The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (52 page)

[Footnote: See Pl. CI, no. 1, and compare the dimensions here given,
with No. 748 lines 26-29; and the drawing belonging to it Pl. LXXXI,
no. 2.]

On the dispositions of a stable.

761.

The manner in which one must arrange a stable. You must first divide
its width in 3 parts, its depth matters not; and let these 3
divisions be equal and 6 braccia broad for each part and 10 high,
and the middle part shall be for the use of the stablemasters; the 2
side ones for the horses, each of which must be 6 braccia in width
and 6 in length, and be half a braccio higher at the head than
behind. Let the manger be at 2 braccia from the ground, to the
bottom of the rack, 3 braccia, and the top of it 4 braccia. Now, in
order to attain to what I promise, that is to make this place,
contrary to the general custom, clean and neat: as to the upper part
of the stable, i. e. where the hay is, that part must have at its
outer end a window 6 braccia high and 6 broad, through which by
simple means the hay is brought up to the loft, as is shown by the
machine
E
; and let this be erected in a place 6 braccia wide, and
as long as the stable, as seen at
k p
. The other two parts, which
are on either side of this, are again divided; those nearest to the
hay-loft are 4 braccia,
p s
, and only for the use and circulation
of the servants belonging to the stable; the other two which reach
to the outer walls are 2 braccia, as seen at
s k
, and these are
made for the purpose of giving hay to the mangers, by means of
funnels, narrow at the top and wide over the manger, in order that
the hay should not choke them. They must be well plastered and clean
and are represented at 4
f s
. As to the giving the horses water,
the troughs must be of stone and above them [cisterns of] water. The
mangers may be opened as boxes are uncovered by raising the lids.
[Footnote: See Pl. LXXVIII, No.1.]

Decorations for feasts.

762.

The way in which the poles ought to be placed for tying bunches of
juniper on to them. These poles must lie close to the framework of
the vaulting and tie the bunches on with osier withes, so as to clip
them even afterwards with shears.

Let the distance from one circle to another be half a braccia; and
the juniper [sprigs] must lie top downwards, beginning from below.

Round this column tie four poles to which willows about as thick as
a finger must be nailed and then begin from the bottom and work
upwards with bunches of juniper sprigs, the tops downwards, that is
upside down. [Footnote: See Pl. CII, No. 3. The words here given as
the title line, lines 1—4, are the last in the original MS.—Lines
5—16 are written under fig. 4.]

763.

The water should be allowed to fall from the whole circle
a b
.
[Footnote: Other drawings of fountains are given on Pl. CI (W. XX);
the original is a pen and ink drawing on blue paper; on Pl. CIII
(MS. B.) and Pl. LXXXII.]

VI. Studies of architectural details.

Several of Leonardo's drawings of architectural details prove that,
like other great masters of that period, he had devoted his
attention to the study of the proportion of such details. As every
organic being in nature has its law of construction and growth,
these masters endeavoured, each in his way, to discover and prove a
law of proportion in architecture. The following notes in Leonardo's
manuscripts refer to this subject.

MS. S. K. M. Ill, 47b (see Fig. 1). A diagram, indicating the rules
as given by Vitruvius and by Leon Battista Alberti for the
proportions of the Attic base of a column.

MS. S. K. M. Ill 55a (see Fig. 2). Diagram showing the same rules.

764.

B toro superiore . . . . . toro superiore
2B nestroli . . . . . . astragali quadre
3B orbiculo . . . . . . . . troclea
4B nestroli . . . . . . astragali quadre
5B toro iferiore . . . . . . toro iferiore
6B latastro . . . . . . . . plintho

[Footnote: No explanation can be offered of the meaning of the
letter B, which precedes each name. It may be meant for
basa
(base). Perhaps it refers to some author on architecture or an
architect (Bramante?) who employed the designations, thus marked for
the mouldings. 3.
troclea.
Philander:
Trochlea sive trochalia aut
rechanum.
6.
Laterculus
or
latastrum
is the Latin name for
Plinthus
(pi lambda Xiv) but Vitruvius adopted this Greek name
and "latastro" seems to have been little in use. It is to be found
besides the text given above, as far as I am aware, only two
drawings of the Uffizi Collection, where in one instance, it
indicates the
abacus
of a Doric capital.]

765.

The plinth must be as broad as the thickness of the wall against
which the plinth is built. [Footnote: See Pl. CX No. 3. The hasty
sketch on the right hand side illustrates the unsatisfactory effect
produced when the plinth is narrower than the wall.]

766.

The ancient architects …… beginning with the Egyptians (?) who,
as Diodorus Siculus writes, were the first to build and construct
large cities and castles, public and private buildings of fine form,
large and well proportioned …..

The column, which has its thickness at the third part …. The one
which would be thinnest in the middle, would break …; the one
which is of equal thickness and of equal strength, is better for the
edifice. The second best as to the usefulness will be the one whose
greatest thickness is where it joins with the base.

[Footnote: See Pl. CIII, No. 3, where the sketches belonging to
lines 10—16 are reproduced, but reversed. The sketch of columns,
here reproduced by a wood cut, stands in the original close to lines
5—8.]

The capital must be formed in this way. Divide its thickness at the
top into 8; at the foot make it 5/7, and let it be 5/7 high and you
will have a square; afterwards divide the height into 8 parts as you
did for the column, and then take 1/8 for the echinus and another
eighth for the thickness of the abacus on the top of the capital.
The horns of the abacus of the capital have to project beyond the
greatest width of the bell 2/7, i. e. sevenths of the top of the
bell, so 1/7 falls to the projection of each horn. The truncated
part of the horns must be as broad as it is high. I leave the rest,
that is the ornaments, to the taste of the sculptors. But to return
to the columns and in order to prove the reason of their strength or
weakness according to their shape, I say that when the lines
starting from the summit of the column and ending at its base and
their direction and length …, their distance apart or width may be
equal; I say that this column …

767.

The cylinder of a body columnar in shape and its two opposite ends
are two circles enclosed between parallel lines, and through the
centre of the cylinder is a straight line, ending at the centre of
these circles, and called by the ancients the axis.

[Footnote: Leonardo wrote these lines on the margin of a page of the
Trattato di Francesco di Giorgio, where there are several drawings
of columns, as well as a head drawn in profile inside an outline
sketch of a capital.]

768.

a b
is 1/3 of
n m
;
m o
is 1/6 of
r o
. The ovolo projects 1/6
of
r o
;
s
7 1/5 of
r o
,
a b
is divided into 9 1/2; the
abacus is 3/9 the ovolo 4/9, the bead-moulding and the fillet 2/9
and 1/2.

[Footnote: See Pl. LXXXV, No. 16. In the original the drawing and
writing are both in red chalk.]

Pl. LXXXV No. 6 (MS. Ash. II 6b) contains a small sketch of a
capital with the following note, written in three lines:
I chorni
del capitelo deono essere la quarta parte d'uno quadro
(The horns
of a capital must measure the fourth part of a square).

MS. S. K. M. III 72b contains two sketches of ornamentations of
windows.

In MS. C. A. 308a; 938a (see Pl. LXXXII No. 1) there are several
sketches of columns. One of the two columns on the right is similar
to those employed by Bramante at the Canonica di S. Ambrogio. The
same columns appear in the sketch underneath the plan of a castle.
There they appear coupled, and in two stories one above the other.
The archivolls which seem to spring out of the columns, are shaped
like twisted cords, meant perhaps to be twisted branches. The walls
between the columns seem to be formed out of blocks of wood, the
pedestals are ornamented with a reticulated pattern. From all this
we may suppose that Leonardo here had in mind either some festive
decoration, or perhaps a pavilion for some hunting place or park.
The sketch of columns marked "35" gives an example of columns shaped
like candelabra, a form often employed at that time, particularly in
Milan, and the surrounding districts for instance in the Cortile di
Casa Castiglione now Silvestre, in the cathedral of Como, at Porta
della Rana &c.

769.

An architrave of several pieces is stronger than that of one single
piece, if those pieces are placed with their length in the direction
of the centre of the world. This is proved because stones have their
grain or fibre generated in the contrary direction i. e. in the
direction of the opposite horizons of the hemisphere, and this is
contrary to fibres of the plants which have …

[Footnote: The text is incomplete in the original.]

_The Proportions of the stories of a building are indicated by a
sketch in MS. S. K. M. II2 11b (see Pl. LXXXV No. 15). The measures
are written on the left side, as follows: br 1 1/2—6 3/4—br
1/12—2 br—9 e 1/2—1 1/2—br 5—o 9—o 3 [br=braccia; o=oncie].

Pl. LXXXV No. 13 (MS. B. 62a) and Pl. XCIII No. 1. (MS. B. 15a) give
a few examples of arches supported on piers._

Theoretical writings on Architecture.

Leonardo's original writings on the theory of Architecture have come
down to us only in a fragmentary state; still, there seems to be no
doubt that he himself did not complete them. It would seem that
Leonardo entertained the idea of writing a large and connected book
on Architecture; and it is quite evident that the materials we
possess, which can be proved to have been written at different
periods, were noted down with a more or less definite aim and
purpose. They might all be collected under the one title: "Studies
on the Strength of Materials". Among them the investigations on the
subject of fissures in walls are particularly thorough, and very
fully reported; these passages are also especially interesting,
because Leonardo was certainly the first writer on architecture who
ever treated the subject at all. Here, as in all other cases
Leonardo carefully avoids all abstract argument. His data are not
derived from the principles of algebra, but from the laws of
mechanics, and his method throughout is strictly experimental.

Though the conclusions drawn from his investigations may not have
that precision which we are accustomed to find in Leonardo's
scientific labours, their interest is not lessened. They prove at
any rate his deep sagacity and wonderfully clear mind. No one
perhaps, who has studied these questions since Leonardo, has
combined with a scientific mind anything like the artistic delicacy
of perception which gives interest and lucidity to his observations.

I do not assert that the arrangement here adopted for the passages
in question is that originally intended by Leonardo; but their
distribution into five groups was suggested by the titles, or
headings, which Leonardo himself prefixed to most of these notes.
Some of the longer sections perhaps should not, to be in strict
agreement with this division, have been reproduced in their entirety
in the place where they occur. But the comparatively small amount of
the materials we possess will render them, even so, sufficiently
intelligible to the reader; it did not therefore seem necessary or
desirable to subdivide the passages merely for the sake of strict
classification._

The small number of chapters given under the fifth class, treating
on the centre of gravity in roof-beams, bears no proportion to the
number of drawings and studies which refer to the same subject. Only
a small selection of these are reproduced in this work since the
majority have no explanatory text.

770.

First write the treatise on the causes of the giving way of walls
and then, separately, treat of the remedies.

Parallel fissures constantly occur in buildings which are erected on
a hill side, when the hill is composed of stratified rocks with an
oblique stratification, because water and other moisture often
penetrates these oblique seams carrying in greasy and slippery soil;
and as the strata are not continuous down to the bottom of the
valley, the rocks slide in the direction of the slope, and the
motion does not cease till they have reached the bottom of the
valley, carrying with them, as though in a boat, that portion of the
building which is separated by them from the rest. The remedy for
this is always to build thick piers under the wall which is
slipping, with arches from one to another, and with a good scarp and
let the piers have a firm foundation in the strata so that they may
not break away from them.

In order to find the solid part of these strata, it is necessary to
make a shaft at the foot of the wall of great depth through the
strata; and in this shaft, on the side from which the hill slopes,
smooth and flatten a space one palm wide from the top to the bottom;
and after some time this smooth portion made on the side of the
shaft, will show plainly which part of the hill is moving.