The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci (98 page)

Five books out of this list are noted by Leonardo in another MS.
(Tr. 3):
donato, — lapidario, — plinio, — abacho, — morgante.
]

1470.

Nonius Marcellus, Festus Pompeius, Marcus Varro.

[Footnote: Nonius Marcellus and Sextus Pompeius Festus were Roman
grammarians of about the fourth century A. D. Early publications of
the works of Marcellus are:
De proprietate sermonis, Romae
(about
1470), and 1471 (place of publication unknown).
Compendiosa
doctrina, ad filium, de proprietate sermonum.
Venice, 1476. BRUNET,
Manuel du libraire
(IV, p. 97) notes:
Le texte de cet ancien
grammairien a ete reimprime plusieurs fois a la fin du XVe siecle,
avec ceux de Pomponius Festus et de Terentius Varro. La plus
ancienne edition qui reunisse ces trois auteurs est celle de Parme,
1480 … Celles de Venise, 1483, 1490, 1498, et de Milan, 1500,
toutes in-fol., ont peu de valeur.
]

1471.

Map of Elephanta in India which Antonello Merciaio has from maestro
Maffeo;—there for seven years the earth rises and for seven years
it sinks;—Enquire at the stationers about Vitruvius.

1472.

See 'On Ships' Messer Battista, and Frontinus 'On Acqueducts'
[Footnote 2: 2.
Vitruvius de Arch., et Frontinus de Aquedoctibus.
Florence, 1513.—This is the earliest edition of Frontinus.—The
note referring to this author thus suggests a solution of the
problem of the date of the Leicester Manuscript.].

[Footnote: Compare No. 1113, 25.]

1473.

Anaxagoras: Every thing proceeds from every thing, and every thing
becomes every thing, and every thing can be turned into every thing
else, because that which exists in the elements is composed of those
elements.

1474.

The Archimedes belonging to the Bishop of Padua.

[Footnote: See No. 1421, 1. 3, 6 and Vol. I, No. 343.]

1475.

Archimedes gave the quadrature of a polygonal figure, but not of the
circle. Hence Archimedes never squared any figure with curved sides.
He squared the circle minus the smallest portion that the intellect
can conceive, that is the smallest point visible.

[Footnote: Compare No. 1504.]

1476.

If any man could have discovered the utmost powers of the cannon, in
all its various forms and have given such a secret to the Romans,
with what rapidity would they have conquered every country and have
vanquished every army, and what reward could have been great enough
for such a service! Archimedes indeed, although he had greatly
damaged the Romans in the siege of Syracuse, nevertheless did not
fail of being offered great rewards from these very Romans; and when
Syracuse was taken, diligent search was made for Archimedes; and he
being found dead greater lamentation was made for him by the Senate
and people of Rome than if they had lost all their army; and they
did not fail to honour him with burial and with a statue. At their
head was Marcus Marcellus. And after the second destruction of
Syracuse, the sepulchre of Archimedes was found again by Cato[25],
in the ruins of a temple. So Cato had the temple restored and the
sepulchre he so highly honoured…. Whence it is written that Cato
said that he was not so proud of any thing he had done as of having
paid such honour to Archimedes.

[Footnote: Where Leonardo found the statement that Cato had found
and restored the tomb of Archimedes, I do not know. It is a merit
that Cicero claims as his own (Tusc. V, 23) and certainly with a
full right to it. None of Archimedes' biographers —not even the
diligent Mazzucchelli, mentions any version in which Cato is named.
It is evidently a slip of the memory on Leonardo's part. Besides,
according to the passage in Cicero, the grave was not found
'nelle
ruine d'un tempio'
—which is highly improbable as relating to a
Greek—but in an open spot (H. MULLER-STRUBING).—See too, as to
Archimedes, No. 1417.

Leonardo says somewhere in MS. C.A.:
Architronito e una macchina di
fino rame, invenzlon d' Archimede
(see
'Saggio'
, p. 20).]

1477.

Aristotle, Book 3 of the Physics, and Albertus Magnus, and Thomas
Aquinas and the others on the rebound of bodies, in the 7th on
Physics, on heaven and earth.

1478.

Aristotle says that if a force can move a body a given distance in a
given time, the same force will move half the same body twice as far
in the same time.

1479.

Aristotle in Book 3 of the Ethics: Man merits praise or blame solely
in such matters as lie within his option to do or not to do.

1480.

Aristotle says that every body tends to maintain its nature.

1481.

On the increase of the Nile, a small book by Aristotle. [Footnote:
De inundatione Nili
, is quoted here and by others as a work of
Aristotle. The Greek original is lost, but a Latin version of the
beginning exists (Arist. Opp. IV p. 213 ed. Did. Par.).

In his quotations from Aristotle Leonardo possibly refers to one of
the following editions:
Aristotelis libri IV de coelo et mundo; de
anima libri III; libri VIII physi- corum; libri de generatione et
corruptione; de sensu et sensato… omnia latine, interprete
Averroe, Venetiis 1483
(first Latin edition). There is also a
separate edition of
Liber de coelo et mundo
, dated 1473.]

1482.

Avicenna will have it that soul gives birth to soul as body to body,
and each member to itself.

[Footnote: Avicenna, see too No. 1421, 1. 2.]

1483.

Avicenna on liquids.

1484.

Roger Bacon, done in print. [Footnote: The earliest printed edition
known to Brunet of the works of Roger Bacon, is a French
translation, which appeared about fourty years after Leonardo's
death.]

1485.

Cleomedes the philosopher.

[Footnote: Cleomede. A Greek mathematician of the IVth century B. C.
We have a Cyclic theory of Meteorica by him. His works were not
published before Leonardo's death.]

1486.

The highest good is wisdom, the chief evil is suffering in the body.
Because, as we are composed of two things, that is soul and body, of
which the first is the better, the body is the inferior; wisdom
belongs to the better part, and the chief evil belongs to the worse
part and is the worst of all. As the best thing of all in the soul
is wisdom, so the worst in the body is suffering. Therefore just as
bodily pain is the chief evil, wisdom is the chief good of the soul,
that is with the wise man; and nothing else can be compared with it.

[Footnote:
Aulus Cornelius Celsus
, a Roman physician, known as the
Roman Hippocrates, probably contemporary with Augustus. Only his
eight Books 'De Medicina', are preserved. The earliest editions are:
Cornelius Celsus, de medicina libr. VIII.
, Milan 1481 Venice 1493
and 1497.]

1487.

Demetrius was wont to say that there was no difference between the
speech and words of the foolish and ignorant, and the noises and
rumblings of the wind in an inflated stomach. Nor did he say so
without reason, for he saw no difference between the parts whence
the noise issued; whether their lower parts or their mouth, since
one and the other were of equal use and importance.

[Footnote: Compare Vol. I, No. 10.]

1488.

Maestro Stefano Caponi, a physician, lives at the piscina, and has
Euclid
De Ponderibus
.

1489.

5th Book of Euclid. First definition: a part is a quantity of less
magnitude than the greater magnitude when the less is contained a
certain number of times in the greater.

A part properly speaking is that which may be multiplied, that is
when, being multiplied by a certain number, it forms exactly the
whole. A common aggregate part …

Second definition. A greater magnitude is said to be a multiple of a
less, when the greater is measured by the less.

By the first we define the lesser [magnitude] and by the second the
greater is defined. A part is spoken

1490.

of in relation to the whole; and all their relations lie between
these two extremes, and are called multiples.

1491.

Hippocrates says that the origin of men's sperm derives from the
brain, and from the lungs and testicles of our parents, where the
final decocture is made, and all the other limbs transmit their
substance to this sperm by means of expiration, because there are no
channels through which they might come to the sperm.

[Footnote: The works of Hippocrates were printed first after
Leonardo's death.]

1492.

Lucretius in his third [book] 'De Rerum Natura'. The hands, nails
and teeth were (165) the weapons of ancient man.

They also use for a standard a bunch of grass tied to a pole (167).

[Footnote:
Lucretius, de rerum natura libri VI
were printed first
about 1473, at Verona in 1486, at Brescia in 1495, at Venice in 1500
and in 1515, and at Florence in 1515. The numbers 165 and 167 noted
by Leonardo at the end of the two passages seem to indicate pages,
but if so, none of the editions just mentioned can here be meant,
nor do these numbers refer to the verses in the poems of Lucretius.]

1493.

Ammianus Marcellinus asserts that seven hundred thousand volumes of
books were burnt in the siege of Alexandria in the time of Julius
Cesar.

[Footnote:
Ammiani Marcellini historiarum libri qui extant XIII
,
published at Rome in 1474.]

1494.

Mondino says that the muscles which raise the toes are in the
outward side of the thigh, and he adds that there are no muscles in
the back [upper side] of the feet, because nature desired to make
them light, so as to move with ease; and if they had been fleshy
they would be heavier; and here experience shows …

[Footnote:
"Mundini anatomia. Mundinus, Anothomia (sic). Mundini
praestantissimorum doctorum almi studii ticiensis (sic) cura
diligentissime emendata. Impressa Papiae per magistrum Antonium de
Carfano 1478," in-fol.; ristampata: "Bononiae Johan. de Noerdlingen,
1482," in-fol.; "Padova per Mattheum Cerdonis de Vuindischgretz,
1484," in-40; "Lipsia, 1493," in-40; "Venezia, 1494," in-40 e ivi
"1498," con fig. Queste figure per altro non sono, come si e
preteso, le prime che fossero introdotte in un trattato di Notamia.
Nel 'fasciculus Medicinae' di Giovanni Ketham, che riproduce
l''Anatomia' del Mundinus, impresso pure a Venezia da J. e G. de
Gregoriis, 1491, in-fol., contengonsi intagli in legno (si vogliono
disegnati non gia incisi da Andrea Mantegna) di grande dimensione, e
che furono piu volte riprodotti negli anni successivi. Quest'
edizione del "fasciculus" del 1491, sta fra nostri libri e potrebbe
benissimo essere il volume d'Anatomia notato da Leonardo.
(G.
D'A.)]

1495.

Of the error of those who practice without knowledge;—[3] See first
the 'Ars poetica' of Horace [5].

[Footnote: A 3-5 are written on the margin at the side of the title
line of the text given, entire as No. 19]

1496.

The heirs of Maestro Giovanni Ghiringallo have the works of
Pelacano.

1497.

The catapult, as we are told by Nonius and Pliny, is a machine
devised by those &c.

[Footnote:
Plinius
, see No. 946.]

1498.

I have found in a history of the Spaniards that in their wars with
the English Archimedes of Syracuse who at that time was living at
the court of Ecliderides, King of the Cirodastri. And in maritime
warfare he ordered that the ships should have tall masts, and that
on their tops there should be a spar fixed [Footnote 6: Compare No.
1115.] of 40 feet long and one third of a foot thick. At one end of
this was a small grappling iron and at the other a counterpoise; and
there was also attached 12 feet of chain; and, at the end of this
chain, as much rope as would reach from the chain to the base of the
top, where it was fixed with a small rope; from this base it ran
down to the bottom of the mast where a very strong spar was attached
and to this was fastened the end of the rope. But to go on to the
use of his machine; I say that below this grappling iron was a fire
[Footnote 14: Compare No. 1128.] which, with tremendous noise, threw
down its rays and a shower of burning pitch; which, pouring down on
the [enemy's] top, compelled the men who were in it to abandon the
top to which the grappling-iron had clung. This was hooked on to the
edges of the top and then suddenly the cord attached at the base of
the top to support the cord which went from the grappling iron, was
cut, giving way and drawing in the enemy's ship; and if the
anchor—was cast …

[Footnote: Archimedes never visited Spain, and the names here
mentioned cannot be explained. Leonardo seems to quote here from a
book, perhaps by some questionable mediaeval writer. Prof. C. Justi
writes to me from Madrid, that Spanish savants have no knowledge of
the sources from which this story may have been derived.]

1499.

Theophrastus on the ebb and flow of the tide, and of eddies, and on
water. [Footnote: The Greek philosophers had no opportunity to study
the phenomenon of the ebb and flow of the tide and none of them
wrote about it. The movement of the waters in the Euripus however
was to a few of them a puzzling problem.]

1500.

Tryphon of Alexandria, who spent his life at Apollonia, a city of
Albania (163). [Footnote: Tryphon of Alexandria, a Greek Grammarian
of the time of Augustus. His treatise TtaOY Aeijecu appeared first
at Milan in 1476, in Constantin Laskaris's Greek Grammar.]

1501.

Messer Vincenzio Aliprando, who lives near the Inn of the Bear, has
Giacomo Andrea's Vitruvius.

1502.

Vitruvius says that small models are of no avail for ascertaining
the effects of large ones; and I here propose to prove that this
conclusion is a false one. And chiefly by bringing forward the very
same argument which led him to this conclusion; that is, by an
experiment with an auger. For he proves that if a man, by a certain
exertion of strength, makes a hole of a given diameter, and
afterwards another hole of double the diameter, this cannot be made
with only double the exertion of the man's strength, but needs much
more. To this it may very well be answered that an auger