The Nots of Leonardo Da Vinci | Page 7

the early part of the XVIth
century Piero di Braccio Martelli is frequently mentioned as

Commissario della Signoria. He was famous for his learning and at his
death left four books on Mathematics ready for the press; comp. LITTA,
Famiglie celebri Italiane, Famiglia Martelli di Firenze.--In the Official
Catalogue of MSS. in the Brit. Mus., New Series Vol. I., where this
passage is printed, Barto has been wrongly given for Braccio.
2. _addi 22 di marzo 1508_. The Christian era was computed in
Florence at that time from the Incarnation (Lady day, March 25th).
Hence this should be 1509 by our reckoning.
3. racolto tratto di molte carte le quali io ho qui copiate. We must
suppose that Leonardo means that he has copied out his own MSS. and
not those of others. The first thirteen leaves of the MS. in the Brit. Mus.
are a fair copy of some notes on physics.]
Suggestions for the arrangement of MSS treating of particular
subjects.(5-8).
5.
Of digging a canal. Put this in the Book of useful inventions and in
proving them bring forward the propositions already proved. And this
is the proper order; since if you wished to show the usefulness of any
plan you would be obliged again to devise new machines to prove its
utility and thus would confuse the order of the forty Books and also the
order of the diagrams; that is to say you would have to mix up practice
with theory, which would produce a confused and incoherent work.
6.
I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on
science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion.
7.
The Book of the science of Mechanics must precede the Book of useful
inventions.--Have your books on anatomy bound! [Footnote: 4. The
numerous notes on anatomy written on loose leaves and now in the

Royal collection at Windsor can best be classified in four Books,
corresponding to the different character and size of the paper. When
Leonardo speaks of '_li tua libri di notomia_', he probably means the
MSS. which still exist; if this hypothesis is correct the present condition
of these leaves might seem to prove that he only carried out his purpose
with one of the Books on anatomy. A borrowed book on Anatomy is
mentioned in F.O.]
8.
The order of your book must proceed on this plan: first simple beams,
then (those) supported from below, then suspended in part, then wholly
[suspended]. Then beams as supporting other weights [Footnote: 4.
Leonardo's notes on Mechanics are extraordinarily numerous; but, for
the reasons assigned in my introduction, they have not been included in
the present work.].
General introductions to the book on Painting (9-13).
9.
INTRODUCTION.
Seeing that I can find no subject specially useful or pleasing--since the
men who have come before me have taken for their own every useful or
necessary theme--I must do like one who, being poor, comes last to the
fair, and can find no other way of providing himself than by taking all
the things already seen by other buyers, and not taken but refused by
reason of their lesser value. I, then, will load my humble pack with this
despised and rejected merchandise, the refuse of so many buyers; and
will go about to distribute it, not indeed in great cities, but in the poorer
towns, taking such a price as the wares I offer may be worth. [Footnote:
It need hardly be pointed out that there is in this 'Proemio' a covert
irony. In the second and third prefaces, Leonardo characterises his
rivals and opponents more closely. His protest is directed against
Neo-latinism as professed by most of the humanists of his time; its
futility is now no longer questioned.]

10.
INTRODUCTION.
I know that many will call this useless work [Footnote: 3. questa essere
opera inutile. By opera we must here understand libro di pittura and
particularly the treatise on Perspective.]; and they will be those of
whom Demetrius [Footnote: 4. Demetrio. "With regard to the passage
attributed to Demetrius", Dr. H. MÜLLER STRÜBING writes, "I know
not what to make of it. It is certainly not Demetrius Phalereus that is
meant and it can hardly be Demetrius Poliorcetes. Who then can it
be--for the name is a very common one? It may be a clerical error for
Demades and the maxim is quite in the spirit of his writings I have not
however been able to find any corresponding passage either in the
'Fragments' (C. MULLER, _Orat. Att._, II. 441) nor in the Supplements
collected by DIETZ (_Rhein. Mus._, vol. 29, p. 108)."
The same passage occurs as a simple Memorandum in the MS. Tr. 57,
apparently as a note for this '_Proemio_' thus affording some data as to
the time