Notebooks
Page 39
190 King Mathias: Matthias Corvinus, king of Hungary, a friend of Ludovico Sforza and patron of art and literature. Ludovico commissioned a Madonna from Leonardo on Corvinus’s behalf.
192 time is numbered among continuous quantities: see p. 139.
193 various degrees of pitch proper to the human voice: a reference to Leonardo’s theory that objects of equal size placed so as to recede at regular intervals of say, 20 braccia, each diminish to ½, ⅓, ¼ of their size, and so on in harmonious progression. There is therefore a close analogy with the divisions of the string on the monochord producing the octave, fifth, and fourth, etc. The Italian architect, mathematician, and art theorist Leon Battista Alberti recommends the use of these proportions in architecture: ‘The numbers through which the consensus of voices appeal most agreeably to the ears of men, are the very same which also fill men’s eyes and soul with marvellous pleasure.’ De Re Aedificatoria (On Building), completed 1452.
211 some who look at the objects of nature through glass: devices to facilitate the correct placing of objects on the picture plane were recommended by Alberti, Della Pictura (1435), 2; by the Milanese art theorist Giovanni Paolo Lomazzo, Trattato dell’arte (1584), 6. 14 and 15; and by the German artist Albrecht Dürer, Unterweisung der Messung, etc., who illustrated the subject with four woodcuts.
245 Truth was the only daughter of Time: cf. the Latin author Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae (Attic Nights) (c.150 AD), 12. 11. 2, ‘Veritas filia Temporis’.
249 Babylon: this name was commonly applied to Cairo in the Middle Ages.
258 O Time . . . consumed!: Leonardo paraphrases Ovid’s Metamorphoses, 15. 228-33 (trans. Loeb):
Helen also weeps when she sees her aged wrinkles in the looking glass, and tearfully asks herself why she should twice have been a lover’s prey.
O Time thou great devourer, and thou envious Age,
Together you destroy all things; and slowly gnawing with your teeth you finally consume all things in lingering death.
263 To keep in health this rule is wise: the original is written in rhyming verse.
265 Cornelius Celsus: Roman physician and encyclopaedist who dedicated eight books of his encyclopedia, Artes (Arts), to medicine (c.20 AD). bodily pain . . . compared to it: quoted from the Renaissance military historian and humanist Roberto Valturio (Roburtus Valturius), De Re Militari (On Military Matters) (written c.1540) which Leonardo owned (see p. 313).
Good men by nature wish to know: cf. Dante Alighieri’s philosophical essay Convivio, 1. i, ‘All men by nature wish to know’.
266 Thou, O God . . . labour: above this is the word oratio which either may be translated as ‘a prayer’ or may refer to the Roman poet Horace, who wrote: ‘Life gave nothing to mortals without hard work’ (Satires, 1. 9. 56-60).
270 inside my lips: this note is the main theme of Freud’s psychosexual study of Leonardo. The bird of Leonardo’s dream was a kite (nibbio in Italian) and the same bird figures in his studies of flight. Its deeply forked tail serves as a powerful rudder enabling it while soaring on its wide wings to steer its course with scarcely an apparent movement. This accounts for Leonardo’s interest in the bird. Freud mistranslates nibbio into ‘vulture’ and bases his theory on the fact that in Egyptian hieroglyphs the words ‘vulture’ and ‘mother’ were both represented by the figure of a vulture for phonetic reasons, since both were pronounced mut.
273 Carlo Marmocchi: geographer and astronomer.
Benedetto: Benedetto de l’Abbaco, Florentine mathematician.
Maestro Paolo: Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli, mathematician, astronomer, and cosmographer.
Domenicho di Michelino: Florentine painter and pupil of the artist Fra Angelico.
Giovanni Argiropulo: famed Greek humanist and translator of Aristotle.
A head of the Duke: possibly Duke Francesco Sforza whose equestrian monument Leonardo was planning to carry out.
274 Atalante: Atalante Migliorotti, a famous musician and friend of
Leonardo who accompanied him to Milan. He may be the sitter of
Leonardo’s Portrait of a Musician (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana).
279 Lake Como: although the memoranda appear here, Leonardo actually visited the region in 1492.
Pliniana: the Villa Pliniana is near Torno on the eastern shore.
283 Chiaravalle: the Abbey of Chiaravalle, a few miles from Milan, has a central tower on the intersection of the cross.
284 Marliani: G. Marliani, author of Algebra and member of celebrated family of physicians.
Milan: on another sheet there is a sketch of a view of Milan and a rough plan with indication of the gates (C.A. 199v/73v-a).
Cordusio: the name of a piazza in the centre of Milan.
San Lorenzo: an octagonal building dating back to the sixth century.
The dome is to this day one of the most wonderful cupolas ever constructed.
Messer Fazio: Fazio Cardano, jurist, natural philosopher, and mathematician. He was father of the famous Girolamo Cardano, mathematician, astronomer, and physician.
Brera . . . de Ponderibus: the Brera Palace now houses a gallery, library, academy of fine arts, and astronomical observatory, but was until 1571 a monastery. De Ponderibus (On Weights) is a treatise on statics written by the thirteenth-century mathematician Jordanus of Nemore. See note to p. 347.
Alchino: Al Kindi (fl. c.850), Arab mathematician, scientist, philosopher, and physician.
book on celestial phenomena by Aristotle, in Italian: Meteorologica (Meteorology), devoted primarily to weather phenomena.
284 Giannino Bombardieri: a maker of cannon from Ferrara.
Benedetto Portinari: the Portinari were one of the great merchant families of Florence and represented the Medici Bank at Milan. Benedetto di Tommaso Portinari represented them in Bruges.
285 ‘Knots’ by Bramante: Gruppi, i.e. twisted ornaments, which Leonardo also drew (see illustration). Donato Bramante (c.1444-1514) was a celebrated architect whose stay in Milan overlapped with Leonardo’s by ten years.
291 Giacomo Andrea: Giacomo Andrea of Ferrara, architect and engineer, adherent of Ludovico Sforza, was executed when the French took Milan in 1499.
Marco: probably Leonardo’s pupil Marco d’Oggionno (c.1475-1530).
Maestro Agostino of Pavia: Agostino Vaprio of Pavia, a painter called to Milan in 1490 to help decorate the ducal castle.
292 Gian Antonio: probably Giovanni Antonio Boltraffio (1467-1516), pupil of Leonardo.
Messer Mariolo: Mariolo da Guiscardi was a prominent member of the Sforza court for whom Leonardo had planned a palace.
293 Ghiringhello . . . Pelacano: Giovanni di Ghiringhelli was professor at Pavia 1443-9. Biagio Pelacani (c.1347-1416) was a teacher of philosophy at Pavia, Bologna, and Padua and author of works on Aristotle and on Perspective.
299 Ptolemy: second-century AD Greek astronomer, mathematician, and geographer. Leonardo is drawing from Ptolemy’s Geographia, or Cosmography, which outlines a comprehensive system for the making of maps, and applying it to the human body.
314 Ligny . . . Rome . . . Naples: these words were spelled backwards, presumably for reasons of secrecy.
Jean de Paris: Jean Perréal (c.1455-1530), the French painter, accompanied Charles VIII and Louis XII to Italy.
327 Niccolò di Forzore: Niccolò di Forzore Spinelli, engraver and medallist (1430 - 1514).
328 St Peter: the battle was fought on St Peter and St Paul’s day, 29 June 1440.
338 your Excellency: another almost identical draft gives the name of the addressee as Antonio Maria, probably Antonio Maria Pallavicino, a distinguished Milanese noble, interested in the road and water system of Lombardy.
the president: Geffroy Carles, president of the Dauphiné, vice-chancellor of Milan. See p. 334.
339 Messer Girolamo da Cusano: member of the Milanese Senate.
346 Biagino Crivelli: at one time head of the crossbowmen of Ludovico Sforza.
Master Benedetto: probably Benedet
to Briosco (c.1460-c.1526).
347 De Ponderibus: see note to p. 284.
348 Platina: Bartolomeo Sacchi, called ‘Il Platina’, humanist historian who produced De Honesta Voluptate et Valetudine (On Decent Pleasure and Good Health) (c.1470), a popular book on the nature of foods with recipes based on Martino’s Libro de Arte Coquinaria (Book on the Art of Cookery).
363 23rd day of April 1518 before Easter: date according to the French calendar. In 1518 Easter fell on 4 April, while in 1519 it fell on 24 April. The will was therefore written on 23 April 1519, nine days before his death.
REFERENCES TO MANUSCRIPTS AND SOURCES
ABBREVIATIONS
Numbers relate to folios. r. and v. mean recto and verso (front and back), o means cover of manuscript. For example: C.A. 150v means back of folio 150 of the Codex Atlanticus.
CHAPTER I
1 C.A. 119v/327v.
2 C.A. 117r/323r.
3 W. 19084r.
4 Triv. 20v.
5 B.N. 2038 19r.
6 C.A. 154r/417r.
7 Urb. 33.
8 B. 4v.
9 Triv. 33r.
10 Forster III 14r.
11 C.A. 86r./234r.
12 E. 55r.
13 C.A. 345v/949v.
14 C. 23v.
15 Forster III. 43r.
16 I. 18r.
17 C.A. 147v/398v.
18 W. 19118v.
19 G. 96v.
20 W. 19084.
21 Urb. 1.
22 A. 8v.
23 Leic. 25v.
24 Leic. 11r.
25 A. 47r.
26 M. 57r.
27 F. 2v.
28 I. 130r.
29 G. 47r.
30 G. 8r.
31 E. 8v.
32 W. 19045v.
33 W. 19048v.
34 Leic. 29v.
CHAPTER II
1 C.A. 385v/1067r.
2 F. 27r.
3 B.L. 160r.
4 B.L. 175r.
5 B.L. 155v.
6 H. 95r.
7 F. 87v.
8 Leic. 15v.
9 Leic. 17v.
10 E. 12r.
11 C. 26v.
12 A. 26r.
13 Leic. 26v.
14 W. 19092.
15 B.L. 57r - v.
16 C.A. 84v/227v.
17 F.L. 15.
18 C.A. 296/810r.
19 W. 12579r.
20 Leic. 34v.
21 C.A. 20r/64r.
22 B.L. 19r.
23 Leic. 36v.
24 C.A. 361v/1007r.
25 Leic. 31r.
26 Leic. 3r.
27 Leic. 36r.
28 F. 80.
29 Leic. 9v.
30 Leic. 10v.
31 C.A. 155r/418a.
32 F. 23v.
33 W. 19108r.
34 C.A. 126v/350r.
35 B.L. 30v.
36 Leic. 1v.
37 Leic. 6v.
38 Leic. 31v.
39 B.L. 138r.
40 C.A. 328v/901r.
41 Leic. 10v.
42 C.A. 263v/711r.
43 Leic. 13r.
44 Leic. 1v.
45 Leic. 32v.
46 Leic. 27v.
47 F. 35r.
48 C.A. 108v/302r.
49 A. 61r.
50 A. 9v.
51 F. 87v.
52 C.A. 169r/461r.
53 C.A. 270/729r.
54 Leic. 4r.
55 F. 25v.
56 A. 55v.
57 C.A. 212v/728v.
58 A. 54v.
59 A. 56r.
60 C.A. 171r/468r.
61 B.L. 235r.
62 W. 19048r.
63 W. 19047v.
64 B. 4v.
65 B.L. 279v.
66 C.A. 190r/518r.
67 E. 15v.
68 B.L. 94v.
69 B.L. 54r.
70 F. 56r.
71 W. 12669r.
72 F. 5r.
73 B.L. 184v.
74 C.A. 123r/340r.
75 Forster II 117r.
76 Ven.
77 C.A. 117r/324r.
78 W. 19009r.
79 B.L. 145v.
80 W. 19060.
81 B.L. 204r.
82 B.L. 205r.
83 Turin 1r.
84 Turin 2v.
85 Forster II 116v.
86 B.L. 195r.
87 B.L. 123r.
88 I. 22v.
89 B.L. 151v.
90 C.A. 253r/683r.
91 B.L. 151.
92 H. 71v.
93 A. 34v.
94 C.A. 302/826r.
95 A. 28r.
96 E. 42r.
97 I. 130v.
98 B.L. 176
99 C.A. 108r/299r.
100 E. 57r.
101 M. 44r.
102 M. 47v.
103 M. 45.
104 M. 48r.
105 M. 46r.
106 M. 49r.
107 M. 57.
108 G. 75r.
109 A. 35.
110 F. 51, 52.
111 C.A. 91v/250r.
112 E. 58v.
113 M. 62v.
114 M. 63r.
115 M. 71v.
116 Forster I 44r.
117 Forster II 78v.
118 G. 87 r.
119 E. 22r.
120 G. 73r.
121 G. 85v.
122 G. 72v.
123 I. 99v.
124 B.L. 82r.
125 I. 14v.
126 A. 24r.
127 Forster III 28r.
128 A. 34v.
129 A. 53v.
130 Forster II 74v.
131 Forster III 32r.
132 M. 83v.
133 Triv. 73r.
134 A. 27v.
135 A. 22v.
136 C.A. 155v/421v.
137 E. 2r.
138 E. 35r.
139 Forster II 131v.
140 Forster II 85v.
141 Forster II 86, 87.
142 Forster II 132, 133.
143 C.A. 137v/377v.
144 E. 59v.
145 C.A. 149r/403r.
146 C.A. 81v/220v.
147 M. 68v.
148 C.A. 93v/257 r.
149 Forster II 157r.
150 E. 69r.
151 Forster II 115r.
152 Forster II 51r.
153 A. 62r.
154 Forster III 83r.
155 Forster III 84r.
156 B.M. 191r.
157 F. 7v.
158 I. 17r.
159 Forster II 77v.
160 L. 53.
CHAPTER III
1 Turin 3r.
2 F. 53v.
3 E. 54r.
4 K. l, 3r.
5 W. 12657.
6 F. 41v.
7 C.A. 219v/589v.
8 C.A. 168v/460v.
9 Turin 8r.
10 C.A. 108r/299r.
11 G. 10r.
12 C.A. 395r/1098r.
13 F. 87v.
14 E. 28v.
15 E. 51r.
16 C.A. 45r/124r.
17 Turin 17r.
18 E. 45v.
19 E. 23v.
20 E. 23r.
21 E. 53r.
22 E. 46r.
23 E. 52v.
24 G. 63v.
25 F. 41v.
26 C.A. 66r/186r.
27 M. 83r.
28 C.A. 168r/460v.
29 Leic. 22v.
30 Turin 11r.
31 C.A. 220r/591v.
32 F. 53v.
33 C.A. 77r.
34 E. 54r.
35 E. 51v.
36 C.A. 308v/845v.
37 L. 59v.
38 L. 58v.
39 L. 58, 59.
40 Turin 6.
41 L. 62r.
42 E. 22v.
43 E. 37v.
44 E. 43v.
45 B.L. 166v.
46 G. 66r.
47 C.A. 377v/1051v.
4
8 Ash. I 10v.
49 W. 19116r.
50 C.A. 161r/434r.
51 C.A. 381v/1058v.
52 Turin 6r.
53 Turin 16r.
54 F. 41v.
55 L. 61v.
56 L. 60v.
57 Turin 8r.
CHAPTER IV
1 C.A. 90r/245r.
2 W. 19019.
3 Urb. 511.
4 Urb. 19.
5 Urb. 28.
6 C.A. 345v/949v.
7 Urb. 24.
8 C.A. 138r/380r.
9 C.A. 135v/372v.
10 C.A. 270r/729r.
11 Ash. II 13r.
12 D. 8r.
13 W. 19150v.
14 Ash. II 1r.
15 C.A. 270v/729v.
16 Ash. II 13v.
17 A. 3r.
18 Ash. II 18r.
19 Urb. 6.
20 A. 1v.
21 Ash. II 12v.
22 Forster II 15v.
23 C. 21v.
24 C. 1r.
25 C. 13v.
26 C. 18r.
27 A. 8v.
28 A. 2v.
29 C.A. 101v/278r.
30 A. 10v.
31 K. 120v.
32 A. 37v.
33 W. 19152r.
34 A. 37r.
35 W. 19118.
36 Urb. 3.
37 B.L. 160r.
38 B.L. 131v.
39 B.L. 132r.
40 Urb. 443.
41 Urb. 486.
42 B.L. 159.
43 F.L. 13v.
44 B.L. 232r.
45 Urb. 17.
46 C.A. 203r/543r.
47 F. 49v.
48 C.A. 116r/320r.
49 Urb. 33.
50 C.A. 204v/546v.
51 C.A. 250r/676r.
52 M. 80r.
53 Ash. II 21v.
54 W. 19076r.
55 W. 19152v.
56 E. 31v.
57 H. 90v.
58 Ash. II 32.
59 E. 32v.
60 A. 20r.
61 C. 10r.
62 Ash. II 29v.
63 Ash. II 16v.
64 Urb. 93.
65 G. 3v.
66 E. 3v.
67 C.A. 179r/490r.
68 G. 53v.
69 E. 18r.
70 Urb. 238.
71 Urb. 190.
72 Urb. 254.
73 W. 19076.
74 A. 19v.
75 A. 20r.
76 F. 75r.
77 C.A. 184v/505v.
78 Ash. II 20r.
79 A. 26b.
80 Urb. 35.
81 Urb. 40.
82 Ash. II 25v.
83 W. 19109r.
84 G. 11v.
85 G. 29r.