The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (75 page)

At
a
the water of the Mediterranean fell into the ocean.

All the plains which lie between the sea and mountains were formerly
covered with salt water.

Every valley has been made by its own river; and the proportion
between valleys is the same as that between river and river.

The greatest river in our world is the Mediterranean river, which
moves from the sources of the Nile to the Western ocean.

And its greatest height is in Outer Mauritania and it has a course
of ten thousand miles before it reunites with its ocean, the father
of the waters.

That is 3000 miles for the Mediterranean, 3000 for the Nile, as far
as discovered and 3000 for the Nile which flows to the East, &c.

[Footnote: See Pl. CXI 2, a sketch of the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, where lines 11 to 16 may be seen. The large
figures 158 are not in Leonardo's writing. The character of the
writing leads us to conclude that this text was written later than
the foregoing. A slight sketch of the Mediterranean is also to be
found in MS. I', 47a.]

The Nile (1093-1098).

1093.

Therefore we must conclude those mountains to be of the greatest
height, above which the clouds falling in snow give rise to the
Nile.

1094.

The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, and the Arabs, in crossing the Nile
with camels, are accustomed to attach two bags on the sides of the
camel's bodies that is skins in the form shown underneath.

In these four meshes of the net the camels for baggage place their
feet.

[Footnote: Unfortunately both the sketches which accompany this
passage are too much effaced to be reproduced. The upper represents
the two sacks joined by ropes, as here described, the other shows
four camels with riders swimming through a river.]

1095.

The Tigris passes through Asia Minor and brings with it the water of
three lakes, one after the other of various elevations; the first
being Munace and the middle Pallas and the lowest Triton. And the
Nile again springs from three very high lakes in Ethiopia, and runs
northwards towards the sea of Egypt with a course of 4000 miles, and
by the shortest and straightest line it is 3000 miles. It is said
that it issues from the Mountains of the Moon, and has various
unknown sources. The said lakes are about 4000 braccia above the
surface of the sphere of water, that is 1 mile and 1/3, giving to
the Nile a fall of 1 braccia in every mile.

[Footnote 5:
Incogniti principio.
The affluents of the lakes are
probably here intended. Compare, as to the Nile, Nos. 970, 1063 and
1084.]

1096.

Very many times the Nile and other very large rivers have poured out
their whole element of water and restored it to the sea.

1097.

Why does the inundation of the Nile occur in the summer, coming from
torrid countries?

1098.

It is not denied that the Nile is constantly muddy in entering the
Egyptian sea and that its turbidity is caused by soil that this
river is continually bringing from the places it passes; which soil
never returns in the sea which receives it, unless it throws it on
its shores. You see the sandy desert beyond Mount Atlas where
formerly it was covered with salt water.

Customs of Asiatic Nations (1099. 1100).

1099.

The Assyrians and the people of Euboea accustom their horses to
carry sacks which they can at pleasure fill with air, and which in
case of need they carry instead of the girth of the saddle above and
at the side, and they are well covered with plates of cuir bouilli,
in order that they may not be perforated by flights of arrows. Thus
they have not on their minds their security in flight, when the
victory is uncertain; a horse thus equipped enables four or five men
to cross over at need.

1100.

The small boats used by the Assyrians were made of thin laths of
willow plaited over rods also of willow, and bent into the form of a
boat. They were daubed with fine mud soaked with oil or with
turpentine, and reduced to a kind of mud which resisted the water
and because pine would split; and always remained fresh; and they
covered this sort of boats with the skins of oxen in safely crossing
the river Sicuris of Spain, as is reported by Lucant; [Footnote 7:
See Lucan's Pharsalia IV, 130: _Utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque
reliquit, Primum cana salix madefacto vimine parvam Texitur in
puppim, calsoque inducto juvenco Vectoris patiens tumidum supernatat
amnem. Sic Venetus stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus Navigat oceano,
sic cum tenet omnia Nilus, Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymbo papyro.
His ratibus transjecta manus festinat utrimque Succisam cavare nemus
]

The Spaniards, the Scythians and the Arabs, when they want to make a
bridge in haste, fix hurdlework made of willows on bags of ox-hide,
and so cross in safety.

Rhodes (1101. 1102).

1101.

In [fourteen hundred and] eighty nine 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 poured that
for more than three hours the bottom of the sea was uncovered by
reason of the water which was lost in it, and then it closed to the
former level.

[Footnote:
Nello ottanto
9. It is scarcely likely that Leonardo
should here mean 89 AD. Dr. H. MULLER- STRUBING writes to me as
follows on this subject: "With reference to Rhodes Ross says (
Reise
auf den Griechischen Inseln, III
70
ff
. 1840), that ancient
history affords instances of severe earthquakes at Rhodes, among
others one in the second year of the 138th Olympiad=270 B. C.; a
remarkably violent one under Antoninus Pius (A. D. 138-161) and
again under Constantine and later. But Leonardo expressly speaks of
an earthquake "
nel mar di Atalia presso a Rodi
", which is
singular. The town of Attalia, founded by Attalus, which is what he
no doubt means, was in Pamphylia and more than 150 English miles
East of Rhodes in a straight line. Leake and most other geographers
identify it with the present town of Adalia. Attalia is rarely
mentioned by the ancients, indeed only by Strabo and Pliny and no
earthquake is spoken of. I think therefore you are justified in
assuming that Leonardo means 1489". In the elaborate catalogue of
earthquakes in the East by Sciale Dshelal eddin Sayouthy (an
unpublished Arabic MS. in the possession of Prof. SCHEFER, (Membre
de l'Institut, Paris) mention is made of a terrible earthquake in
the year 867 of the Mohamedan Era corresponding to the year 1489,
and it is there stated that a hundred persons were killed by it in
the fortress of Kerak. There are three places of this name. Kerak on
the sea of Tiberias, Kerak near Tahle on the Libanon, which I
visited in the summer of l876—but neither of these is the place
alluded to. Possibly it may be the strongly fortified town of
Kerak=Kir Moab, to the West of the Dead Sea. There is no notice
about this in ALEXIS PERCY,
Memoire sur les tremblements de terres
ressentis dans la peninsule turco- hellenique et en Syrie (Memoires
couronnes et memoires des savants etrangers, Academie Royale de
Belgique, Tome XXIII).
]

1102.

Rhodes has in it 5000 houses.

Cyprus (1103. 1104).

1103.

You must make steps on four sides, by which to mount to a meadow
formed by nature at the top of a rock which may be hollowed out and
supported in front by pilasters and open underneath in a large
portico,

[Footnote: See Pl. LXXXIII. Compare also p. 33 of this Vol. The
standing male figure at the side is evidently suggested by Michael
Angelo's David. On the same place a slight sketch of horses seems to
have been drawn first; there is no reason for assuming that the text
and this sketch, which have no connection with each other, are of
the same date.

Sito di Venere.
By this heading Leonardo appears to mean Cyprus,
which was always considered by the ancients to be the home and birth
place of Aphrodite (Kirpic in Homer).]

in which the water may fall into various vases of granite,
porphyryand serpentine, within semi-circular recesses; and the water
may overflow from these. And round this portico towards the North
there should be a lake with a little island in the midst of which
should be a thick and shady wood; the waters at the top of the
pilasters should pour into vases at their base, from whence they
should flow in little channels.

Starting from the shore of Cilicia towards the South you discover
the beauties of the island of Cyprus.

The Caspian Sea (1105. 1106).

1104.

>From the shore of the Southern coast of Cilicia may be seen to the
South the beautiful island of Cyprus, which was the realm of the
goddess Venus, and many navigators being attracted by her beauty,
had their ships and rigging broken amidst the reefs, surrounded by
the whirling waters. Here the beauty of delightful hills tempts
wandering mariners to refresh themselves amidst their flowery
verdure, where the winds are tempered and fill the island and the
surrounding seas with fragrant odours. Ah! how many a ship has here
been sunk. Ah! how many a vessel broken on these rocks. Here might
be seen barks without number, some wrecked and half covered by the
sand; others showing the poop and another the prow, here a keel and
there the ribs; and it seems like a day of judgment when there
should be a resurrection of dead ships, so great is the number of
them covering all the Northern shore; and while the North gale makes
various and fearful noises there.

1105.

Write to Bartolomeo the Turk as to the flow and ebb of the Black
sea, and whether he is aware if there be such a flow and ebb in the
Hyrcanean or Caspian sea. [Footnote: The handwriting of this note
points to a late date.]

1106.

>From the straits of Gibraltar to the Don is 3500 miles, that is one
mile and 1/6, giving a fall of one braccio in a mile to any water
that moves gently. The Caspian sea is a great deal higher; and none
of the mountains of Europe rise a mile above the surface of our
seas; therefore it might be said that the water which is on the
summits of our mountains might come from the height of those seas,
and of the rivers which flow into them, and which are still higher.

The sea of Azov.

1107.

Hence it follows that the sea of Azov is the highest part of the
Mediterranean sea, being at a distance of 3500 miles from the
Straits of Gibraltar, as is shown by the map for navigation; and it
has 3500 braccia of descent, that is, one mile and 1/6; therefore it
is higher than any mountains which exist in the West.

[Footnote: The passage before this, in the original, treats of the
exit of the waters from Lakes in general.]

The Dardanelles.

1108.

In the Bosphorus the Black Sea flows always into the Egean sea, and
the Egean sea never flows into it. And this is because the Caspian,
which is 400 miles to the East, with the rivers which pour into it,
always flows through subterranean caves into this sea of Pontus; and
the Don does the same as well as the Danube, so that the waters of
Pontus are always higher than those of the Egean; for the higher
always fall towards the lower, and never the lower towards the
higher.

Constantinople.

1109.

The bridge of Pera at Constantinople, 40 braccia wide, 70 braccia
high above the water, 600 braccia long; that is 400 over the sea and
200 on the land, thus making its own abutments.

[Footnote: See Pl. CX No. 1. In 1453 by order of Sultan Mohamed II.
the Golden Horn was crossed by a pontoon bridge laid on barrels (see
Joh. Dukas' History of the Byzantine Empire XXXVIII p. 279). —The
biographers of Michelangelo, Vasari as well as Condivi, relate that
at the time when Michelangelo suddenly left Rome, in 1506, he
entertained some intention of going to Constantinople, there to
serve the Sultan, who sought to engage him, by means of certain
Franciscan Monks, for the purpose of constructing a bridge to
connect Constantinople with Pera. See VASARI,
Vite
(ed. Sansoni
VII, 168):
Michelangelo, veduto questa furia del papa, dubitando di
lui, ebbe, secondo che si dice, voglia di andarsene in
Gostantinopoli a servire il Turco, per mezzo di certi frati di San
Francesco, che desiderava averlo per fare un ponte che passassi da
Gostantinopoli a Pera.
And CONDIVI,
Vita di M. Buonaroti chap.
30_; Michelangelo allora vedendosi condotto a questo, temendo
dell'ira del papa, penso d'andarsene in Levante; massimamente
essendo stato dal Turco ricercato con grandissime promesse per mezzo
di certi frati di San Francesco, per volersene servire in fare un
ponte da Costantinopoli a Pera ed in altri affari._ Leonardo's plan
for this bridge was made in 1502. We may therefore conclude that at
about that time the Sultan Bajazet II. had either announced a
competition in this matter, or that through his agents Leonardo had
first been called upon to carry out the scheme.]

The Euphrates.

1110.

If the river will turn to the rift farther on it will never return
to its bed, as the Euphrates does, and this may do at Bologna the
one who is disappointed for his rivers.

Centrae Asia.

1111.

Mounts Caucasus, Comedorum, and Paropemisidae are joined together
between Bactria and India, and give birth to the river Oxus which
takes its rise in these mountains and flows 500 miles towards the
North and as many towards the West, and discharges its waters into
the Caspian sea; and is accompanied by the Oxus, Dargados, Arthamis,
Xariaspes, Dargamaim, Ocus and Margus, all very large rivers. From
the opposite side towards the South rises the great river Indus
which sends its waters for 600 miles Southwards and receives as
tributaries in this course the rivers Xaradrus, Hyphasis, Vadris,
Vandabal Bislaspus to the East, Suastes and Coe to the West, uniting
with these rivers, and with their waters it flows 800 miles to the
West; then, turning back by the Arbiti mountains makes an elbow and
turns Southwards, where after a course of about 100 miles it finds
the Indian Sea, in which it pours itself by seven branches. On the
side of the same mountains rises the great Ganges, which river flows
Southwards for 500 miles and to the Southwest a thousand … and
Sarabas, Diarnuna, Soas and Scilo, Condranunda are its tributaries.
It flows into the Indian sea by many mouths.