The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci

Oh Justice of God! Why dost thou not wake and behold thy creatures thus ill used? ( Of Sheep, Cows, Goats and the like.) Endless multitudes of these will have their little children taken from them ripped open and flayed and most barbarously quartered. ( Of Nuts, and Olives, and Acorns, and Chesnuts, and such like. ) Many offspring shall be snatched by cruel thrashing from the very arms of their mothers, and flung on the ground, and crushed. ( Of Children bound in Bundles. ) O cities of the Sea! In you I see your citizens—both females and males—tightly bound, arms and legs, with strong withes by folks who will not understand your language. And you will only be able to assuage your sorrows and lost liberty by means of tearful complaints and sighing and lamentation among yourselves; for those who will bind you will not understand you, nor will you understand them. ( Of Cats that eat Rats.) In you, O cities of Africa your children will be seen quartered in their own houses by most cruel and rapacious beasts of your own country. ( Of Asses that are beaten.) [Footnote 48: Compare No. 845.] O Nature! Wherefore art thou so partial; being to some of thy children a tender and benign mother, and to others a most cruel and pitiless stepmother? I see children of thine given up to slavery to others, without any sort of advantage, and instead of remuneration for the good they do, they are paid with the severest suffering, and spend their whole life in benefitting those who ill treat them. [Of Men who sleep on boards of Trees.] Men shall sleep, and eat, and dwell among trees, in the forests and open country. [Of Dreaming.] Men will seem to see new destructions in the sky. The flames that fall from it will seem to rise in it and to fly from it with terror. They will hear every kind of animals speak in human language. They will instantaneously run in person in various parts of the world, without motion. They will see the greatest splendour in the midst of darkness. O! marvel of the human race! What madness has led you thus! You will speak with animals of every species and they with you in human speech. You will see yourself fall from great heights without any harm and torrents will accompany you, and will mingle with their rapid course. [Of Christians.] Many who hold the faith of the Son only build temples in the name of the Mother. [Of Food which has been alive.] [84] A great portion of bodies that have been alive will pass into the bodies of other animals; which is as much as to say, that the deserted tenements will pass piecemeal into the inhabited ones, furnishing them with good things, and carrying with them their evils. That is to say the life of man is formed from things eaten, and these carry with them that part of man which dies . . . 1294. [Of Funeral Rites, and Processions, and Lights, and Bells, and Followers.] The greatest honours will be paid to men, and much pomp, without their knowledge. [Footnote: A facsimile of this text is on PI. CXVI below on the right, but the writing is larger than the other notes on the same sheet and of a somewhat different style. The ink is also of a different hue, as may be seen on the original sheet at Milan.] ***84 and following; compare No. 846. 1295. (Of the Avaricious.) There will be many who will eagerly and with great care and solicitude follow up a thing, which, if they only knew its malignity, would always terrify them. (Of those men, who, the older they grow, the more avaricious they become, whereas, having but little time to stay, they should become more liberal.) We see those who are regarded as being most experienced and judicious, when they least need a thing, seek and cherish it with most avidity. *Of the Ditch.* Many will be busied in taking away from a thing, which will grow in proportion as it is diminished. *Of a Weight placed on a Feather-pillow.* And it will be seen in many bodies that by raising the head they swell visibly; and by laying the raised head down again, their size will immediately be diminished. *Of catching Lice.* And many will be hunters of animals, which, the fewer there are the more will be taken; and conversely, the more there are, the fewer will be taken. *Of Drawing Water in two Buckets with a single Rope.* And many will be busily occupied, though the more of the thing they draw up, the more will escape at the other end. *Of the Tongues of Pigs and Calves in Sausage-skins.* Oh! how foul a thing, that we should see the tongue of one animal in the guts of another. *Of Sieves made of the Hair of Animals.* We shall see the food of animals pass through their skin everyway excepting through their mouths, and penetrate from the outside downwards to the ground. *( Of Lanterns. )* [Footnote 35: Lanterns were in Italy formerly made of horn.] The cruel horns of powerful bulls will screen the lights of night against the wild fury of the winds. *( Of Feather-beds. )* Flying creatures will give their very feathers to support men. *( Of Animals which walk on Trees—wearing wooden Shoes. )* The mire will be so great that men will walk on the trees of their country. *( Of the Soles of Shoes, which are made from the Ox. )* And in many parts of the country men will be seen walking on the skins of large beasts. *( Of Sailing in Ships. )* There will be great winds by reason of which things of the East will become things of the West; and those of the South, being involved in the course of the winds, will follow them to distant lands. *( Of Worshipping the Pictures of Saints. )* Men will speak to men who hear not; having their eyes open, they will not see; they will speak to these, and they will not be answered. They will implore favours of those who have ears and hear not; they will make light for the blind. *( Of Sawyers. )* There will be many men who will move one against another, holding in their hands a cutting tool. But these will not do each other any injury beyond tiring each other; for, when one pushes forward the other will draw back. But woe to him who comes between them! For he will end by being cut in pieces. *( Of Silk-spinning. )* Dismal cries will be heard loud, shrieking with anguish, and the hoarse and smothered tones of those who will be despoiled, and at last left naked and motionless; and this by reason of the mover, which makes every thing turn round. *( Of putting Bread into the Mouth of the Oven and taking it out again. )* In every city, land, castle and house, men shall be seen, who for want of food will take it out of the mouths of others, who will not be able to resist in any way. *( Of tilled Land. )* The Earth will be seen turned up side down and facing the opposite hemispheres, uncovering the lurking holes of the fiercest animals. *( Of Sowing Seed. )* Then many of the men who will remain alive, will throw the victuals they have preserved out of their houses, a free prey to the birds and beasts of the earth, without taking any care of them at all. *( Of the Rains, which, by making the Rivers muddy, wash away the Land. )* [Footnote 81: Compare No. 945.] Something will fall from the sky which will transport a large part of Africa which lies under that sky towards Europe, and that of Europe towards Africa, and that of the Scythian countries will meet with tremendous revolutions [Footnote 84: Compare No. 945.]. *( Of Wood that burns. )* The trees and shrubs in the great forests will be converted into cinder. *( Of Kilns for Bricks and Lime. )* Finally the earth will turn red from a conflagration of many days and the stones will be turned to cinders. *( Of boiled Fish. )* The natives of the waters will die in the boiling flood. *( Of the Olives which fall from the Olive trees, shedding oil which makes light. )* And things will fall with great force from above, which will give us nourishment and light. *[Of Owls and screech owls and what will happen to certain birds.]* Many will perish of dashing their heads in pieces, and the eyes of many will jump out of their heads by reason of fearful creatures come out of the darkness. *[Of flax which works the cure of men.]* That which was at first bound, cast out and rent by many and various beaters will be respected and honoured, and its precepts will be listened to with reverence and love. *[Of Books which teach Precepts.]* Bodies without souls will, by their contents give us precepts by which to die well. *[Of Flagellants.]* Men will hide themselves under the bark of trees, and, screaming, they will make themselves martyrs, by striking their own limbs. *[Of the Handles of Knives made of the Horns of Sheep.]* We shall see the horns of certain beasts fitted to iron tools, which will take the lives of many of their kind. *[Of Night when no Colour can be discerned.]* There will come a time when no difference can be discerned between colours, on the contrary, everything will be black alike. *[Of Swords and Spears which by themselves never hurt any one.]* One who by himself is mild enough and void of all offence will become terrible and fierce by being in bad company, and will most cruelly take the life of many men, and would kill many more if they were not hindered by bodies having no soul, that have come out of caverns—that is, breastplates of iron. *[Of Snares and Traps.]* Many dead things will move furiously, and will take and bind the living, and will ensnare them for the enemies who seek their death and destruction. *( Of Metals. )* That shall be brought forth out of dark and obscure caves, which will put the whole human race in great anxiety, peril and death. To many that seek them, after many sorrows they will give delight, and to those who are not in their company, death with want and misfortune. This will lead to the commission of endless crimes; this will increase and persuade bad men to assassinations, robberies and treachery, and by reason of it each will be suspicious of his partner. This will deprive free cities of their happy condition; this will take away the lives of many; this will make men torment each other with many artifices deceptions and treasons. O monstrous creature! How much better would it be for men that every thing should return to Hell! For this the vast forests will be devastated of their trees; for this endless animals will lose their lives. *( Of Fire. )* One shall be born from small beginnings which will rapidly become vast. This will respect no created thing, rather will it, by its power, transform almost every thing from its own nature into another. *( Of Ships which sink. )* Huge bodies will be seen, devoid of life, carrying, in fierce haste, a multitude of men to the destruction of their lives. *( Of Oxen, which are eaten. )* The masters of estates will eat their own labourers. *( Of beating Beds to renew them. )* Men will be seen so deeply ungrateful that they will turn upon that which has harboured them, for nothing at all; they will so load it with blows that a great part of its inside will come out of its place, and will be turned over and over in its body. *( Of Things which are eaten and which first are killed. )* Those who nourish them will be killed by them and afflicted by merciless deaths. *(Of the Reflection of Walls of Cities in the Water of their