Part 10

Spring arrived again and with it came the first wild flowers and roses, the songs of the birds in the woods and the blossoming of the chestnut trees. The time for the double celebration came, too, and Leonardo was seen busily preparing the decorations and mechanical delights for the large crowds already assembling. In addition to the tournaments-at-arms that so delighted the king, there was to be a mock battle with a besieged city, and for this Leonardo had had constructed imposing castle walls of wood with a backdrop of a city’s spires and towers. The party lasted for weeks, and the climax was performed on the lawns of Leonardo’s house where a great ballroom had been set up. Here he repeated an earlier success, the one that had so enchanted Ludovico’s guests so many years ago in the Sforza castle at Milan. There was again a dome over the ballroom across which the stars moved mechanically and artificial figures representing various gods and goddesses spoke and sang by means of a hidden choir, while the sun and moon shone in their own lights.

This display ended the festivities. It was already late June and Leonardo was anxious to return to his plans for the water route to Italy. There was the area near Sologne which, when flooded, would make the surrounding countryside a marshland. This would have to be drained by the same method as he had planned for the Piombino and the Pontine marshes. Francis I was interested, too, in the improvements Leonardo had suggested for his own castle, and he would have to talk with the castle superintendent about them. As always, there seemed to be so many things to do, to plan, to work on. Then Leonardo wrote in his notes: “On the 24th of June, the day of St. John, 1518, at Amboise, in the palace of Cloux....” and underneath, “I will continue—”

“_I will continue_—” It was almost a note of defiance against the obstacles of advancing age and sickness and the interruptions of the practical world.

The sound of jingling spurs and bridle chains and the snorting of many horses announced another surprise visit from the young king. Leonardo could hear him below shouting something to Battista, the servant who had come to Amboise with Leonardo. Now, as usual, Francis was running up the stairs with all the energy of youth shouting for “le maître” (the master). Resignedly and with patient humor, Leonardo stepped out to greet the king. The gold chains around Francis’ thick neck and over his broad chest glinted in the semi-light of the hall, and he was holding his plumed hat at his side and mopping his forehead with a dainty embroidered handkerchief.

“Master Leonardo! We are going on a tour of the river and I want you to look at the place that I told you about. Where I want to put that bridge. You remember?”

“Sire, give me but a moment to gather some material together.”

A chest was made ready and soon Leonardo was at the door, calling to Francesco and Battista to help him into the saddle of his horse, while the king’s servants hoisted the chest onto one of the carts already piled high with tents and provisions.

When Francis was restless—which was often—a “tour” could mean many hours or many days of travel. Wagons were always kept ready with all the equipment for a long journey and Leonardo, himself, had learned to accept these sudden whims and kept chests of his own ready for any such trip. Now, as always, the king kept his horse reined back out of regard for this tall, stooped man with the long beard and simple clothes.

Yet when Leonardo returned from this “tour” he realized that he could no longer make such trips. The hardships of sleeping in tents, riding over the hot roads, and the necessary work involved in surveying the possible sites for a bridge had left him almost exhausted. He had made one suggestion, however, and that was to build houses that could be carried and then assembled with a few wooden locking devices, then just as quickly taken down and moved to the next place. They could also be left standing where the country people could use them while the court was away. Indeed, such structures would seem to be the ancestors of our own prefabricated houses.

The winter of 1519 was a bitter one. When the cold fog spread over the valley shrouding the bare trees it chilled the big, white-washed rooms of Cloux. The wind blew down from the north sending blasts down the chimneys and scattering ashes and sparks. Leonardo, huddled against the huge fireplace with its roof projecting into the room, pulled his black cloak lined in soft leather around him and reminded himself to include it in his will for Mathurine, the faithful domestic who cooked for him and took care of his house.

The aged Leonardo, who had observed and analyzed so much of man and nature, knew now that his own days were numbered. When the first, pale sunlight of March shone through the small leaded-glass windows of his house, he applied to the king for permission to make out his own will. French law demanded that the property of any foreigner dying in France went to the Crown. The permission was granted, and on April 23, 1519, Guillaume Boureau, the Royal Notary of Amboise was summoned with witnesses.

To his half-brothers in Florence Leonardo left his property at Fiesole and four hundred ducats. To his faithful friend and companion, Francesco de’ Melzi, nobleman of Milan, Leonardo willed his notes, drawings, and paintings. Battista was given the income that Louis XII had granted Leonardo from the tolls of the canal at San Cristoforo near Milan. Mathurine was granted the “good black cloth, trimmed with leather” and two ducats. Moreover, Leonardo outlined in detail the plans for his own funeral, right down to the use of ten pounds of candles.

Too weak now to stand any more, Leonardo was confined to his big four-poster bed with the canopy. From it he could see the tracery of the Chapel of Saint-Hubert against the pale, foreign sky through the little window in the corner. The vicar of the church of Saint-Denis was called, with two priests and two Franciscan friars, and Leonardo received the last sacraments at his bedside.

An entry in his notes reads, “While I thought I was learning to live, I have been learning how to die.” But death was not easy for him. With tears rolling down his sunken cheeks for “his wasted life,” he died on May 2, 1519—fighting even this final interruption to all his work.

King Francis I, who was at St. Germain-en-Laye with his court, wept when the news was brought to him. Francesco de’ Melzi was so overcome with grief that he waited until June before writing to the half-brothers of Leonardo of the Master’s death. He wrote, in part, “He was to me the best of fathers, and it is impossible for me to express the grief that his death has caused me. Until the day when my body is laid under the ground, I shall experience perpetual sorrow, and not without reason, for he daily showed me the most devoted and warmest affection.”

And in a closing paragraph Francesco added these words: “His loss is a grief to everyone, for it is not in the power of nature to reproduce another such man.”

14 _Mankind’s Debt to Leonardo_

When Leonardo died his notebooks began their separate journeys into obscurity. They traveled to different lands and became parts of widely disparate collections. It has only been within the last fifty years that efforts were made to bring them all together between the covers of one volume—a dream that Leonardo himself entertained but never realized. As the manuscripts and drawings were brought to light, translated and published, the extraordinary scope of Leonardo’s scientific explorations was revealed.

Mathematician, anatomist, botanist, astronomer and geologist form only part of the long list of his accomplishments and give the clue to the man who considered all the natural world within his province of study. Because of the universality of Leonardo’s scientific thought he has been frequently mentioned as the forerunner of such men as Galileo Galilei, Sir Isaac Newton, James Watt, Francis Bacon and William Harvey. Although Leonardo cannot be credited with the actual discoveries that these men made, his methods of investigation pointed the way down the paths that they would follow.

The key to Leonardo’s methods lies in a quotation from his notes on vision. He wrote of vision as _saper vedere_—“to know how to see”—and he referred to the eye as “the window of the soul.” Again and again, he stressed the importance of observation and personal experience. Although he himself was well read, he emphasized that “science comes by observation not by authority.” His supreme talent for drawing underlines his credo and is inseparable from his science. What he saw in the natural world about him needed investigating. The results of these investigations were transformed into drawings as the most certain method for passing this knowledge along to others. The best example of this attitude is represented by his anatomical studies. To merely draw the living figure in front of him was not sufficient—it was imperative to know what he was drawing. He turned to the dissecting room and after intensive study produced some of the finest anatomical drawings in the world—and among the easiest for others to understand.

What Walter Pater wrote of the Renaissance—“in many things great rather by what it designed or aspired to than by what it actually achieved”—could be a summation of Leonardo’s own lifetime of effort in science. He labored to bring mankind from the morass of medieval superstitions onto the firm ground of natural facts. With an insatiable curiosity Leonardo attempted the impossible task of encompassing all knowledge. Thus he established his right to immortality—for it was an attempt that shone like a beacon in a world dark with ignorance.

_Significant Dates in Leonardo’s Life_

1452 April 15. Birth of Leonardo. 1467 Commences apprenticeship with Verrochio in Florence. 1478 Commissioned for altarpiece in the Palace of the Signoria. 1481 Commissioned to paint an altarpiece for Convent of San Donato. 1482-83(?) Leonardo leaves Florence for the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. 1483 Begins equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza for Ludovico. 1484-86 Plague in Milan. 1490 April 23. Recommences equestrian monument and starts book on light and shade. 1496 Meets with Fra Luca Pacioli, professor of mathematics. 1498 _The Last Supper_ completed. 1499 Apr. Land awarded to Leonardo near Porta Vercellina. Oct. French occupy Milan. Dec. Leonardo leaves Milan with Pacioli. 1500 Leonardo arrives in Mantua. Travels to Venice and returns to Florence. 1502 In the service of Cesare Borgia. 1503 Returns to Florence, commences work on a canal to sea. 1504 Begins the painting of battle of Anghiari. Father dies. Attempt at flight (?). 1506 May. Leaves Florence for Milan at summons of Charles d’Amboise, French military governor. 1507 Sept. Goes to Florence to settle father’s will. 1508 July. Returns to Milan. 1511 Works with Marc Antonio della Torre on anatomical research. 1512 French lose Milan. 1513 Leonardo leaves Milan for Rome. Serves Giuliano de’ Medici, brother of Pope Leo X. 1516 Leonardo leaves Rome for France to serve King Francis I. 1519 May 2. Death of Leonardo.

_Index_

A Abbaco, Benedetto dell’, 5 Adda river, 124 “Adoration of the Magi,” 29, 30 Adriatic, the, 62, 93 “Air conditioner,” 69 Air, study of, 65, 66, 99 “Alarm clock,” 57 Albert of Saxony, 81 Alessandria, fortress of, 83 Alfonso of Calabria, 38 Alps, the, 37, 67 Amadeo, Antonio, 58 Amadori, Albiera di Giovanni, 2 Amadori, Alessandro, 3, 111 Amboise, _see_ Chateau d’Amboise Amontons, 134 Anatomy, human, 52, 53, 107, 109, 119, 125-127, 138 Anchiano, 2 Anemometer, 65, 66 Anemoscope, 65 Anghiari, battle of, 103, 110, 113 Aquadello, 124 Aquila, Battista dell’, 139 Arabs, the, 54 Archimedes, 41, 67, 81, 134 Architecture, 50, 58 Argyropoulos, John, 17 Aristotle, 17, 23, 42, 48, 81, 89 Arithmetic, 77 Arithmetico, Benedetto, 16 Armored vehicle, 39, 40 Arno river, 25, 31, 96, 100-106, 109 Arrezzo, 93 Ascanio, Cardinal, 83 Astronomy, 80-82, 104, 105 Atlantic Ocean, 19 “Automobile,” 32, 33 Autopsies, 107 Avicenna, 53

B Bacon, Francis, 160 Bacon, Roger, 120 Badia, the, 7 Battista, 155, 157 Bayzid II, 94 Beatis, Antonio de’, 151 Bianca Maria, 64 Bible, the, 62, 104, 141 Birds, flight of, 24, 65, 66, 76, 99, 119 Black Death, _see_ Bubonic plague Blois, 152 Bologna, 144 Bombard, 26 Bombs, 39 Borgia, Cesare, 82, 86-97, 102, 139 Borgias, the, 102 Botticelli, Sandro, 33 Boureau, Guillaume, 156 Bramante, 68, 131 Bridge building, 95 Bubonic plague, 45-47 Buonarroti, Michelangelo, _see_ Michelangelo

C “Camera obscura,” 55 Campo Morto, battle of, 38 Cannon, 26, 33, 41 Caravaggio, siege of, 124 Cardano, Girolamo, 113 Carles, Geffroy, 115, 116 Carpentry, 135, 136 Cassano, castle of, 124 Castel’ Sant’ Angelo, 130 Caterina, 2 Cellini, Benvenuto, 100 Centrifugal pump, 121, 122 Cesena, 94 Chambord, castle of, 152 Charles d’Amboise, 94, 114-117, 121, 124, 127, 139 Chateau d’Amboise, 147-156 Cher river, 152 Christ, 30, 74, 77, 78 Church of the Annunciation of the Servite Order of Monks, 90 Church, the, 18, 48, 53, 63, 104, 145 Cioni, Andrea di Michele di Francesco de’, _see_ Verrochio, Andrea del City Planning, 44, 45, 47 City-states, 9, 10 Civitavecchia, 143, 144 Cloux, Manoir de, 148, 154, 156 Coins, minting of, 47 Collections, 4 Columbus, Christopher, 19 Constantinople, 95 Corte, Bernardino da, 83 Corte Vecchia, 56 Coulomb, A. C., 17, 134 Council of Eighty, 109 Council of Florence, 23, 106 Councilors and Tribunal of Venice, 89 Credi, Lorenzo di, 13 Cusanus, Cardinal, 42

D Dams, 101 Danti, Giovanni Battista, 96, 97 d’Aragona, Cardinal Luigi, 151 Darwin, 105 d’Auvergne, Madelaine, 153 David, statue of, 106 _De Ludo Geometrico_, 134 d’Este, Beatrice, 60, 61, 69, 86 d’Este, Isabella, 86, 87, 91 Diocletian, Emperor, 135 Diseases, 109 Dissection, 53, 126, 145 Diver’s suit, 89 Drawing, _see_ Painting Drum, mechanical, 61 Dynamics, 140

E Earth, the, 104, 105 Eclipse of the sun, 48 Einstein, 153 Equilibrium, 141 Euclid, 54, 91 Eye, the, 54, 55

F Ferdinand, King of Naples, 25, 27 Ferrara, 70 Ferrari, Ambrogio, 42 Fiesole, 111, 113, 156 Flemish painters, 15 Flight, of arrow, 82, 83 of birds, 24, 65, 66, 76, 99, 119 problems of, 70, 71, 75, 76, 96-100, 111-113 Florence, 7-19, 25-27, 32, 38, 53, 68, 93-96, 100-103 Flying machine, 70, 71, 75, 76, 112 Foix, Gaston de, 127 Forts, 88 Forum of the Caesars, 134 Four elements, 48 France, 67-69, 78, 82-84, 94, 114-120, 125, 127, 128, 139, 142-145, 152 Francis I, 143-145, 148-157 Fraternity of the Immaculate Conception, 43, 44, 47 Friction, 140, 141

G Galen, 52, 53 Galileo, Galilei, 134, 141, 160 Genoa, 143 Geocentric theory, _see_ Ptolemaic theory Geography, 18, 19 Geology, 103, 104 Geometry, 91, 134 Georg, 131, 133, 140, 143, 145 Geotropism, 79 Germany, 47, 69 Ghirlandaio, Domenico di Tommaso del, 33 Giocondo, Francesco del, 98 Giovanni “the Piper,” 100 Gonzaga, Francesco, 86 Gothic tradition, 50 Gravity, 140, 141 Greeks, the, 69 Guido, 23 Guild, 19

H Hadrian, Emperor, 130 Harvey, William, 126, 160 Heavens, observation of, 80 Heliocentric theory, 48, 81 Heliotropism, 79 Highmore, 53 Hippocrates, 52 Holy Roman Empire, 9 Hooke, Robert, 141 Horse, anatomy of the, 41 Hydraulic pump, 74, 122, 123 Hydraulics, 14 Hydrodynamics, 141 Hygrometer, 30, 31

I Imola, 95, 96 Inclination gauge, 66, 67 India, 18 _Introduction to Perspective, or the Function of the Eye_, 58 Inventions, 25-27, 38-40 Irradiation, 55 Irrigation, 101 Isabella of Aragon, 51 Isonzo river, 88 Istanbul, _see_ Constantinople

J Johannes, 133, 143, 145 Judas, 74, 77, 78

K King Charles VIII, 67-69, 78, 82, 120, 148

L Lake Como, 125 Lamps, 59 Lanfredini, Francesca, 2, 7 “Last Supper,” 30, 72, 74, 77, 92, 99, 138 League of Cambria, 124 Leghorn, 100 Leibig, 41 Leonardo da Vinci, and the Church, 18, 48, 104, 145 birth of, 2 death of, 157 early years of, 1-8 illness of, 142, 150 moves to Florence, 10 notebooks of, 25, 29, 140, 152, 159, 160 Levite, 118 _Light and Shade_, 54 Lighting, 59 Lilienthal, Otto, 100 Livoli river, 139 Loches, 92 Loire river, 147, 149, 152 Lombardy, 37, 62, 78, 82, 83, 121,148 Louis XII (of Orleans), 78, 82, 92, 94, 114, 116, 119, 124, 142, 157 Louvre, the, 44 Lucullus, 130 Lyons, 152 Lyre, silver, 34, 35

M Machiavelli, Niccolò, 96, 100, 102, 106, 109 Machine gun, 27 Machinery, improvement of, 16 Madonna Lisa, _see_ Mona Lisa Malaria, 139 Mandeville, Sir John, 103 Manenti, 88 Mantua, 84, 86, 87 Mapmaking, 19, 93, 95, 96, 100, 101 Martelli, Piero, 118 Martini, Francesco di Giorgio, 58 Martino river, 139 Mathurine, 156, 157 Maximilian I, 64 Medici, Giovanni de’, 130 Medici, Giuliano de’, 21, 130, 132, 138-146 Medici, Lorenzo de’, 16, 21, 26, 27, 29, 35, 39, 127, 130, 132, 146, 153 Medici, Piero de’, 10, 16 Medicis, the, 10, 21, 23, 26, 27, 33, 34, 68, 130, 131, 140, 142, 146 Melzi, Francesco de’, 117, 128, 130, 140, 142, 145, 150, 155, 157, 158 Michelangelo, 106, 107, 113, 131, 137, 144, 145 Middle Ages, 81, 104 Migliorotti, Atalante, 35-38, 87 Milan, 9, 33-48, 60, 64, 68, 78, 82, 83, 85, 95, 114-128, 143, 144 Milan cathedral, 50 Military, defenses, 88, 89 machines, 25-27, 33, 38-40 Millstones, 75 Mitre valve, 123 Mirrors, 133 “Mona Lisa,” 99, 103 Monferrato, 62 Monte Albano, 1, 2, 5 Monte Cecero, 113 Montorfano, 72 Muscles, 109, 119 Music, 34, 35

N Naples, 9, 27, 68, 69 Needle sharpener, 75 Netherlands, the, 95 Newton, Isaac, 24, 56, 123, 141, 160 Newton’s First Law of Motion, 123 Newton’s law of gravitation, 83 _Notes_, 14 Novara, battle of, 92

O Odometer, 69 Oggionno, Marco d’, 58 Orient, the, 89 Ornithopter, 111, 112

P Pacioli, Fra Luca, 76, 77, 80, 84, 86-91, 133 Padua, 125 Painting, 4-7, 29-32, 43, 44, 71, 72, 91, 99, 105, 110, 112 Palatine hill, 135 Palazzo della Signoria, 12, 21-25, 103 Palazzo Vecchio, 12 Parachute, 71 Paris, 44 Parma, 138 Pater, Walter, 161 Pavia, 51, 58, 125 Pazzi conspiracy, 21, 23, 25 Pazzi, Francesco de’, 23 Pera, 95 “Periscope,” the, 89 Perugia, 96 Perugino, Pietro, 13, 33, 107 Pesaro, 93 Peschiera, 124 Pharisee, 118 Philiberta, 142 Phyllotaxis, 79 Physics, 17 Piazzetta, the, 87 Pincio hill, 130 Piombino, 93, 139, 154 Pisa, 25, 100-102, 110 Pitti Palace, 31 Plague, _see_ Bubonic plague Plants, study of, 79, 80 Platonic school, 54 Pliny, 23 Plutarch, 81 Pollaiuolo, 53 Ponte Vecchio, 31 Pontine marshes, 139, 154 Pope Alexander VI, 82, 92, 102 Pope Innocent VIII, 63 Pope Julius II, 124, 127, 128, 130, 131 Pope Leo X, 130-132, 139, 142-146, 153 Pope Sixtus IV, 21, 33 Porta del Popolo, 129 Porta Romana, 29 Porta Vercellina, 79, 115 Porto Cesanatico, 94 Portugal, 26 Predis, Bernardino de, 47 Predis, Giovanni Ambrogio de, 43, 44, 47, 56 Ptolemaic theory, 48 Ptolemy, 23, 54, 103

Q Queen Claude, 152

R Raphael, 107, 131, 137 Ravenna, battle of, 127 Red Book of the Painters of Florence, 19 Reflection, law of, 56 Renaissance, 89, 104, 125, 161 Riario, Girolamo, 21, 38 Rimini, 93 Rome, 9, 33, 47, 69, 128-146 Romorantin, 150, 152 Rosate, Ambrogio da, 63 Rumford, 56 Rustici, Giovanni, 118

S “St. Anne with the Virgin and Child,” 91, 92 St. Augustine, 42 Saint-Denis church, 157 St. Germain-en-Laye, 157 Saint-Hubert, chapel of, 153, 157 St. John, 118, 154 St. John the Baptist, 151 St. Luke, 19 St. Mary of the Virgin, 96 St. Peter’s, church of, 131 Salai, 86, 115 Salviati, Francesco, 21 San Bernardo, chapel of, 23 San Cristoforo, 157 San Donato a Scopeto, 29 San Lorenzo, 144, 145 San Marco, Little Square of, 87 Sanseverino, Galeazzo da, 82, 83 Sant’ Onofrio, hospital, 107 Santa Croce, church of, 107 Santa Maria delle Grazie, 71, 78 Santa Maria Novella, 107 Sanzio, Raffaello, _see_ Raphael Savoy, 142 Scarlione, Bartolommeo degli, 43 Sculpture, 41, 49, 52-54, 58-64, 118 Sforza, Duke Gian Galeazzo, 51, 56, 68, 120 Sforza, Francesco, 41, 47, 49, 61, 64 Sforza, Francesco (child), 68 Sforza, Ludovico, 33-47, 51, 52, 56, 57, 60-72, 76-79, 82-84, 92, 115, 117, 120, 138, 146, 154 Sforza monument, 49-59, 61, 64, 120 Sforzas, the, 40, 56, 57, 71, 79, 83, 117, 120, 154 Shells, 62, 63 Signoria, the, 96, 100-106, 110, 114, 116 Sistine Chapel, 33, 132, 137 Soderini, Piero, 103, 106, 109, 114-116 Sologne, 154 Spain, 18, 69, 127, 139, 142, 143 Statics, 140 Steam, 41 Strabo, 23, 103, 104 Swiss, 127, 128, 143

T Ticino gate, 44 Torre, Marcantonio della, 125, 128 Toscanelli, Paolo del Pozzo, 18, 19, 42, 93 Touraine, 92 Trivulzio, Marshal Gian Giacomo, 120, 121, 125, 128, 143 Turks, the, 87-90, 94 Tuscany, 93 Tyrrhenian coast, 143

U Uffizi Gallery, 25, 32 University of Padua, 125 University of Pavia, 63 Urbino, 93

V Valentinois, Duke of, _see_ Borgia, Cesare Valois, Marguerite de, 150 Vatican, the, 47, 130-145 Venice, 9, 69, 87-89, 124, 125, 127 Verrochio, Andrea del, 7, 12-19, 23, 118 Via Ghibellina, 90 Vigevano, 68, 75 Vinci, 2, 13 Vinci, da, Giuliano, 117 Vinci, da, Piero, 2-7, 10, 12, 90, 106, 117 “Virgin of the Rocks,” 44 Vitellozzo, 93 Vitruvius, 77

W Water, study of, 67, 101, 102, 121, 122 Watt, James, 160 Witelo, 58

Y Yugoslavia, 88

Transcriber’s Notes

—Silently corrected a few typos.

—Retained publication information from the printed edition: this eBook is public-domain in the country of publication.

—In the text versions only, text in italics is delimited by _underscores_.