Notebooks (9 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
Of the configuration of the elements; and first against those who deny the opinion of Plato, saying that if these elements invest one another in the forms which Plato* attributed to them a vacuum would be caused between one and the other. I say this is not true, and I here prove it, but first I desire to propound some conclusions. It is not necessary that the elements which invest one another be of corresponding size in all the parts that invest and are invested. We see that the sphere of the water is manifestly of varying depth from its surface to its bottom; and that it not only would invest the earth when that was in the form of a cube, that is, of eight angles, as Plato will have it; but that it invests the earth which has innumerable angles of rocks and various prominencies and concavities, and yet no vacuum is generated between the earth and the water; again, the air invests the sphere of water together with the mountains and valleys which rise above that sphere, and no vacuum remains between the earth and the air, so that anyone who says that a vacuum is there generated speaks foolishly.
To Plato I would reply that the surfaces of the figures which the elements would have according to him could not exist. Every flexible and liquid element has of necessity its spherical surface. This is proved with the sphere of water. Let me begin by setting forth certain conceptions and conclusions. That thing is higher which is more remote from the centre of the world, and that is lower which is nearer to the centre. Water does not move of itself unless it descends and in moving it descends. These four conceptions, linked two by two, serve to prove that water that does not move of itself has its surface equidistant to the centre of the world, speaking of the great masses and not of drops or other small quantities that attract one another as the steel its filings.
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The bodies of the elements are united and in them there is neither gravity nor lightness. Gravity and lightness are produced in the mixture of the elements.
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[
With a drawing of four concentric circles enclosing the four elements and a weight placed on top.
]
With a drawing of four concentric circles enclosing the four elements and a weight placed on top.
]
Why does not the weight remain in its place?
It does not remain because it has no support.
Where will it move to? It will move towards the centre. And why by no other lines? Because a weight which has no support falls by the shortest road to the lowest point, which is the centre of the world. And why does the weight know how to find it by so short a line? Because it does not go like a senseless thing and does not move about in various directions.
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The watery element will be pent up within the raised banks of the rivers and the shores of the sea. Hence the encircling air will have to envelop and circumscribe an increased and more complicated structure of earth; and this great mass of earth suspended between the element of water and fire will be hampered and deprived of the necessary supply of moisture. Hence the rivers will remain without their waters; the fertile earth will put forth no more garlands of leaves; the fields will no more be decked with waving corn; all the animals, finding no fresh grass for pasture, will perish; food will be lacking to the ravening lions and wolves and other beasts of prey; and men after many desperate shifts will be forced to abandon their life, and the human race will cease to be. In this way the fertile and fruitful earth being deserted will be left arid and sterile; but owing to the water being confined in its womb, and owing to the activity of nature, it will continue for a little while in its law of growth, until the cold and rarefied air has disappeared. Then the earth will be forced to close with the element of fire and its surface will be burnt to cinders, and this will be the end of all terrestrial nature.
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1. WATER5
Water held a great fascination for Leonardo. He looked upon it as the driving force of the universe and thought that he might solve the mysteries of creation by studying the laws of its movement through earth and air.
Drawings and memoranda scattered over manuscripts of different dates show that the subject absorbed his attention more or less continuously. We can see him walking, notebook in hand, along the seashore contemplating the ebb and flow of the tides, the winds as they trouble the surface of the water, the surge of the waves, the drift of the sands; or he might be standing by the riverside watching the currents and eddies and inspecting the deposits on the banks; or lingering by a stagnant pond looking at the reflections, the lustre on plants, and the play of the fish beneath. He would throw a stone into the still water and compare the ever-widening circles on the surface with waves of sound ringing through the air. Another time he may be walking up a mountain valley in order to trace a brook to its source while observing the waterfalls and the ceaseless grinding of rocks and pebbles.
The existence of marine shells and fossils inland and at high altitudes and the varying strata of soil or rock led him to conceive of streams as chief agents in the formation of the earth’s surface, and he foreshadowed the conception of gradual evolution. As an engineer he embarked on schemes of canalization, irrigation, and drainage and the utilization of water-power for pumping, sawing, and grinding. As an architect he designed fountains and landscape gardens. As an artist he loved to introduce streams winding through rock formations into his backgrounds, for he claimed that the painter can represent both the human figure and inanimate nature, that man must be visualized as forming part of creation. His imaginative description of the Deluge (see pp. 178- 84) draws a picture of the destructive power of this element. He also wrote a book on
The Nature of Water
, which lay in his room when the Cardinal of Aragon paid him a visit at Amboise in 1517 (see p. 356). A manuscript entitled ‘On the Nature, Weight and Movement of Waters’ is now known as the Leicester Codex (Bill and Melinda Gates Collection).
The Nature of Water
, which lay in his room when the Cardinal of Aragon paid him a visit at Amboise in 1517 (see p. 356). A manuscript entitled ‘On the Nature, Weight and Movement of Waters’ is now known as the Leicester Codex (Bill and Melinda Gates Collection).
Water is the driver of nature.
Water, which is the vital humour of the terrestrial machine, moves by its own natural heat.
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Write first of all water, in each of its motions, then describe all its bottoms and their various materials, referring always to the propositions concerning the said waters; and let the order be good, as otherwise the work will be confused. Describe all the shapes that water assumes from its greatest to its smallest wave, and their causes.
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Divisions of the book
Book 1 of the nature of water
Book 2 of the sea
Book 3 of subterranean rivers
Book 4 of rivers
Book 5 of the nature of the depths
Book 6 of the obstacles
Book 7 of gravels
Book 8 of the surface of water
Book 9 of the things that move on it
Book 10 of the repairing of rivers
Book 11 of conduits
Book 12 of canals
Book 13 of machines turned by water
Book 14 of raising water
Book 15 of the things which are consumed by water.
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From the Order of the Book of Water
Whether the flow and ebb are caused by the moon or sun or are the breaking of this machine of the earth. How the flow and ebb differ in different countries.
How in the end the mountains will be levelled by the waters, seeing that they wash away the earth which covers them and uncover their rocks, which begin to crumble and subdued alike by heat and frost are being continually changed into soil. The waters wear away their bases and the mountains fall bit by bit in ruin into the rivers . . . and by reason of this ruin the waters rise in a swirling flood and form great seas.
How in violent tempests the waves throw down every light thing and suck much earth into the sea, which causes the water of the sea to be turbid over a wide space.
How loose stones at the base of wide, steep-sided valleys when they have been struck by the waves become rounded bodies, and many things do likewise when pushed or sucked into the sea by the waves.
How the waves quieten down and make long stretches of calm water within the sea without movement when two opposite winds meet.
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The Order of the First Book on Water
Define first what is meant by weight and depth; also how the elements are situated one inside another. Then what is meant by solid weight and liquid weight; but first what weight and lightness are in themselves. Then describe why water moves, and why its motion ceases; then why it becomes slower or more rapid.
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Of the four elements water is the second in weight and the second in respect of mobility. It is never at rest until it unites with the sea, where, when undisturbed by the winds, it establishes itself and remains with its surface equidistant from the centre of the world.
It readily raises itself by heat in thin vapour through the air. Cold causes it to freeze. Stagnation makes it foul. That is, heat sets it in motion, cold causes it to freeze, immobility corrupts it.
It is the expansion and humour of all vital bodies. Without it nothing retains its form. By its inflow it unites and augments bodies.
It assumes every odour, colour, and flavour and of itself it has nothing.
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Water is by its weight the second element that encompasses the earth, and that part of it which is outside its sphere will seek with rapidity to return there. And the further it is raised above the position of its element the greater the speed with which it will descend to it. Its qualities are dampness and cold. It is its nature to search always for the low-lying places when without restraint. Readily it rises up in steam and mist, and changed into cloud it falls again in rain as the minute parts of the cloud assemble and form drops. At different altitudes it assumes different forms, namely water or snow or hail. It is constantly buffeted by the movement of the air, and it attaches itself to that body on which the cold has most effect, and it takes with ease odours and flavours.
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It is not possible to describe the process of the movement of water unless one first defines what gravitation is and how it is created or dies. . . .
If the whole sea rests and supports itself upon its bed, the part of the sea rests upon the part of the bed; and as the water has weight when out of its element it should weigh down and press upon the things that rest on its bed. But there we see the contrary; for the seaweed and grass that is growing in these depths are neither bent nor crushed upon the bottom but they cleave the water readily as though they were growing within air.
So we arrive at this conclusion: that all the elements, though they are without weight in their own sphere, possess weight outside their sphere, that is, when moved away towards the sky, but not when moved towards the centre of the earth. Because if an element moves towards this centre it encounters another element heavier than itself, whose thinnest and lightest part is touching an element lighter than itself, and whose heavier part is placed near the element that is heavier than itself.
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That power shows itself greater which is impressed upon a lesser resistance. This conclusion is universal and we may apply it to the flow and ebb in order to prove that the sun or moon impresses itself more on its object, that is, on the waters, when these are less deep. Therefore the shallow, swampy waters ought to react more strongly to the cause of the flow and ebb than the great depths of the ocean.
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This wears down the high summits of the mountains. This lays bare and removes the great rocks. This drives the sea from its ancient shores, for it raises its bottom with the soil that it brings. This shatters and destroys the high banks. In this no stability can ever be discerned which its nature does not at once bring to naught. It seeks with its rivers every sloping valley where it carries off or deposits fresh soil. Therefore it may be said that there are many rivers through which all the element has passed and have returned the sea to the sea many times. And no part of the earth is so high but that the sea has been at its foundations, and no depth of the sea is so low but that the highest mountains have their bases there. And so it is now sharp and now strong, now acid and now bitter, now sweet and now thick or thin, now it is seen bringing damage or pestilence and then health or, again, poison. So one might say that it changes into as many natures as are the different places through which it passes. And as the mirror changes with the colour of its objects so this changes with the nature of the place where it passes: health-giving, harmful, laxative, astringent, sulphurous, salt, sanguine, depressed, raging, angry, red, yellow, green, black, blue, oily, thick, thin. Now it brings a conflagration, then it extinguishes; is warm and is cold; now it carries away, then it sets down, now it hollows out, then it raises up, now it tears down, then it establishes, now it fills up and then it empties, now it rises and then it deepens, now it speeds and then lies still, now it is the cause of life and then of death, now of production and then of privation, now it nourishes and then does the contrary, now it is salt and then is without savour, and now with great floods it submerges the wide valleys. With time everything changes. Now it turns to the northern parts eating away the base of its banks; now it overthrows the opposite bank on the south; now it turns to the centre of the earth consuming the bottom which supports it; now it leaps up seething and boiling towards the sky. Now it confounds its course by revolving in a circle, and now it extends on the western side and robs the husbandmen of their tilth, and then it deposits the taken soil on the eastern side. And thus at times it digs out and at times fills in, as it takes and as it deposits. Thus, without rest it is ever removing and consuming her borders. So at times it is turbulent and goes raving in fury, at times clear and tranquil it flows playfully with gentle course among fresh meadows. At times it falls from the sky in rain or snow or hail, at times forms great clouds of fine mist. At times it is moved of itself, at times by the force of others; at times it supports the things that are born by its life-giving moisture, at times shows itself fetid or full of pleasant odours. Without it nothing can exist among us. At times it is bathed in the hot element and dissolving into vapour becomes mingled with the air, and drawn upwards by the heat it rises until it reaches the cold region and is pressed closer together by its contrary nature, and the minute particles become attached together. As when the hand under water squeezes a sponge which is well saturated so that the water therein escapes through the crevices and drives the rest from its position by its wave, so it is with the cold which the warm moisture compresses. For when reduced to a denser form the air that is pent up within it breaks by force the weakest part and hisses just as though it was coming out of bellows that are pressed down by an insupportable weight. And thus the lighter clouds which in various positions form obstacles in its course are driven away.
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