‘Leonardo, left handed draftsman and writer’. In Bambach 2003b, 31–57
— 2003b. (ed.). Leonardo: Master Draftsman (exhibition catalogue). New York
Banks Amendola, Barbara. 2002. The Mystery of the Duchess of Malfi. Stroud
Barcelon, Pinin Brambilla, and Marani, Pietro. 2001. Leonardo: The Last Supper. Trans. H. Tighe (original edn 1999). Chicago
Baxandall, Michael. 1988. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy. Oxford
Beatis, Antonio de. 1979. The Travel Journal, ed. John Hale (Hakluyt Society, 2nd series, 150). London
Beck, James. 1988. ‘Leonardo’s rapport with his father’, Antichità viva 27, nos. 5–6
– 1993. ‘I sogni di Leonardo’. Lettura Vinciana 32. Florence
Bellincioni, Bernardo. 1876. Le rime, ed. P. Fanfani. Bologna
Belt, Elmer. 1949. ‘Leonardo da Vinci’s library’. Quarterly Newsletter of the Book Club of California, autumn 1949
Beltrami, Luca. 1894. Il castello di Milano sotto il dominio dei Visconti e degli Sforza. Milan
—1919. Documenti e memorie riguardanti la vita e le opere di Leonardo da Vinci. Milan
—1920. La vigna di Leonardo. Milan
Benedettucci, F. (ed.). 1991. Il libro di Antonio Billi. Anzio
Berenson, Bernard. 1903. The Drawings of the Florentine Painters. 2 vols. London
Boase, T. S. R. 1979. Giorgio Vasari: The Man and His Book. Princeton
Bossi, Giuseppe. 1982. Scritti sulle arti, ed. Roberto Paolo Ciardi. 2 vols. Florence
Bracciolini, Poggio. 1913. Facezie, ed. D. Ciampoli. Rome
Bradford, Sarah. 1976. Cesare Borgia: His Life and Times. London
Bramly, Serge. 1992. Leonardo. Trans. Sîan Reynolds (original edn 1988). Harmondsworth
Brescia, Licia, and Tomio, Luca. 1999. ‘Tomasso di Giovanni Masini da Peretola, detto Zoroastro’. RV 28, 63–77
Brown, David A. 1983. ‘Leonardo and the idealized portrait in Milan’. Arte Lombardo 67, 102–16
—1990. ‘Madonna Litta’. Lettura Vinciana 29. Florence
— 1998. Leonardo: Origins of a Genius. New Haven and London
— 2000. ‘Leonardo apprendista’. Lettura Vinciana 39. Florence
Brucker, Gene. 1977. The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence. Princeton
Bruschi, Mario. 1997. ‘La fede battesimale di Leonardo: Ricerche in corso e altri documenti’. ALV 10 (supplement)
Bull, George. 1996. Michelangelo: A Biography. Harmondsworth
Burckhardt, Jacob. 1878. The Civilization of the Renaissace in Italy. Trans. S. G. C. Middlemore. London
Burke, Peter. 1972. Culture and Society in the Italian Renaissance. New York
Butterfield, Andrew. 1997. The Sculptures of Andrea del Verrocchio. New Haven and London
Calvi, Gerolamo. 1925. I manuscritti di Leonardo. Bologna
Cammelli, Antonio. 1884. Rime edite e inedite, ed. A. Capelli
and S. Ferrari. Livorno
Cecchi, Alessandro. 2003. ‘New light on Leonardo’s Florentine patrons’. In Bambach 2003b, 121–39
Cellini, Benvenuto. 2002. My Life. Trans. Julia Conaway Bondanella and Peter Bondanella. Oxford
Cennini, Cennino. 1933. The Craftsman’s Handbook. Trans. Daniel V. Thompson. New York
Cianchi, Mario. 1984. The Machines of Leonardo. Florence
Cianchi, Renzo. 1953. Vinci, Leonardo e la sua famiglia. Milan
—1960. ‘La casa natale di Leonardo’. Università popolare 9–10 (September-October 1960)
—1975. Ricerche e documenti sulla madre di Leonardo. Florence
—1984. ‘Sul testamento di Francesco da Vinci’. Nouvelles de la république de lettres 1, 97–104
Clark, Kenneth. 1933. ‘The Madonna in profile’. Burlington Magazine 12, 136–40
—1969. ‘Leonardo and the antique’. In O’Malley 1969, 1–34
—1973. ‘Mona Lisa’. Burlington Magazine 115, 144–50
—1988. Leonardo. Rev. edn, with introduction and notes by Martin Kemp (original edn 1939). Harmondsworth
Clark, Kenneth, and Pedretti, Carlo. 1968. The Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen. 3 vols. London
Clayton, Martin. 1996. Leonardo da Vinci: A Curious Vision (exhibition catalogue). London
—2002. Leonardo da Vinci: The Divine and the Grotesque (exhibition catalogue). London
Clough, C. (ed.). 1976. Cultural aspects of the Italian Renaissance. Manchester
Cole, Bruce. 1983. The Renaissance Artist at Work. London
Conato, Luigi Giuseppe, 1986. ‘Elementi del paesaggio lecchese e Leonardo’. In Studi Vinciani (q.v.), 195–210
Condivi, Ascanio. 1976. The Life of Michelangelo, ed. H. Wohl (original edn 1553). Oxford
Covi, Dario. 1966. ‘Four new documents concerning Andrea del Verrocchio’. Art Bulletin 48 (1), 97–103
Dalli Regoli, Gigetta (ed.). 2001. Leonardo e il mito di Leda (exhibition catalogue). Florence
Davies, Martin. 1947. Documents concerning the Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery. London
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