Notebooks
Page 31
Take officers to your liking and many chains and hide them on the bank. But first have an understanding about the agreement how half of the ransom is to be yours without any deduction, . . . and payment may be made into the hands of Maneto, that is of the said ransom.
Carry a horn in order to give a signal whether or no the attempt has been successful. . . .11
His first designs for the construction of a flying machine were made about this time.
Make trial of the actual machine over the water so that if you fall you do not do yourself any harm.12
On 26 March 1485 Leonardo watched the total eclipse of the sun.
Method of seeing the sun eclipsed without pain to the eye Take a piece of paper and pierce holes in it with a needle, and look at the sun through these holes. 13
On 13 April 1485 Ludovico Sforza informed his ambassador at the court of Mathias Corvinus, king of Hungary, that he had asked a great painter who happened to be in Milan to paint a picture for the king. He was probably referring to Leonardo (cf. pp. 190-1).
The following memoranda were written on excursions into the romantic regions of Lake Como.*
Opposite the castle of Bellaggio there is the river Latte which falls from a height of more than 100 braccia from the source whence it springs, perpendicularly, into the lake with an inconceivable roar and noise. This spring flows only in August and September.
About eight miles above Como is the Pliniana* which rises and falls every six hours, and as it rises it supplies two mills with water and there is a surplus; and as it falls it causes the spring to dry up: two miles higher up there is Nesso, a place where a river falls with great violence through a mighty chasm in the mountain.
These journeys should be made in the month of May.
And the largest bare rocks in these parts are the Mountains of Mandello near Lecco, and of Gravedona towards Bellinzona, thirty miles from Lecco; and those of the valley of Chiavenna. But the Mandello is the largest of all and it has at its base a gully towards the lake that descends two hundred steps, and here at all seasons there is ice and wind.
In Val Sasina between Vimognio and Introbbio, on the right hand where you enter the road to Lecco you come upon the river Troggia which falls from a very high rock and as it falls it goes underground so that the river ends there. Three miles further on you come to the buildings of the copper and silver mines near to the district known as Prato San Pietro, and the iron mines and various strange things. The highest mountain in these parts is La Grigna, and it is quite bare.
Above Lake Como towards Germany lies the valley of Chiavenna where the river Mera enters the Lake. Here are barren and very high mountains with huge crags. In these mountains the water-birds called cormorants are found; here grow firs, larches, and pines; deer, wild goats, chamois, and savage bears. One cannot go up there without using hands and feet. The peasants go there in time of snow with a great device to make the bears fall over these rocks. The mountains are close together and have the river between them. They extend both on the right and on the left in this way for a distance of twenty miles. One may find good inns there from mile to mile. Above the river there are waterfalls four hundred braccia high which are a fine sight; and there is good living at 4 soldi for your bill. A large quantity of timber is brought down by the river.
The Valtellina as has been said is a valley surrounded by lofty and terrible mountains; it produces a great quantity of strong wine, and has so great a stock of cattle that the peasants reckon that it produces more milk than wine. This is the valley crossed by the Adda, which first runs through Germany for more than forty miles. In this river is found the grayling which feeds on silver of which much is to be found in its sands.
Everyone in this district sells bread and wine. And the wine is worth at most one soldo the bottle, veal is a soldo the pound, and salt ten denari and butter the same, and their pound is thirty ounces and eggs are one soldo for a quantity.
At the head of the Valtellina are the mountains of Bormio which are terrible and always covered with snow. Here ermines breed.14
In 1487 the Works Department of the Cathedral of Milan was considering the crowning of the central part of the building.
Leonardo was constructing a model for this tiburio with the help of the carpenter Bernardo Maggi da Abbiate. Payments towards the expenses of the model were made on 30 July, on 8, 18, 27 August, on 28 and 30 September, and again on 11 January 1488. Then the model was submitted to the Works Department with a letter of which the following draft has survived. He compares the building in need of repairs to an ailing body and the architect to a doctor.
My Lords, Father Deputies, just as for doctors, guardians, nurses it is necessary that they should understand what man is, what life is, what health is, and how it is maintained by a balance and harmony of elements, while a discord of these is its ruin and undoing; and one with a good knowledge of these conditions will be better able to repair than one who is without it.
You know that medicines when well used restore health to the sick; and they will be well used when the doctor together with the understanding of their nature shall understand also what man is, what life is, what constitution is and what health is. Understanding these well he will also understand well their opposites and when this is the case he will know well how to repair. . . .
You know that medicines well used restore health to the sick, and he who knows them well will use them well if he also understands what man is, and what life and the constitutions are, and what health is. Knowing these well he will know their opposites, and being thus equipped he will be nearer a cure than anyone else. The need of the invalid cathedral is similar—it requires a doctor architect who well understands what an edifice is, and on what rules the correct method of building is based, and whence these rules are derived and into how many parts they are divided, and what are the causes that hold the structure together, and make it last, and what is the nature of weight, and what is the desire of force and in what manner they should be combined and related, and what effect their union produces. Whoever has a true knowledge of these things will satisfy you by his intelligence and his work. . . . Therefore I shall try without detracting and without abusing anyone, to satisfy you partly by arguments and partly by works, sometimes revealing the effects from the causes sometimes the reasoning by experiment . . . fitting with them certain principles of ancient architects and the evidence of buildings they constructed and what were the reasons of their ruin or their survival etc.
And I shall show at the same time what is the first law of weight and what and how many are the causes that bring ruin to buildings and what is the condition of their stability and permanence. But in order not to diffuse to your Excellencies, I will begin by the plan of the first architect of the cathedral and show clearly what was his intention as revealed by the edifice begun by him, and having understood this you will be able clearly to recognize that the model which I have made embodies that symmetry, that harmony and that conformity, which belongs to the building already begun: what is an edifice, and wherefrom do the rules of correct construction derive their origin, and what and how many are the parts that belong to these.
Either I, or others who can expound it better than I, choose him, and set aside all partialities.15
The work which was proceeding on the cathedrals of Pavia, Como, and Milan and on Santa Maria delle Grazie inspired him to investigate the problems connected with domes rising from square and octagonal bases and to make numerous architectural drawings.
Here there cannot and ought not to be any campanile; on the contrary it must stand apart like that of the Cathedral and of San Giovanni [the Baptistery] at Florence, and the Cathedral of Pisa, where the campanile and the dome are quite detached, and each can display its own perfection. If, however, you wish it to be joined to the church make the lantern serve for the campanile as in the church of Chiaravalle.*16
He was also drawing plans for a new city with plenty of light and air and with two-level highways
, the lower to be used by carts and loads and the upper to be reserved for the convenience of the wealthy.
The terrible devastation caused by the plague in Milan in 1483 may have been the inducement to this work.
The following memoranda refer to his interests, activities, and acquaintances in Milan.
An algebra which the Marliani* have, written by their father. . . .
The measurement of Milan and its suburbs. You will draw Milan*. . . Plan of Milan.
A book treating of Milan and its churches which is to be had at the last stationer’s on the way to Cordusio.*
The measurement of the Corte Vecchia, the measurement of the castle.
Of the measurement of San Lorenzo.*
Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle.
Get Messer Fazio* to show you the book on proportion.
Get the friar of Brera to show you de Ponderibus.*
On proportion by Alchino* with notes by Marliano from Messer Fazio.
The book on celestial phenomena by Aristotle, in Italian.* The measurement of the sun promised me by Giovanni the Frenchman.
Memorandum, to ask Giannino Bombardieri* how the tower of Ferrara is walled without holes.
Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars are placed on bastions by day or by night. The crossbow of Maestro Gianetto.
Ask Benedetto Portinari* how people go on the ice in Flanders. The measurement of the canal, locks, and supports, and large boats; and the expense.
Find a master learned in waterworks and get him to explain the repair and the cost of a repair, and a lock and a canal and a mill in the Lombard fashion.
A grandson of Gian Angelo, the painter, has a book on water from his father.
Paolino Scarpellino, called Assiolo, has great knowledge of waterwork.
‘Knots’ by Bramante.*17
The first dated sheet containing anatomical studies reads, ‘on the second day of April 1489’. He also writes a note about a book entitled ‘On the Human Figure’.
On the same sheet are drawings of skulls showing the blood vessels of the face. On the reverse is a list of subjects for consideration:
Which tendon causes the eye to move so that one eye moves the other?
Of frowning the brows. Of raising the brows. Of lowering the brows.
Of closing the eyes. Of opening the eyes.
Of raising the nostrils.
Of opening the lips with the teeth shut. Of pouting with the lips.
Of smiling. Of astonishment.
What is sneezing? What is yawning?
Falling sickness, spasms, paralysis, shivering with cold, sweating, fatigue, hunger, sleepiness, thirst, lust.
Describe the beginning of man when it is caused in the womb. . . .18
Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, the sixteenth-century Milanese artist, gives the following description of Leonardo’s methods of studying expressions: ‘There is a tale told by his servants, that Leonardo once wished to make a picture of some laughing peasants, though he did not carry it out but only drew it. He chose certain men whom he thought appropriate for his purpose, and, after getting acquainted with them, arranged a feast for them with some of his friends. Sitting close to them he then proceeded to tell the maddest and most ridiculous tales imaginable, making them who were unaware of his intentions laugh uproariously. Whereupon he observed all their gestures very attentively and those ridiculous things they were doing, and impressed them on his mind; and after they had left, he retired to his room and there made a perfect drawing which moved those who looked at it to laughter, as if they had been moved by Leonardo’s stories at the feast!’
On the 28th of April [1489?] I received from the Marchesino [Stanga, secretary to the duke] 103 lire and 12 soldi.19
On 22 July 1489 Pietro Alamanni, the Florentine ambassador at Milan, wrote to Lorenzo de’ Medici: ‘Prince Ludovico is planning to erect a worthy monument to his father, and in accordance with his orders Leonardo has been asked to make a model in the form of a large horse in bronze ridden by the Duke Francesco in full armour. As his Highness has in mind something wonderful, the like of which has never been seen, he has directed me to write to you and ask if you would kindly send him one of two Florentine artists who specialize in this kind of work. Moreover, although he has given the commission to Leonardo, it seems to me that he is not confident that he will succeed.’
If Sabba Castiglione, who wrote about Leonardo in the sixteenth century (Riccordi, 1546), is right in saying that Leonardo worked on the model for the horse of the Sforza monument for sixteen years he must have started soon after his arrival at Milan.
The following note written many years later refers to an earthquake that took place about this time at Rhodes.
In eighty-nine [the year 1489] there was an earthquake in the sea of Atalia near Rhodes, which opened the sea, that is its bottom; and into this opening such a torrent of water was poured that for more than three hours the bed of the sea lay bare because of the water that had been lost from it; and then it closed to the former level.20
On 13 January 1400 Leonardo collaborated with the poet Bernardo Bellincioni in staging the Feast of Paradise (La Festa del Paradiso) at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan in honour of Gian Galeazzo Sforza, duke of Milan, and his young wife, Isabella of Aragon. An enormous gilt hemisphere and personifications of the planets featured on the stage.
The following notes accompany sketches for an elevation and plan for a small domed edifice
Pavilion of the garden of the Duchess of Milan.
Ground plan of the pavilion which is in the middle of the Labyrinth of the Duke of Milan.
On the reverse is the plan of a house with the following note:
If you have your family in your house make their habitations in such a way that at night neither they nor the strangers lodging with you are in control of the door of the house; in order that they may not be able to enter the rooms where you live or sleep, close the exit m, and you will have closed the whole house.21
A new notebook known as MS C begun at this time is devoted to problems of light and shade.
On the 23rd of April 1490 I began this book and recommenced the horse.22
While at work on the Sforza monument he was looking out for horses that might serve as models. He found what he liked in the stable of Galeazzo di San Severino, the son-in-law of Ludovico Sforza.
The following notes are written beside sketches from horses:
Messer Galeazzo’s big genet.23
Messer Galeazzo’s Sicilian horse.24
Measurement of the Sicilian horse, the leg from behind, in front lifted and extended.25
In the mountains of Parma and Piacenza multitudes of shells and corals filled with wormholes may be seen still adhering to the rocks. When I was making the great horse at Milan a large sack of those shells which had been found in these parts was brought to my workshop by some peasants, and among them were many still in their original condition.26
On 10 May 1490 the Works Department of Milan Cathedral returned to Leonardo at his own request the model which he had constructed for the tiburio, asking him to keep it in readiness. Leonardo had expressed the wish to repair it, but a week later he received 12 lire for the construction of a new model.
On 8 June 1490 Ludovico Sforza wrote to his secretary, Bartolomeo Calco, that the Works Department of the Cathedral of Pavia was in need of the advice of the Sienese architect who was then in Milan and added as a postscript that also Leonardo and the Lombard architect Amadeo should proceed to Pavia.
On 10 June 1490 Bartolomeo Calco replied that the Sienese architect was working hard to complete his model for the tiburio of Milan Cathedral and that Leonardo would always be at the duke’s disposal.
In the month of June 1490 Leonardo and the Sienese architect, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, set out together on horseback with a following of engineers and helpers for Pavia. They put up at the inn ‘Saracino’ and their bill was paid by the Works Department on 21 June, it being stated t
hat they had both been specially called for a consultation about the cathedral.
Plan of Santa Maria in Praticha in Pavia.
While at Pavia Leonardo used the notebook known as MS B. He studied in the famous Sforza library, where the work on perspective by Witelo (Vitolone), the Polish optical theorist of the thirteenth century, attracted his attention.
Try to get Vitolone which is in the library of Pavia and treats on mathematics.17
In Vitolone there are 805 conclusions about perspective.27
On the piazza in front of the Duomo at Pavia stood a bronze equestrian statue known as ‘Regisole’ which had been removed from Ravenna by Charlemagne. Leonardo, bearing in mind his Sforza monument, studied the action of this horse.
In that of Pavia the movement more than anything else is deserving of praise.
The imitation of antique works is better than that of modern.
Beauty and utility cannot go together as may be seen in fortresses and in men.
The trot has almost the quality of a free horse.
Where natural vivacity is lacking it is necessary to make accidental liveliness.28
I have watched the repair of part of the old walls of Pavia which have their foundations in the banks of the Ticino. The piles there were old and were of oak as black as charcoal, those of alder had a red colour like Brazil wood; they were of great weight and hard as iron, without blemish.29
On 27 June 1490 a consultation took place at the Castello Sforzesco in the presence of Ludovico Sforza and the archbishop to decide on the tiburio of the cathedral. Four models were under consideration, none of which was by Leonardo, and the task of construction was entrusted to two Lombard architects.