On 2 January 1507 Francesco Pandolfini, Florentine ambassador to Louis XII, wrote from Blois to the Signoria: ‘Being this morning in the presence of the most Christian King, his Majesty called for me and said: “Your Government must do something for me. Write to them that I wish Master Leonardo, their painter, to work for me. And see that your Government command him to serve me at once, and not to leave Milan until I go there. He is a good master and I wish to have several things from his hand.” I then asked his Majesty what works he desired and he answered: “Certain small panels of Our Lady and other things as the fancy shall take me; and perhaps I shall also cause him to make my own portrait.” ’
‘His Majesty asked [says Pandolfini] if I knew him. I replied that he was a close friend of mine. “Then write him some verses”, said the King, “telling him not to leave Milan, at the same time as your Governors are writing to him from Florence”; and for this reason I wrote a verse to Leonardo, letting him know the good will of his Majesty and congratulating him on the news.’
On 20 April 1507 the vineyard which Ludovico Sforza had presented to Leonardo was returned to him by an order of Charles d’Amboise. On 24 May 1507 the French king re-entered Milan in triumph. At the festivities Leonardo resumed his function as organizer of brilliant entertainments. Amongst the guests were Isabella d’Este and her brother Cardinal Ippolito d’Este.
One of the supporters of the French cause against the Sforzas who was now in power was the Milanese nobleman Gian Giacomo Trivulzi. In a will, dated August 1504, he had made provision for a monumental tomb to be erected in the church of San Nazaro at the cost of 4,000 ducats. Leonardo made an estimate for this monument which included a bronze life-size equestrian statue, an elaborate eight-columned base with the figure of the deceased carved in stone resting on the sarcophagus. This commission seemed to offer an opportunity of creating something that would compensate for the destruction of his masterpiece, the colossal horse for the monument of Francesco Sforza. But this work too, carefully planned and calculated, was not brought to completion owing to the unsettled times. Below is a selection of items included in the estimate amounting to a total of 3,046 ducats. His sketches for the memorial are at Windsor.
The monument of Messer Giovanni Jacomo Trevulzo.
Cost of making and materials for the horse. A courser as large as life with the rider.
For cost of material duc. 500
Cost of pit and furnace for casting of framework duc. 200
To make model in clay and in wax duc. 432
To the workmen for polishing after it’s cast duc. 450
Cost of the marble for the monument duc. 389
Cost of the work on the marble duc. 1075.126
The size and function of each block is described, and the cost of the work on each is quoted separately.
In the following letter, addressed to his stepmother, Leonardo announces his intention of returning to Florence for a brief stay in order to settle a litigation with his brother over the estates of his father and uncle.
In the name of God on the 5th of July 1507.
My dearly beloved mother, sisters and brother-in-law, I herewith inform you that I am well, thank God, and I hope the same of you. To remind you what to do with the sword that I left with you—take it to Piazza Strozzi to Maso delle Viole for him to be sure to keep it as I set great store by it; and I recommend to you those clothes. And remember me graciously to Dianira so that she should not say that I have forgotten her, and remember me also to my brother-in-law, and tell him that I shall soon be there for the whole month of September . . . and I shall settle the business with Piero so that he will be satisfied.127
On 15 August 1507 he returned to Florence with letters of recommendation from Charles d’Amboise and the French king to the Signoria pressing for a speedy settlement of the lawsuit with his brothers so that he may return to his work in Milan ‘because he is obliged to make a [painted] panel’ for Louis XII. In the following letter now in the library of Modena, he asks the support of the Cardinal Ippolito d’Este in the same personal matter.
Most Illustrious, most Reverend, and my Unique Lord, the Lord Ippolito, Cardinal of Este. My Supreme Lord, at Ferrara. Most Illustrious and Most Reverend Lord.
A few days ago I arrived from Milan, and finding that one of my elder brothers refuses to carry out the provisions of a will made three years ago when our father died and because I would not fail in a matter that I esteem most important, I cannot forbear to request of your most Reverend Highness a letter of recommendation and favour to Ser Raphaello Hieronymo, who is now one of the members of the illustrious Signoria, before whom my cause is being argued; and more particularly it has been referred by his Excellency the Gonfaloniere to the said Ser Raphaello so that his lordship may have to decide and bring it to completion before the coming of the festivals 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 happy and engaging manner that you can use, commending to him Leonardo da Vinci, your most humble servant as I call myself and always wish to be; requesting him and pressing him that he may not only do me justice but do so with kindly urgency: and I have no doubt at all from many reports that have reached me that as Ser Raphaello is most affectionately devoted to Your Highness, the matter will proceed ad votum. And this I shall attribute to the letter of your most Reverend Highness, to whom once more I commend myself. Et bene valeat.
Florence, 18 September 1507
E.V.R.D.
your humble servant,
Leonardus Vincius, pic tor.128
During his visit to Florence Leonardo stayed in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli, a scholar and patron of artists. At that time the sculptor Gian Francesco Rustici was working in the same house on the bronze group of the Baptist standing between a Pharisee and a Levite, now placed over the north door of the Baptistery. Vasari reports: ‘While Gian Francesco was at work on the clay model for this group he wished no one to come near him except Leonardo da Vinci who in making the moulds, preparing the armature and at every point up to the casting of the statues never left him; hence some believe that Leonardo worked at them with his own hand or at least helped Gian Francesco with advice and good judgement.’
Begun in Florence, in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli, on the 22nd day of March, 1508. And this is to be a collection without order, taken from many papers, which I have copied here.129
The above explanation served as prologue to a series of notes on physics.
If you keep the details of the spots of the moon under observation you will often find great variation in them, and this I myself have proved by drawing them. . . .130
The following drafts of letters addressed to patrons and friends at Milan were written by Leonardo from Florence, where he stayed in the winter of 1507-8. They reflect a desire on his part to make sure of their support and of the privileges that had been promised.
Now that he was no longer young he was anxious to concentrate on his studies and to make arrangements accordingly.
I am afraid lest the small return I have made for the great benefits I have received from your Excellency* has made you somewhat angry with me, and that is why I have never had an answer to so many letters which I have written to your Lordship. I now send Salaì to explain to your Lordship that I am almost at an end of the litigation I had with my brothers; and 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 shall 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 the time there was a dearth in the canal by reason of the great droughts and beca
use 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 instruments there and other things which will greatly please our most Christian King. Nothing else occurs to me. I am always yours to command.131
Magnificent President: Having oft-times 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 completed, 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 Salaì, 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 had begun, and have brought on to a very good end; nothing else occurs to me.
During 1507-8 Leonardo meets Francesco Melzi, the nobleman from Vaprio d’Adda who was to be his pupil, companion, and main heir to his artistic work.
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 you will perhaps be sorry for it.
Dear Messer Francesco, I am sending thither Salaì to learn from his Excellency the President what conclusion has been reached in the matter of the regulation of the water. . . .
Will you therefore have the kindness to answer me as to what has taken place and unless it is being settled will you for my sake be so kind as to urge the President a little and also Messer Girolamo Cusano to whom please commend me and offer my respects to his Excellency.132
Leonardo gave vent to his feelings in the following note:
First the benefices, then the works, then ingratitude, indignity and lamentations and then——133
By the end of April 1508 Leonardo may have returned to Milan, and in the following years worked in the service of Louis XII. He was not only court painter but also architect and engineer.
Memorandum of the money I have had from the King as my salary from July 1508 to April next 1509. First 100 scudi, then 100, then 70, then 50, then 20 and then 200 francs at 48 soldi the franc.134
The notebook known as MS F which was begun soon after his arrival at Milan is entitled Di Mondo ed acque and contains a plan for a treatise on water based on his own experience and observation. The notebook was used until 1513.
Begun at Milan the 12th of September 1508.135
Write first of all water, in each of its motions; then describe all of its beds and the substances therein, adducing always the propositions concerning the aforesaid waters; and let the order be good, for otherwise the work will be confused. Describe all the forms that water assumes from its largest to its smallest wave, and their causes.136
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 with a whirling movement bore a hole and dig out a gravel-pit, and carry gravel, sand, and water more than half a mile through the air.137
Leonardo was working on a scheme for making the river Adda navigable and ensuring a waterway between Milan and Lake Como.
By making the canal of Martesana the water of the Adda has been greatly diminished through its distribution over many districts for the irrigation of the fields. . . .138
The following note is the only surviving description of the famous aqueduct built by the Veronese architect Fra Giocondo at the castle of Blois in order to provide water for the gardens which were situated on a height. Fra Giocondo left France in 1506, when he was entrusted with the fortifications of Treviso which he completed in 1509, for the republic of Venice.
cd is the garden at Blois; ab is the conduit of Blois, made in France by Fra Giocondo; bc is, what is wanting in the height of that conduit; cd is the height of the garden at Blois; ef is the siphon of the conduit; bc, ef, fg is where the siphon discharges into the river.139
In the following note Leonardo refers to the League of Cambrai which united the great powers of Europe against Venice in 1508. The duchy of Milan had to prepare against hostilities on her eastern borders.
The Venetians have boasted of their power to spend 36 millions of gold in ten years in the war with the Empire, the Church, and the kings of Spain and France at 300,000 ducats a month.140
The maps of Brescian territory made by Leonardo and now at Windsor were presumably for purposes of defence or canalization.
On the first of October 1508 I had 30 scudi. 13 I lent to Salaì to make up his sister’s dowry and 17 I have left
Lend not! If you lend you will not be repaid, if you are repaid it will not be soon, if it is soon it will not be good coin, if it is good coin you will lose your friend.141
On 23 October 1508 Leonardo da Vinci and Ambrogio de Predis acknowledge the receipt of the last instalment amounting to 100 lire from the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception for the picture of the Virgin of the Rocks (cf. pp. 275 and 334). Leonardo’s lengthy dissertation on fissures in walls and vaults may be dated about this time.
First write a treatise on the causes of the giving way of walls and vaults and then treat of the remedies . . . .142
The following notes throw further light on Leonardo’s interests at this time.
Books from Venice.
Concave mirrors.
Philosophy of Aristotle, Meteorologica [on sublunary changes].
Archimedes on the centre of gravity.
Messer Ottaviano Pallavicino, for his Vitruvius.
The Dante of Niccolò della Croce.
Albertuccio [the philosopher Albert of Saxony].
Marliano on Calculation [De Proportione Motuum in Velocitate].
Albertus [Magnus] On Heaven and Earth from the monk Bernardino.
Anatomy by Alessandro Benedetti.
Go every Saturday to the hot bath where you will see naked men.
Inflate the lungs of a pig, and observe whether they increase in width and in length, or increase in width while diminishing in length.141
He recalls past times, his lost friend Giacomo Andrea of Ferrara and Aliprando, former adherents of Ludovico Sforza (see p. 291).
Messer Vicenzo Aliprando, who lives near the inn of the bear, has the Vitruvius of Giacomo Andrea.143
In 1509 Fra Luca Pacioli’s book De Divina Proportione for which Leonardo had designed the illustrations was published in Venice.
28 th of April 1509. Having for a long time sought to square the angle of two curved sides, that is the angle, which has two curved sides of equal curve, that is curve created by the same circle: now in the year 1509, on the eve of the calends of May, I have solved the proposition at ten o’clock on the evening of Sunday.144
Canal of San Cristoforo at Milan made on the third day of May 1509.145
This note is written on a careful drawing of sluices. For the supervision of work on this canal the French king conceded the right to a supply of water to Leonardo.
The granting of this right was followed by complications.
If it is said that by taking this water at Santo Cristofano, the King loses 72 ducats.
His Majesty knows that whatever he gives to me, of that he deprives himself. But in this case the
King is not deprived of anything but it is taken away from those who have stolen it by altering the so-called mouths, which were enlarged by the thieves of the water. . . . If it is said that this is to the disadvantage of many it only is taking back from the thieves what they should restore. The magistrate does this constantly of his own accord taking more than 500 ounces of water, while the quantity agreed upon for me is only 12 ounces.
If it is said that this water of mine is of considerable value per year, here, where the canal is at such a low level, the ounce is hired at only 7 ducats of 4 lire each per year that is 70. If they say that this hinders the navigation it is not true, because the mouths supplying this water are above the navigation. 146
The following entry in his notebook known as MS G provides an approximate date for his studies of plant life on its pages.
1510, on the 26th of September Antonio (Boltraffio) broke his leg. He must rest 40 days.147
The sun gives spirit and life to the plants and the earth nourishes them with moisture. With regard to this I made the experiment of leaving only one small root on a gourd and this I kept nourished with water, and the gourd brought to perfection all the fruits it could produce, which were about 60 gourds of the long kind, and I set my mind diligently to consider this vitality and perceived that the dews of night were what supplied it abundantly with moisture through the insertion of its large leaves and gave nourishment to the plant and its offspring—or the seeds which its offsprings had to produce.148
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