The Nots of Leonardo Da Vinci | Page 3

the reader may reconstruct the original order of
the Manuscripts and recompose the various texts to be found on the
original sheets--so much of it, that is to say, as by its subject-matter
came within the scope of this work. It may, however, be here observed
that Leonardo s Manuscripts contain, besides the passages here printed,
a great number of notes and dissertations on Mechanics, Physics, and
some other subjects, many of which could only be satisfactorily dealt
with by specialists. I have given as complete a review of these writings
as seemed necessary in the Bibliographical notes.
In 1651, Raphael Trichet Dufresne, of Paris, published a selection from
Leonardo's writings on painting, and this treatise became so popular
that it has since been reprinted about two-and-twenty times, and in six
different languages. But none of these editions were derived from the
original texts, which were supposed to have been lost, but from early
copies, in which Leonardo's text had been more or less mutilated, and
which were all fragmentary. The oldest and on the whole the best copy
of Leonardo's essays and precepts on Painting is in the Vatican Library;
this has been twice printed, first by Manzi, in 1817, and secondly by
Ludwig, in 1882. Still, this ancient copy, and the published editions of
it, contain much for which it would be rash to hold Leonardo
responsible, and some portions--such as the very important rules for the
proportions of the human figure--are wholly wanting; on the other hand
they contain passages which, if they are genuine, cannot now be
verified from any original Manuscript extant. These copies, at any rate
neither give us the original order of the texts, as written by Leonardo,
nor do they afford any substitute, by connecting them on a rational
scheme; indeed, in their chaotic confusion they are anything rather than
satisfactory reading. The fault, no doubt, rests with the compiler of the

Vatican copy, which would seem to be the source whence all the
published and extensively known texts were derived; for, instead of
arranging the passages himself, he was satisfied with recording a
suggestion for a final arrangement of them into eight distinct parts,
without attempting to carry out his scheme. Under the mistaken idea
that this plan of distribution might be that, not of the compiler, but of
Leonardo himself, the various editors, down to the present day, have
very injudiciously continued to adopt this order--or rather disorder.
I, like other enquirers, had given up the original Manuscript of the
Trattato della Pittura for lost, till, in the beginning of 1880, I was
enabled, by the liberality of Lord Ashburnham, to inspect his
Manuscripts, and was so happy as to discover among them the original
text of the best-known portion of the Trattato in his magnificent library
at Ashburnham Place. Though this discovery was of a fragment
only--but a considerable fragment--inciting me to further search, it gave
the key to the mystery which had so long enveloped the first origin of
all the known copies of the Trattato. The extensive researches I was
subsequently enabled to prosecute, and the results of which are
combined in this work, were only rendered possible by the unrestricted
permission granted me to investigate all the Manuscripts by Leonardo
dispersed throughout Europe, and to reproduce the highly important
original sketches they contain, by the process of "photogravure". Her
Majesty the Queen graciously accorded me special permission to copy
for publication the Manuscripts at the Royal Library at Windsor. The
Commission Centrale Administrative de l'Institut de France, Paris, gave
me, in the most liberal manner, in answer to an application from Sir
Frederic Leighton, P. R. A., Corresponding member of the Institut, free
permission to work for several months in their private collection at
deciphering the Manuscripts preserved there. The same favour which
Lord Ashburnham had already granted me was extended to me by the
Earl of Leicester, the Marchese Trivulsi, and the Curators of the
Ambrosian Library at Milan, by the Conte Manzoni at Rome and by
other private owners of Manuscripts of Leonardo's; as also by the
Directors of the Louvre at Paris; the Accademia at Venice; the Uffizi at
Florence; the Royal Library at Turin; and the British Museum, and the
South Kensington Museum. I am also greatly indebted to the Librarians

of these various collections for much assistance in my labours; and
more particularly to Monsieur Louis Lalanne, of the Institut de France,
the Abbate Ceriani, of the Ambrosian Library, Mr. Maude Thompson,
Keeper of Manuscripts at the British Museum, Mr. Holmes, the Queens
Librarian at Windsor, the Revd Vere Bayne, Librarian of Christ Church
College at Oxford, and the Revd A. Napier, Librarian to the Earl of
Leicester at Holkham Hall.
In correcting the Italian text for the press, I have had the