The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

On the shield a large mirror to signify that he who truly desires favour must be mirrored in his virtues. On the opposite side will be represented Fortitude, in like manner in her place with her pillar in her hand, robed in white, to signify … And all crowned; and Prudence with 3 eyes. The housing of the horse should be of plain cloth of gold closely sprinkled with peacock's eyes, and this holds good for all the housings of the horse, and the man's dress. And the man's crest and his neck-chain are of peacock's feathers on golden ground. On the left side will be a wheel, the centre of which should be attached to the centre of the horse's hinder thigh piece, and in the centre Prudence is seen robed in red, Charity sitting in a fiery chariot and with a branch of laurel in her hand, to signify the hope which comes of good service. [21] Messer Antonio Grimani of Venice companion of Antonio Maria [23]. [Footnote: Messer Antonio Gri. His name thus abbreviated is, there can be no doubt, Grimani. Antonio Grimani was the famous Doge who in 1499 commanded the Venetian fleet in battle against the Turks. But after the abortive conclusion of the expedition—Ludovico being the ally of the Turks who took possession of Friuli—, Grimani was driven into exile; he went to live at Rome with his son Cardinal Domenico Grimani. On being recalled to Venice he filled the office of Doge from 1521 to 1523. Antonio Maria probably means Antonio Maria Grimani, the Patriarch of Aquileia.] 675. Fame should be depicted as covered all over with tongues instead of feathers, and in the figure of a bird. 676. Pleasure and Pain represent as twins, since there never is one without the other; and as if they were united back to back, since they are contrary to each other. [6] Clay, gold. [Footnote: 7. oro. fango: gold, clay. These words stand below the allegorical figure.] If you take Pleasure know that he has behind him one who will deal you Tribulation and Repentance. [9] This represents Pleasure together with Pain, and show them as twins because one is never apart from the other. They are back to back because they are opposed to each other; and they exist as contraries in the same body, because they have the same basis, inasmuch as the origin of pleasure is labour and pain, and the various forms of evil pleasure are the origin of pain. Therefore it is here represented with a reed in his right hand which is useless and without strength, and the wounds it inflicts are poisoned. In Tuscany they are put to support beds, to signify that it is here that vain dreams come, and here a great part of life is consumed. It is here that much precious time is wasted, that is, in the morning, when the mind is composed and rested, and the body is made fit to begin new labours; there again many vain pleasures are enjoyed; both by the mind in imagining impossible things, and by the body in taking those pleasures that are often the cause of the failing of life. And for these reasons the reed is held as their support. [Footnote: 676. The pen and ink drawing on PI. LIX belongs to this passage.] [Footnote: 8. tribolatione. In the drawing caltrops may be seen lying in the old man's right hand, others are falling and others again are shewn on the ground. Similar caltrops are drawn in MS. Tri. p. 98 and underneath them, as well as on page 96 the words triboli di ferro are written. From the accompanying text it appears that they were intended to be scattered on the ground at the bottom of ditches to hinder the advance of the enemy. Count Giulio Porro who published a short account of the Trivulzio MS. in the "Archivio Storico Lombardo", Anno VIII part IV (Dec. 31, 1881) has this note on the passages treating of "triboli": "E qui aggiungerò che anni sono quando venne fabbricata la nuova cavallerizza presso il castello di Milano, ne furono trovati due che io ho veduto ed erano precisamente quali si trovano descritti e disegnati da Leonardo in questo codice". There can therefore be no doubt that this means of defence was in general use, whether it were originally Leonardo's invention or not. The play on the word "tribolatione", as it occurs in the drawing at Oxford, must then have been quite intelligible.] [Footnote: 9—22. These lines, in the original, are written on the left side of the page and refer to the figure shown on PI. LXI. Next to it is placed the group of three figures given in PI. LX No. I. Lines 21 and 22, which are written under it, are the only explanation given.] Evil-thinking is either Envy or Ingratitude. 677. Envy must be represented with a contemptuous motion of the hand towards heaven, because if she could she would use her strength against God; make her with her face covered by a mask of fair seeming; show her as wounded in the eye by a palm branch and by an olive-branch, and wounded in the ear by laurel and myrtle, to signify that victory and truth are odious to her. Many thunderbolts should proceed from her to signify her evil speaking. Let her be lean and haggard because she is in perpetual torment. Make her heart gnawed by a swelling serpent, and make her with a quiver with tongues serving as arrows, because she often offends with it. Give her a leopard's skin, because this creature kills the lion out of envy and by deceit. Give her too a vase in her hand full of flowers and scorpions and toads and other venomous creatures; make her ride upon death, because Envy, never dying, never tires of ruling. Make her bridle, and load her with divers kinds of arms because all her weapons are deadly. Toleration. Intolerable. No sooner is Virtue born than Envy comes into the world to attack it; and sooner will there be a body without a shadow than Virtue without Envy. [Footnote: The larger of the two drawings on PI. LXI is explained by the first 21 lines of this passage. L. 22 and 23, which are written above the space between the two drawings, do not seem to have any reference to either. L. 24-27 are below the allegorical twin figure which they serve to explain.] 678. When Pluto's Paradise is opened, then there may be devils placed in twelve pots like openings into hell. Here will be Death, the Furies, ashes, many naked children weeping; living fires made of various colours…. 679. John the Baptist Saint Augustin Saint Peter Paul Elisabeth Saint Clara. Bernardino Our Lady Louis Bonaventura Anthony of Padua. Saint Francis. Francis, Anthony, a lily and book; Bernardino with the [monogram of] Jesus, Louis with 3 fleur de lys on his breast and the crown at his feet, Bonaventura with Seraphim, Saint Clara with the tabernacle, Elisabeth with a Queen's crown. [Footnote: 679. The text of the first six lines is written within a square space of the same size as the copy here given. The names are written in the margin following the order in which they are here printed. In lines 7—12 the names of those saints are repeated of whom it seemed necessary to point out the emblems.] List of drawings. 680. A head, full face, of a young man with fine flowing hair, Many flowers drawn from nature, A head, full face, with curly hair, Certain figures of Saint Jerome, [6] The measurements of a figure, Drawings of furnaces. A head of the Duke, [9] many designs for knots, 4 studies for the panel of Saint Angelo A small composition of Girolamo da Fegline, A head of Christ done with the pen, [13] 8 Saint Sebastians, Several compositions of Angels, A chalcedony, A head in profile with fine hair, Some pitchers seen in(?) perspective, Some machines for ships, Some machines for waterworks, A head, a portrait of Atalanta raising her face; The head of Geronimo da Fegline, The head of Gian Francisco Borso, Several throats of old women, Several heads of old men, Several nude figures, complete, Several arms, eyes, feet, and positions, A Madonna, finished, Another, nearly in profile, Head of Our Lady ascending into Heaven, A head of an old man with long chin, A head of a gypsy girl, A head with a hat on, A representation of the Passion, a cast, A head of a girl with her hair gathered in a knot, A head, with the brown hair dressed. [Footnote: 680. This has already been published by AMORETTI Memorie storiche cap. XVI. His reading varies somewhat from that here given, e. g. l. 5 and 6. Certi Sangirolami in su d'una figura; and instead of I. 13. Un San Bastiano.] [Footnote: 680. 9. Molti disegni di gruppi. VASARI in his life of Leonardo (IV, 21, ed. MILANESI 1880) says: "Oltreché perse tempo fino a disegnare gruppi di corde fatti con ordine, e che da un capo seguissi tutto il resto fino all' altro, tanto che s'empiessi un tondo; che se ne vede in istampa uno difficilissimo e molto bello, e nel mezzo vi sono queste parole: Leonardus Vinci Accademia". Gruppi must here be understood as a technical expression for those twisted ornaments which are well known through wood cuts. AMORETTI mentions six different ones in the Ambrosian Library. I am indebted to M. DELABORDE for kindly informing me that the original blocks of these are preserved in his department in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris. On the cover of these volumes is a copy from one of them. The size of the original is 23 1/2 centimetres by 26 1/4. The centre portion of another is given on p. 361. G. Govi remarks on these ornaments (Saggio p. 22): "Codesti gruppi eran probabilmente destinati a servir di modello a ferri da rilegatori per adornar le cartelle degli scolari (?). Fregi somigliantissimi a questi troviamo infatti impressi in oro sui cartoni di vari volumi contemporanei, e li vediam pur figurare nelle lettere iniziali di alcune edizioni del tempo." Dürer who copied them, omitting the inscription, added to the second impressions his own monogram. In his diary he designates them simply as "Die sechs Knoten" (see THAUSING, Life of A. Dürer I, 362, 363). In Leonardo's MSS. we find here and there little sketches or suggestions for similar ornaments. Compare too G. MONGERI, L'Arte in Milano, p. 315 where an ornament of the same character is given from the old decorations of the vaulted ceiling of the Sacristy of S. Maria delle Grazie.] [Footnote: 680, 17. The meaning in which the word coppi, literally pitchers, is here used I am unable to determine; but a change to copie seems to me too doubtful to be risked.] 681. Stubborn rigour. Doomed rigour. [Footnote: See PI. LXII, No. 2, the two upper pen and ink drawings. The originals, in the Windsor collection are slightly washed with colour. The background is blue sky; the plough and the instrument with the compass are reddish brown, the sun is tinted yellow]. 682. Obstacles cannot crush me Every obstacle yields to stern resolve He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind. [Footnote: This text is written to elucidate two sketches which were obviously the first sketches for the drawings reproduced on PL LXII, No. 2.] 683. Ivy is [a type] of longevity. [Footnote: In the original there is, near this text, a sketch of a coat wreathed above the waist with ivy.] 684. Truth the sun. falsehood a mask. innocence, malignity. Fire destroys falsehood, that is sophistry, and restores truth, driving out darkness. Fire may be represented as the destroy of all sophistry, and as the image and demonstration of truth; because it is light and drives out darkness which conceals all essences [or subtle things]. [Footnote: See PI. LXIII. L. 1-8 are in the middle of the page; 1. 9-14 to the right below; 1. 15-22 below in the middle column. The rest of the text is below the sketches on the left. There are some other passages on this page relating to geometry.] TRUTH. Fire destroys all sophistry, that is deceit; and maintains truth alone,