The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (90 page)

Aquilone
—North,
Antitaurus Antitaurus psis mo
(probably meant
for Thospitis = Lake Van, Arm. Dgov Vanai, Tospoi, and the Mountain
range to the South);
Gordis mo
(Mountains of Gordyaea), the birth
place of the Tigris;
Oriente
—East;
Tigris
, and then, to the
left,
Eufrates
. Then, above to the left
Argeo mo
(now Erdshigas,
an extinct volcano, 12000 feet high);
Celeno mo
(no doubt Sultan
Dagh in Pisidia). Celeno is the Greek town of KeAouvat— see Arian
I, 29, I—now the ruins of Dineir);
oriente
—East;
africo
libezco
(for libeccio—South West). In the middle of the Euphrates
river on this small map we see a shaded portion surrounded by
mountains, perhaps to indicate the inundation mentioned in l. 35.
The affluent to the Euphrates shown as coming with many windings
from the high land of 'Argeo' on the West, is the Tochma Su, which
joins the main river at Malatie. I have not been able to discover
any map of Armenia of the XVth or XVIth century in which the course
of the Euphrates is laid down with any thing like the correctness
displayed in this sketch. The best I have seen is the Catalonian
Portulan of Olivez de Majorca, executed in 1584, and it is far
behind Leonardo's.]. This mountain, at its base, is inhabited by a
very rich population and is full of most beautiful springs and
rivers, and is fertile and abounding in all good produce,
particularly in those parts which face to the South. But after
mounting about three miles we begin to find forests of great fir
trees, and beech and other similar trees; after this, for a space of
three more miles, there are meadows and vast pastures; and all the
rest, as far as the beginning of the Taurus, is eternal snows which
never disappear at any time, and extend to a height of about
fourteen miles in all. From this beginning of the Taurus up to the
height of a mile the clouds never pass away; thus we have fifteen
miles, that is, a height of about five miles in a straight line; and
the summit of the peaks of the Taurus are as much, or about that.
There, half way up, we begin to find a scorching air and never feel
a breath of wind; but nothing can live long there; there nothing is
brought forth save a few birds of prey which breed in the high
fissures of Taurus and descend below the clouds to seek their prey.
Above the wooded hills all is bare rock, that is, from the clouds
upwards; and the rock is the purest white. And it is impossible to
walk to the high summit on account of the rough and perilous ascent.

1337.

[Footnote: 1337. On comparing this commencement of a letter l. 1-2
with that in l. 3 and 4 of No. 1336 it is quite evident that both
refer to the same event. (Compare also No. 1337 l. 10-l2 and 17 with
No. 1336 l. 23, 24 and 32.) But the text No. 1336, including the
fragment l. 3-4, was obviously written later than the draft here
reproduced. The
Diodario
is not directly addressed—the person
addressed indeed is not known—and it seems to me highly probable
that it was written to some other patron and friend whose name and
position are not mentioned.]

Having often made you, by my letters, acquainted with the things
which have happened, I think I ought not to be silent as to the
events of the last few days, which—[2]…

Having several times—

Having many times rejoiced with you by letters over your prosperous
fortunes, I know now that, as a friend you will be sad with me over
the miserable state in which I find myself; and this is, that during
the last few days I have been in so much trouble, fear, peril and
loss, besides the miseries of the people here, that we have been
envious of the dead; and certainly I do not believe that since the
elements by their separation reduced the vast chaos to order, they
have ever combined their force and fury to do so much mischief to
man. As far as regards us here, what we have seen and gone through
is such that I could not imagine that things could ever rise to such
an amount of mischief, as we experienced in the space of ten hours.
In the first place we were assailed and attacked by the violence and
fury of the winds [10]; to this was added the falling of great
mountains of snow which filled up all this valley, thus destroying a
great part of our city [Footnote 11:
Della nostra citta
(Leonardo
first wrote
di questa citta
). From this we may infer that he had
at some time lived in the place in question wherever it might be.].
And not content with this the tempest sent a sudden flood of water
to submerge all the low part of this city [12]; added to which there
came a sudden rain, or rather a ruinous torrent and flood of water,
sand, mud, and stones, entangled with roots, and stems and fragments
of various trees; and every kind of thing flying through the air
fell upon us; finally a great fire broke out, not brought by the
wind, but carried as it would seem, by ten thousand devils, which
completely burnt up all this neighbourhood and it has not yet
ceased. And those few who remain unhurt are in such dejection and
such terror that they hardly have courage to speak to each other, as
if they were stunned. Having abandoned all our business, we stay
here together in the ruins of some churches, men and women mingled
together, small and great [Footnote 17:
Certe ruine di chiese
.
Either of Armenian churches or of Mosques, which it was not unusual
to speak of as churches.

Maschi e femmini insieme unite
, implies an infringement of the
usually strict rule of the separation of the sexes.], just like
herds of goats. The neighbours out of pity succoured us with
victuals, and they had previously been our enemies. And if

[Footnote 18:
I vicini, nostri nimici
. The town must then have
stood quite close to the frontier of the country. Compare 1336. L.
7.
vicini ai nostri confini
. Dr. M. JORDAN has already published
lines 4-13 (see
Das Malerbuch, Leipzig
, 1873, p. 90:—his reading
differs from mine) under the title of "Description of a landscape
near Lake Como". We do in fact find, among other loose sheets in the
Codex Atlanticus, certain texts referring to valleys of the Alps
(see Nos. 1030, 1031 and note p. 237) and in the arrangement of the
loose sheets, of which the Codex Atlanticus has been formed, these
happen to be placed close to this text. The compiler stuck both on
the same folio sheet; and if this is not the reason for Dr. JORDAN'S
choosing such a title (Description &c.) I cannot imagine what it can
have been. It is, at any rate, a merely hypothetical statement. The
designation of the population of the country round a city as "the
enemy" (
nemici
) is hardly appropriate to Italy in the time of
Leonardo.]

it had not been for certain people who succoured us with victuals,
all would have died of hunger. Now you see the state we are in. And
all these evils are as nothing compared with those which are
promised to us shortly.

I know that as a friend you will grieve for my misfortunes, as I, in
former letters have shown my joy at your prosperity …

Notes about events observed abroad (1338-1339).

1338.

I have seen motions of the air so furious that they have carried,
mixed up in their course, the largest trees of the forest and whole
roofs of great palaces, and I have seen the same fury bore a hole
with a whirling movement digging out a gravel pit, and carrying
gravel, sand and water more than half a mile through the air.

[Footnote: The first sixteen lines of this passage which treat of
the subject as indicated on the title line have no place in this
connexion and have been omitted.]

[Footnote 2:
Ho veduto movimenti
&c. Nothing of the kind happened
in Italy during Leonardo's lifetime, and it is therefore extremely
probable that this refers to the natural phenomena which are so
fully described in the foregoing passage. (Compare too, No. 1021.)
There can be no doubt that the descriptions of the Deluge in the
Libro di Pittura (Vol. I, No. 607-611), and that of the fall of a
mountain No. 610, l. 17-30 were written from the vivid impressions
derived from personal experience. Compare also Pl. XXXIV-XL.]

1339.

[Footnote: It may be inferred from the character of the writing,
which is in the style of the note in facsimile Vol. I, p. 297, that
this passage was written between 1470 and 1480. As the figure 6 at
the end of the text indicates, it was continued on another page, but
I have searched in vain for it. The reverse of this leaf is coloured
red for drawing in silver point, but has not been used for that
purpose but for writing on, and at about the same date. The passages
are given as Nos. 1217, 1218, 1219, 1162 and No. 994 (see note page
218). The text given above is obviously not a fragment of a letter,
but a record of some personal experience. No. 1379 also seems to
refer to Leonardo's journeys in Southern Italy.]

Like a whirling wind which rushes down a sandy and hollow valley,
and which, in its hasty course, drives to its centre every thing
that opposes its furious course …

No otherwise does the Northern blast whirl round in its tempestuous
progress …

Nor does the tempestuous sea bellow so loud, when the Northern blast
dashes it, with its foaming waves between Scylla and Charybdis; nor
Stromboli, nor Mount Etna, when their sulphurous flames, having been
forcibly confined, rend, and burst open the mountain, fulminating
stones and earth through the air together with the flames they
vomit.

Nor when the inflamed caverns of Mount Etna [Footnote 13: Mongibello
is a name commonly given in Sicily to Mount Etna (from Djebel,
Arab.=mountain). Fr. FERRARA,
Descrizione dell' Etna con la storia
delle eruzioni
(Palermo, 1818, p. 88) tells us, on the authority of
the
Cronaca del Monastero Benedettino di Licordia
of an eruption
of the Volcano with a great flow of lava on Sept. 21, 1447. The next
records of the mountain are from the years 1533 and 1536. A. Percy
neither does mention any eruptions of Etna during the years to which
this note must probably refer
Memoire des tremblements de terre de
la peninsule italique, Vol. XXII des Memoires couronnees et Memoires
des savants etrangers. Academie Royal de Belgique
).

A literal interpretation of the passage would not, however, indicate
an allusion to any great eruption; particularly in the connection
with Stromboli, where the periodical outbreaks in very short
intervals are very striking to any observer, especially at night
time, when passing the island on the way from Naples to Messina.],
rejecting the ill-restained element vomit it forth, back to its own
region, driving furiously before it every obstacle that comes in the
way of its impetuous rage …

Unable to resist my eager desire and wanting to see the great … of
the various and strange shapes made by formative nature, and having
wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of
a great cavern, in front of which I stood some time, astonished and
unaware of such a thing. Bending my back into an arch I rested my
left hand on my knee and held my right hand over my down-cast and
contracted eye brows: often bending first one way and then the
other, to see whether I could discover anything inside, and this
being forbidden by the deep darkness within, and after having
remained there some time, two contrary emotions arose in me, fear
and desire—fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see
whether there were any marvellous thing within it …

Drafts of Letters to Lodovico il Moro (1340-1345).

1340.

[Footnote: The numerous corrections, the alterations in the figures
(l. 18) and the absence of any signature prove that this is merely
the rough draft of a letter to Lodovico il Moro. It is one of the
very few manuscripts which are written from left to right—see the
facsimile of the beginning as here reproduced. This is probably the
final sketch of a document the clean of which copy was written in
the usual manner. Leonardo no doubt very rarely wrote so, and this
is probably the reason of the conspicuous dissimilarity in the
handwriting, when he did. (Compare Pl. XXXVIII.) It is noteworthy
too that here the orthography and abbreviations are also
exceptional. But such superficial peculiarities are not enough to
stamp the document as altogether spurious. It is neither a forgery
nor the production of any artist but Leonardo himself. As to this
point the contents leave us no doubt as to its authenticity,
particularly l. 32 (see No. 719, where this passage is repeated).
But whether the fragment, as we here see it, was written from
Leonardo's dictation—a theory favoured by the orthography, the
erasures and corrections—or whether it may be a copy made for or by
Melzi or Mazenta is comparatively unimportant. There are in the
Codex Atlanticus a few other documents not written by Leonardo
himself, but the notes in his own hand found on the reverse pages of
these leaves amply prove that they were certainly in Leonardo's
possession. This mark of ownership is wanting to the text in
question, but the compilers of the Codex Atlanticus, at any rate,
accepted it as a genuine document.

With regard to the probable date of this projected letter see Vol.
II, p. 3.]

Most illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the
specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of
instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said
instruments are nothing different to those in common use: I shall
endeavour, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to
your Excellency showing your Lordship my secrets, and then offering
them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at
opportune moments as well as all those things which, in part, shall
be briefly noted below.