The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (48 page)

[11]There should be fountains made in each piazza[13].

[Footnote: In the original this text comes immediately after the
passage given as No. 744. The remainder of the writing on the same
page refers to the construction of canals and is given later, in the
"Topographical Notes".

Lines 1-11 are written to the right of the plan lines 11-13
underneath it. J. P. R.]

[Footnote 10:
Romolontino
is Romorantin, South of Orleans in
France.]

_III. Castles and Villas.

A. Castles.

Pl. LXXX, No. 1 (P. V. fol. 39b; No. d'ordre 2282). The fortified
place here represented is said by Vallardi to be the_ "castello"
at
Milan, but without any satisfactory reason. The high tower behind
the
"rivellino" _ravelin—seems to be intended as a watch-tower.

Pl. LXXX, No. 2 (MS. B, 23b). A similarly constructed tower probably
intended for the same use.

Pl. LXXX, No. 3 (MS. B). Sketches for corner towers with steps for a
citadel.

Pl. LXXX, No. 4 (W. XVI). A cupola crowning a corner tower; an
interesting example of decorative fortification. In this
reproduction of the original pen and ink drawing it appears
reversed.

B. Projects for Palaces.

Pl. LXXXI, No. 2 (MS. C. A, 75b; 221a, see No. 748). Project for a
royal residence at Amboise in France.

Pl. LXXXII, No. 1 (C. A 308a; 939a). A plan for a somewhat extensive
residence, and various details; but there is no text to elucidate
it; in courts are written the three names:

Sam cosi giova
(St. Mark)
(Cosmo)
(John)
,
arch mo nino

C. Plans for small castles or Villas.

The three following sketches greatly resemble each other. Pl.
LXXXII, No. 2 (MS. K3 36b; see No. 749)._

_Pl. LXXXII, No. 3 (MS. B 60a; See No. 750).

Pl. LXXXIII (W. XVII). The text on this sheet refers to Cyprus (see
Topographical Notes No. 1103), but seems to have no direct
connection with the sketches inserted between.

Pl. LXXXVIII, Nos. 6 and 7 (MS. B, 12a; see No. 751). A section of a
circular pavilion with the plan of a similar building by the side of
it. These two drawings have a special historical interest because
the text written below mentions the Duke and Duchess of Milan.

The sketch of a villa on a terrace at the end of a garden occurs in
C. A. 150; and in C. A. 77b; 225b is another sketch of a villa
somewhat resembling the_ Belvedere _of Pope Innocent VIII, at Rome.
In C. A. 62b; 193b there is a Loggia.

Pl. LXXXII, No. 4 (C. A. 387a; 1198a) is a tower-shaped_ Loggia
above a fountain. The machinery is very ingeniously screened from
view.

748.

The Palace of the prince must have a piazza in front of it.

Houses intended for dancing or any kind of jumping or any other
movements with a multitude of people, must be on the ground- floor;
for I have already witnessed the destruction of some, causing death
to many persons, and above all let every wall, be it ever so thin,
rest on the ground or on arches with a good foundation.

Let the mezzanines of the dwellings be divided by walls made of very
thin bricks, and without wood on account of fire.

Let all the privies have ventilation [by shafts] in the thickness of
the walls, so as to exhale by the roofs.

The mezzanines should be vaulted, and the vaults will be stronger in
proportion as they are of small size.

The ties of oak must be enclosed in the walls in order to be
protected from fire.

[Footnote: The remarks accompanying the plan reproduced on Pl.
LXXXI, No. 2 are as follows: Above, to the left: "
in
a
angholo
stia la guardia de la sstalla
" (in the angle
a
may be the keeper
of the stable). Below are the words "
strada dabosa
" (road to
Amboise), parallel with this "
fossa br 40
" (the moat 40 braccia)
fixing the width of the moat. In the large court surrounded by a
portico "
in terre No.—Largha br.80 e lugha br 120
." To the right
of the castle is a large basin for aquatic sports with the words
"
Giostre colle nave cioe li giostra li stieno sopra le na
"
(Jousting in boats that is the men are to be in boats). J. P. R.]

The privies must be numerous and going one into the other in order
that the stench may not penetrate into the dwellings., and all their
doors must shut off themselves with counterpoises.

The main division of the facade of this palace is into two portions;
that is to say the width of the court-yard must be half the whole
facade; the 2nd …

749.

30 braccia wide on each side; the lower entrance leads into a hall
10 braccia wide and 30 braccia long with 4 recesses each with a
chimney.

[Footnote: On each side of the castle, Pl. LXXXII. No. 2 there are
drawings of details, to the left "
Camino
" a chimney, to the right
the central lantern, sketched in red "
8 lati
"
i.e.
an octagon.]

750.

The firststorey [or terrace] must be entirely solid.

751.

The pavilion in the garden of the Duchess of Milan.

The plan of the pavilion which is in the middle of the labyrinth of
the Duke of Milan.

[Footnote: This passage was first published by AMORETTI in
Memorie
Storiche
Cap. X: Una sua opera da riportarsi a quest' anno fu il
bagno fatto per la duchessa Beatrice nel parco o giardino del
Castello. Lionardo non solo ne disegno il piccolo edifizio a foggia
di padiglione, nel cod. segnato Q. 3, dandone anche separatamente la
pianta; ma sotto vi scrisse: Padiglione del giardino della duchessa;
e sotto la pianta: Fondamento del padiglione ch'e nel mezzo del
labirinto del duca di Milano; nessuna data e presso il padiglione,
disegnato nella pagina 12, ma poco sopra fra molti circoli
intrecciati vedesi = 10 Luglio 1492 = e nella pagina 2 presso ad
alcuni disegni di legumi qualcheduno ha letto Settembre 1482 in vece
di 1492, come dovea scriverevi, e probabilmente scrisse Lionardo.

The original text however hardly bears the interpretation put upon
it by AMORETTI. He is mistaken as to the mark on the MS. as well as
in his statements as to the date, for the MS. in question has no
date; the date he gives occurs, on the contrary, in another
note-book. Finally, it appears to me quite an open question whether
Leonardo was the architect who carried out the construction of the
dome-like Pavilion here shown in section, or of the ground plan of
the Pavilion drawn by the side of it. Must we, in fact, suppose that
"
il duca di Milano
" here mentioned was, as has been generally
assumed, Ludovico il Moro? He did not hold this title from the
Emperor before 1494; till that date he was only called
Governatore
and Leonardo in speaking of him, mentions him generally as "
il
Moro
" even after 1494. On January 18, 1491, he married Beatrice
d'Este the daughter of Ercole I, Duke of Ferrara. She died on the
2nd January 1497, and for the reasons I have given it seems
improbable that it should be this princess who is here spoken of as
the "
Duchessa di Milano
". From the style of the handwriting it
appears to me to be beyond all doubt that the MS. B, from which this
passage is taken, is older than the dated MSS. of 1492 and 1493. In
that case the Duke of Milan here mentioned would be Gian Galeazzo
(1469-1494) and the Duchess would be his wife Isabella of Aragon, to
whom he was married on the second February 1489. J. P. R.]

752.

The earth that is dug out from the cellars must be raised on one
side so high as to make a terrace garden as high as the level of the
hall; but between the earth of the terrace and the wall of the
house, leave an interval in order that the damp may not spoil the
principal walls.

_IV. Ecclesiastical Architecture.

A. General Observations._

753.

A building should always be detached on all sides so that its form
may be seen.

[Footnote: The original text is reproduced on Pl. XCII, No. 1 to the
left hand at the bottom.]

754.

Here there cannot and ought not to be any
campanile
; on the
contrary it must stand apart like that of the Cathedral and of San
Giovanni at Florence, and of the Cathedral at Pisa, where the
campanile is quite detached as well as the dome. Thus each can
display its own perfection. If however you wish to join it to the
church, make the lantern serve for the campanile as in the church at
Chiaravalle.

[Footnote: This text is written by the side of the plan given on Pl.
XCI. No. 2.]

[Footnote 12: The Abbey of Chiaravalle, a few miles from Milan, has
a central tower on the intersection of the cross in the style of
that of the Certosa of Pavia, but the style is mediaeval (A. D.
1330). Leonardo seems here to mean, that in a building, in which the
circular form is strongly conspicuous, the campanile must either be
separated, or rise from the centre of the building and therefore
take the form of a lantern.]

755.

It never looks well to see the roofs of a church; they should rather
be flat and the water should run off by gutters made in the frieze.

[Footnote: This text is to the left of the domed church reproduced
on Pl. LXXXVII, No. 2.]

_B. The theory of Dome Architecture.

This subject has been more extensively treated by Leonardo in
drawings than in writing. Still we may fairly assume that it was his
purpose, ultimately to embody the results of his investigation in a_
"Trattato delle Cupole." _The amount of materials is remarkably
extensive. MS. B is particularly rich in plans and elevations of
churches with one or more domes—from the simplest form to the most
complicated that can be imagined. Considering the evident connexion
between a great number of these sketches, as well as the
impossibility of seeing in them designs or preparatory sketches for
any building intended to be erected, the conclusion is obvious that
they were not designed for any particular monument, but were
theoretical and ideal researches, made in order to obtain a clear
understanding of the laws which must govern the construction of a
great central dome, with smaller ones grouped round it; and with or
without the addition of spires, so that each of these parts by
itself and in its juxtaposition to the other parts should produce
the grandest possible effect.

In these sketches Leonardo seems to have exhausted every imaginable
combination. [Footnote 1: In MS. B, 32b (see Pl. C III, No. 2) we
find eight geometrical patterns, each drawn in a square; and in MS.
C.A., fol. 87 to 98 form a whole series of patterns done with the
same intention.] The results of some of these problems are perhaps
not quite satisfactory; still they cannot be considered to give
evidence of a want of taste or of any other defect in Leonardo s
architectural capacity. They were no doubt intended exclusively for
his own instruction, and, before all, as it seems, to illustrate the
features or consequences resulting from a given principle._

I have already, in another place,
[Footnote 1: Les Projets
Primitifs pour la Basilique de St. Pierre de Rome, par Bramante,
Raphael etc.,Vol. I, p. 2.] _pointed out the law of construction for
buildings crowned by a large dome: namely, that such a dome, to
produce the greatest effect possible, should rise either from the
centre of a Greek cross, or from the centre of a structure of which
the plan has some symmetrical affinity to a circle, this circle
being at the same time the centre of the whole plan of the building.

Leonardo's sketches show that he was fully aware, as was to be
expected, of this truth. Few of them exhibit the form of a Latin
cross, and when this is met with, it generally gives evidence of the
determination to assign as prominent a part as possible to the dome
in the general effect of the building.

While it is evident, on the one hand, that the greater number of
these domes had no particular purpose, not being designed for
execution, on the other hand several reasons may be found for
Leonardo's perseverance in his studies of the subject.

Besides the theoretical interest of the question for Leonardo and
his_ Trattato
and besides the taste for domes prevailing at that
time, it seems likely that the intended erection of some building of
the first importance like the Duomos of Pavia and Como, the church
of Sta. Maria delle Grazie at Milan, and the construction of a Dome
or central Tower
(Tiburio) _on the cathedral of Milan, may have
stimulated Leonardo to undertake a general and thorough
investigation of the subject; whilst Leonardo's intercourse with
Bramante for ten years or more, can hardly have remained without
influence in this matter. In fact now that some of this great
Architect's studies for S. Peter's at Rome have at last become
known, he must be considered henceforth as the greatest master of
Dome-Architecture that ever existed. His influence, direct or
indirect even on a genius like Leonardo seems the more likely, since
Leonardo's sketches reveal a style most similar to that of Bramante,
whose name indeed, occurs twice in Leonardo's manuscript notes. It
must not be forgotten that Leonardo was a Florentine; the
characteristic form of the two principal domes of Florence, Sta.
Maria del Fiore and the Battisterio, constantly appear as leading
features in his sketches.

The church of San Lorenzo at Milan, was at that time still intact.
The dome is to this day one of the most wonderful cupolas ever
constructed, and with its two smaller domes might well attract the
attention and study of a never resting genius such as Leonardo. A
whole class of these sketches betray in fact the direct influence of
the church of S. Lorenzo, and this also seems to have suggested the
plan of Bramante's dome of St. Peter's at Rome.