The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci

Page 694

Short liberty.

Page 693

Fame alone raises herself to Heaven,
because virtuous things are in favour with God.

Disgrace should be represented upside
down, because all her deeds are contrary to
God and tend to hell.

Page 692

Prudence Strength.

Page 691

Love, Fear, and Esteem,--
Write these on three stones. Of servants.

Page 690

Constancy does not begin, but is that
which perseveres.

[Footnote: A drawing in red chalk, also rubbed, which stands in the
original in the middle of this text, seems to me to be intended for
a sword hilt, held in a fist.]

Page 689

Thus are base unions sundered.

[Footnote: A much blurred sketch is on the page by this text. It
seems to represent an unravelled plait or tissue.]

Page 688

On this side Adam and Eve on the other;
O misery of mankind, of how many things do
you make yourself the slave for money!

[Footnote: See PI. LXIV. The figures of Adam and Eve in the clouds
here alluded to would seem to symbolise their superiority to all
earthly needs.]

Page 687

TO REPRESENT INGRATITUDE.

When the sun appears
which dispels darkness in
general, you put out the
light which dispelled it
for you in particular
for your need and convenience.

Page 686

This shall be placed in the
hand of Ingratitude.
Wood nourishes the fire that
consumes it.

Page 685

Movement will cease before we are
weary
of being useful.

Movement will fail sooner than usefulness.
Death sooner than I am never weary of
weariness. being useful,
In serving others I is a motto for carnval.
cannot do enough. Without fatigue.

No labour is
sufficient to tire me.

Hands into which
ducats and precious
stones fall like snow; they
never become tired by serving,
but this service is only for its
utility and not for our I am never weary
own benefit. of being useful.

Naturally
nature has so disposed me.

Page 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, that is gold.

Truth at last cannot be hidden.
Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is
to no purpose before
so great a judge.
Falsehood puts on a mask.
Nothing is hidden under the sun.

Fire is to represent truth because it
destroys all sophistry and lies; and the
mask is for lying and falsehood
which conceal truth.

Page 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.]

Page 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.]

Page 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].

Page 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: "_Oltreche 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
Bibliotheque 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._"

Durer 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. Durer 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.]

Page 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.