Notebooks (58 page)
Authors: Leonardo da Vinci,Irma Anne Richter,Thereza Wells
Tags: #History, #Fiction, #General, #European, #Art, #Renaissance, #Leonardo;, #Leonardo, #da Vinci;, #1452-1519, #Individual artists, #Art Monographs, #Drawing By Individual Artists, #Notebooks; sketchbooks; etc, #Individual Artist, #History - Renaissance, #Renaissance art, #Individual Painters - Renaissance, #Drawing & drawings, #Drawing, #Techniques - Drawing, #Individual Artists - General, #Individual artists; art monographs, #Art & Art Instruction, #Techniques
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
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
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
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
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
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.
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
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
].
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
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
143
In 1509 Fra Luca Pacioli’s book
De Divina Proportione
for which Leonardo had designed the illustrations was published in Venice
.
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
144
Canal of San Cristoforo at Milan made on the third day of May 1509.
145
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
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
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
148
South of Lake Como he admired the size of the chestnut trees.
At Santa Maria Itre in the Valley of Rovagnate in the mountains of Brianza are rods of chestnuts of 9 braccia and one out of 100 will be as much as 14 braccia.
149
149
On 21 October 1510 Leonardo took part in a consultation on the choir-stalls of Milan Cathedral.
Leonardo continued his studies in anatomy. The following note is written on a large sheet with drawings of muscles.
There are as many muscles of the feet as double the number of toes. But as I have not yet finished this discourse I will leave it for the present, and this winter of the year 1510 I look to finish all this anatomy.
150
150
According to Vasari the famous anatomist Marc Antonio della Torre helped Leonardo in his researches. He was teaching at the University of Pavia in 1511, and Leonardo probably refers to him in the following note:
Book ‘on the water’ to Messer Marco Antonio.
[
With drawing of child in womb.
]
With drawing of child in womb.
]
The heart of this child does not beat and the child does not breathe because it lies continually in water, and if it were to breathe it would be drowned, and breathing is not necessary to it since it receives life and is nourished from the life and food of the mother.
151
151
Another note may refer to the behaviour by students in the anatomy classes:
Make a discourse on the censure deserved by students who put obstacles in the way of those who practise anatomy and who abbreviate research.
152
152
Many of his notes at this time refer to the study of embryology.
See how the birds are nourished in their eggs.
153
153
Whether the child while within the body of the mother is able to weep or produce any sort of voice or no. The answer is no; because it does not breathe, neither is there any kind of respiration; and where there is no respiration there is no voice.
154
154
Ask the wife of Biagino Crivelli* how the capon rears and hatches the eggs of the hen when he is in the mating season.
They hatch the chickens by making use of the ovens by the fireplace.
Those eggs which are of a round form will be cockerels and the long-shaped ones pullets.
Their chickens are given into the charge of a capon that has been plucked on the under part of its body, and then stung with a nettle and placed in a hamper. When the chicken nestles underneath it, it feels itself soothed by the sensation of warmth and takes pleasure in it, and after this it leads them about and fights for them, jumping up into the air to meet the kite in fierce conflict.
154
154
Monbracco, above Saluzzo—a mile above the Certosa, at the foot of Monte Viso has a quarry of stratified stone, white as Carrara marble and flawless, and as hard as porphyry or even harder; of which my friend Master Benedetto,* the sculptor, has promised to send me a small slab for the colours, on the 2nd day of January 1511.
155
155
On 10 March 1511 Leonardo’s patron Charles d’Amboise died.
On the tenth of December 1511 at 15 o’clock the fire was kindled. On the 18th of December 1511 at 15 o’clock this second fire was kindled by the Swiss at Milan at the place called DCXC.
156
156
These two notes are written on drawings of conflagrations by Leonardo but are not in his handwriting.
Soon afterwards the French were defeated, and the son of Ludovico Sforza was restored to the Duchy of Milan with the help of Swiss soldiery. But fighting continued, and Leonardo remained in his home awaiting the outcome.
And I saw one whose heart burst as he fled before his enemies. And he poured out sweat mixed with blood through all the pores of his skin.
157
157
O speculator about this machine of ours let it not distress you that you gain knowledge of it through another’s death, but rejoice that our Creator has ordained the intellect to such excellent perception.
158
158
Leonardo was continuing his anatomical researches. On a sheet with drawings of the diaphragm and various architectural sketches including a plan and elevation of a turret he wrote a date and the following notes.
January 9, 1513.
The room in the tower of Vaneri.
Look at the dead dog, its lumbar region, the diaphragm and the motion of the ribs.
159
159
The following memoranda in the same manuscript throw further light on Leonardo’s interests and occupations. He passed some time at the villa of his young friend Melzi, situated on the banks of the river Adda at Vaprio.
Memorandum
To go to make arrangements for my garden.
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