Notebooks (59 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
Giordano, De Ponderibus.*
The conciliator, the flow and ebb of the sea—
Have two boxes made to go on a pack saddle
Look to Boltraffio’s lathe and have a stone taken away
Leave the book for Messer Andrea Tedesco
Make a balance with a cock and weigh the substance when heated and then weigh it again cold
The mirror of Master Luigi
Oil, rock oil;
[
With a drawing
.]
With a drawing
.]
a. b.
the flow and ebb of the waters; proved at the mill of Vaprio That power shows itself to be greater which is impressed upon a weaker substance.
the flow and ebb of the waters; proved at the mill of Vaprio That power shows itself to be greater which is impressed upon a weaker substance.
This conclusion is universal and applies to the flow and ebb to prove that the sun or moon impresses itself so much the more upon the waters as they are of less depth; and therefore the shallow waters of marshes must receive the cause of the ebb and flow with greater efficacy than do the mighty depths of the ocean.
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Of the power of a vacuum formed instantaneously.
I saw at Milan a thunderbolt strike the Torre della Credenza on its northern side, and it descended with a slow movement down that side and then suddenly parted from that tower and carried with it and tore away a part of the wall, three braccia in breadth and length and two in depth; and this wall was four braccia thick and was built of old bricks, thin and small.
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His love of animals and the belief that plants afford sufficient nutriment for man induced him to forgo animal food (cf. p. 354).
‘King of animals’ as thou hast been described. I should rather say ‘king of beasts’, thou being the greatest, because thou dost only help them in order that they may give thee their children for the benefit of the gullet, of which thou hast tried to make a sepulchre for all animals. . . .
Now does not nature produce enough simple [i.e. vegetarian] food for thee to satisfy thyself? And if thou art not content with such canst thou not by the mixture of them make infinite compounds, as Platina* describes and other writers on food.
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V. ROMAN PERIOD (1513-1516)162
In September 1512 a bloodless revolution in Florence permitted the return of the Medici. Giuliano de’ Medici, known as ‘Il Magnifico’, was placed at the head of the state; and in March of the following year his brother Giovanni was elected Pope Leo X. Giuliano became
gonfaloniere
of the papal forces. The rise of the Medici to power induced Leonardo to leave Milan for Rome in the hope of finding a more fruitful field for work under the patronage of the two art-loving sons of Lorenzo de’ Medici who would surely remember his Florentine origin and fame. His decision was taken after the exhausted French garrison had abandoned the Castello Sforzesco in Milan on 19 September 1513 and there did not seem any likelihood of an early return of the French, who had been his patrons.
gonfaloniere
of the papal forces. The rise of the Medici to power induced Leonardo to leave Milan for Rome in the hope of finding a more fruitful field for work under the patronage of the two art-loving sons of Lorenzo de’ Medici who would surely remember his Florentine origin and fame. His decision was taken after the exhausted French garrison had abandoned the Castello Sforzesco in Milan on 19 September 1513 and there did not seem any likelihood of an early return of the French, who had been his patrons.
I left Milan for Rome on the 24th day of September 1513 with. Giovanni, Francesco Melzi, Salaì, Lorenzo and il Fanfoia.
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In crossing the Apennines he passed the Sasso della Vernia, described by Dante as ‘the frowning rock between the sources of the rivers Arno and Tiber’. On his way he looked out for fossils.
And I found some shells in the rocks of the high Apennines and mostly at the rock of La Vernia.
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The ancient bottoms of the sea have become mountain ridges.
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163
In Rome Leonardo was lodged in the Belvedere, a luxurious summer palace built on the top of the Vatican Hill. His patron, Giuliano de’ Medici, was interested in art and science, but was weak and unstable.
Finished on the seventh day of July at the twenty-third hour at the Belvedere in the studio given me by the Magnifico. 1514.
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It is not known what work was completed on this date.
At this time the Pope had found in Raphael an artist entirely to his taste. A story told by Vasari reveals his attitude to Leonardo, to whom he had given a commission to paint a picture. ‘On learning that he had set out by experimenting on the varnish he proposed to use, the Pope exclaimed: “Alas, this man will never get anything done, for he is thinking about the end before he begins.” ’ Two Germans in Leonardo’s employment were the source of much irritation, as is revealed in the following drafts of letters addressed to Il Magnifico. Among other complaints he states that his anatomical studies at the Ospedale di Santo Spirito were being misinterpreted. These notes give a sad picture of Leonardo’s life in Rome. It was a period when his hopes of employment had been frustrated and his nerves were reacting to the misbehaviour of an apprentice.
So greatly did I rejoice, most illustrious Lord, at the desired restoration of your health that my own malady almost left me. But I greatly regret that I have been unable to satisfy completely the wishes of Your Excellency by reason of the wickedness of that German deceiver, for whom I have left nothing undone which I thought might give him pleasure, and at first I invited him to lodge and board with me so that I should constantly see the work he was doing and with greater ease correct his errors, and moreover he would learn the Italian tongue, and so be able to talk with greater ease without an interpreter.
At first his moneys were always given him in advance of the time, then he asked that he might have the models finished in wood, just as they were to be finished in iron, and wished to carry them away to his own country. But this I refused, telling him that I would give in drawing the width, length, height and form of what he had to do, so we remained at ill will. The next thing was that in the room where he slept he made himself another workshop with pincers and tools and there he worked for others; afterwards he went to dine with the Swiss of the Guard where there are idle fellows, but he beat them all at it; then he used to go out and often two or three of them went together with guns to shoot birds among the ruins, and this went on until the evening. . . .
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As I saw that he was seldom in the workshop, and consumed a great deal, I sent him word that if he liked I could make a bargain with him for whatever he made and would give him what we might agree to be a fair valuation; he took counsel with his neighbour and gave up his room, selling everything and went to find . . .
This other has hindered me in anatomy blaming it before the Pope and likewise at the hospital; and he has filled the whole Belvedere with workshops of mirrors and workmen; and he has done the same thing in Maestro Giorgio’s room. . . .
He never did any work without discussing it every day with Giovanni, who then spread the news of it and proclaimed it everywhere, stating that he was a master of such art: and as regards the part which he did not understand he announced that I did not know what I wanted to do, thus shifting the blame of his ignorance upon me. I cannot make anything secretly because of him for the other is always at his elbow, since the one room leads into the other. But his whole intent was to get possession of these rooms in order to get to work on the mirrors. And if I set him there to make my model of a curved one he would publish it.
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Leonardo evidently wished to keep his experiments to himself and could not trust his workmen. The model of a curved mirror, referred to above, may have some connection with a projected arrangement of lenses to serve as telescope or to his studies of convex and concave mirrors. His notebooks contain sketches of machines for grinding and polishing lenses.
As I propose to treat of the nature of the moon, it is necessary that I first describe the perspective of mirrors, whether plane, concave, or convex.
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Construct glasses to see the moon magnified.
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168
[
With plans
.]
With plans
.]
Stable for the Magnifico . . . one hundred and ten braccia long and forty braccia wide . . . the lower part is divided into thirty-four rows for horses and each of these rows is divided into thirty-two spaces, called intercolumnar, each of which can accommodate two horses with a swing-bar interposed between them. This stable therefore can accommodate 128 horses.
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The following note was accompanied by drawings of a hand-operated mint, built to stamp coins for the Papal State. One side of the apparatus cut the metal disk and the other side stamped the impression.
Mint at Rome
All coins which do not have the rim complete are not to be accepted as good; and to secure the perfection of their rim it is requisite above everything that all coins should be a perfect circle; and be made perfect in weight, size and thickness.
Therefore have several plates of metal made of this same width and thickness all drawn through the same gauge so as to come out in strips. And out of these strips you will stamp the coins, quite round, as sieves are made for sorting chestnuts; and these coins can then be stamped in the way indicated above &c. . . .
This cuts the coins perfectly round and of the exact thickness and weight; and saves the man who cuts and weighs and the man who makes the coins round. It therefore passes only through the hands of the gauger and of the stamper, and the coins are very superior.
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In the autumn of 1514 Leonardo made a trip to Lombardy, perhaps to look after his vineyard. He put up at an inn at Parma.
At the Campana at Parma on the 25th day of September, 1514.
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On the banks of the Po near S. Angelo on the 27th day of September 1514.
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At the end of the year Leonardo had returned to Rome. In a letter dated 14 December 1514 his sister-in-law Alessandra, writing to her husband Ser Giuliano da Vinci in Rome, sent greetings to Leonardo, ‘a very excellent and most singular man’. On the back of this sheet Leonardo noted that his book on ‘Voice’ was in the hands of Gian Battista Branconi, who was a confidential member of the papal court, and a friend of Raphael. This book may have been submitted to the Pope in order to prove the absence of every element of heresy or scandal from his anatomical studies. It contained a description of the structure of the mouth and throat and of the mechanism of human speech.
Messer Battista dell’ Aquila has my book ‘de vocie’ in his hands.
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173
The same treatise is mentioned again in a notebook that Leonardo used during this time.
‘De Vocie’—why a swift wind passing through the pipes makes a shrill sound.
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During his stay in Rome Leonardo made excursions into the neighbourhood, pursuing his interest in geology.
Let them show you where are the shells on Monte Mario.
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His project for draining the Pontine Marshes probably dates from this time. He drew a careful map of the district which is now at Windsor.
The Magnifico Giuliano de’ Medici left [Rome] on the 9th of January 1515 at daybreak to take a wife in Savoy; on the same day fell the death of the King of France.
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Leonardo here records the receipt of the news of the death of his former patron Louis XII on 1 January 1515. His successor Francis I set out at once to recover the duchy of Milan and won the battle of Marignano in September of that year.
On 14 December 1515 Pope Leo X held a secret conference with King Francis at Bologna, and Leonardo may have met the king for the first time, who some months later was to induce him to come to France. A statement in the Vatican archives regarding Leonardo’s expenses at Bologna records that he received 33 ducats for himself and 7 ducats for Giorgio, the German, 40 ducats in all.
The Pope travelled via Civitavecchia, and Leonardo’s notes on the antique ruins of the harbour may have been made on that journey. He profited by the visit in order to make a close inspection of antique Roman methods of construction.
[
With drawings
.]
With drawings
.]
. . . Like this are the stones standing in front of the mole in the harbour of Civitavecchia. . . . A block is ten braccia wide and 12 long and half a braccio deep built of mortar and slabs of tenacious tufa spongy and hard, tenacious in themselves without crumbling, and the surface of this cement is well plastered with perfect mortar and sand. The above mentioned half braccio of concavity is filled with big and hard gravel half a braccio deep, and over this gravel is placed a layer of mortar and minute pieces of brick, and this is a third of a braccio deep, over which the mosaic is laid with various designs of foliage and groups of stones in various colours; and these are the floors of the imperial rooms, built over the mole of the port; in front of these rooms were porticoes with big columns to which the ships were tied. And in front of this portico were nine steps down to the water: that is 3 braccia.
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