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Section 23 of 32 - Table of Contents
1055.
At Candia in Lombardy, near Alessandria della Paglia, in making a
well for Messer Gualtieri [Footnote 2: Messer Gualtieri, the same
probably as is mentioned in Nos. 672 and 1344.] of Candia, the
skeleton of a very large boat was found about 10 braccia
underground; and as the timber was black and fine, it seemed good to
the said Messer Gualtieri to have the mouth of the well lengthened
in such a way as that the ends of the boat should be uncovered.
1056.
At Alessandria della Paglia in Lombardy there are no stones for
making lime of, but such as are mixed up with an infinite variety of
things native to the sea, which is now more than 200 miles away.
The Alps (1057-1062).
1057.
At Monbracco, above Saluzzo,--a mile above the Certosa, at the foot
of Monte Viso, there is a quarry of flakey stone, which is as white
as Carrara marble, without a spot, and as hard as porphyry or even
harder; of which my worthy gossip, Master Benedetto the sculptor,
has promised to give me a small slab, for the colours, the second
day of January 1511.
[Footnote: Saluzzo at the foot of the Alps South of Turin.]
[Footnote 9. 10.: _Maestro Benedetto scultore_; probably some native
of Northern Italy acquainted with the place here described. Hardly
the Florentine sculptor Benedetto da Majano. Amoretti had published
this passage, and M. Ravaisson who gave a French translation of it
in the _Gazette des Beaux Arts_ (1881, pag. 528), remarks as
follows: _Le maitre sculpteur que Leonard appelle son "compare" ne
serait-il pas Benedetto da Majano, un de ceux qui jugerent avec lui
de la place a donner au David de Michel-Ange, et de qui le Louvre a
acquis recemment un buste d'apres Philippe Strozzi?_ To this it may
be objected that Benedetto da Majano had already lain in his grave
fourteen years, in the year 1511, when he is supposed to have given
the promise to Leonardo. The colours may have been given to the
sculptor Benedetto and the stone may have been in payment for them.
>From the description of the stone here given we may conclude that it
is repeated from hearsay of the sculptor's account of it. I do not
understand how, from this observation, it is possible to conclude
that Leonardo was on the spot.]
1058.
That there are springs which suddenly break forth in earthquakes or
other convulsions and suddenly fail; and this happened in a mountain
in Savoy where certain forests sank in and left a very deep gap, and
about four miles from here the earth opened itself like a gulf in
the mountain, and threw out a sudden and immense flood of water
which scoured the whole of a little valley of the tilled soil,
vineyards and houses, and did the greatest mischief, wherever it
overflowed.
1059.
The river Arve, a quarter of a mile from Geneva in Savoy, where the
fair is held on midsummerday in the village of Saint Gervais.
[Footnote: An indistinct sketch is to be seen by the text.]
1060.
And this may be seen, as I saw it, by any one going up Monbroso
[Footnote: I have vainly enquired of every available authority for a
solution of the mystery as to what mountain is intended by the name
Monboso (Comp. Vol. I Nos. 300 and 301). It seems most obvious to
refer it to Monte Rosa. ROSA derived from the Keltic ROS which
survives in Breton and in Gaelic, meaning, in its first sense, a
mountain spur, but which also--like HORN--means a very high peak;
thus Monte Rosa would mean literally the High Peak.], a peak of the
Alps which divide France from Italy. The base of this mountain gives
birth to the 4 rivers which flow in four different directions
through the whole of Europe. And no mountain has its base at so
great a height as this, which lifts itself above almost all the
clouds; and snow seldom falls there, but only hail in the summer,
when the clouds are highest. And this hail lies [unmelted] there, so
that if it were not for the absorption of the rising and falling
clouds, which does not happen more than twice in an age, an enormous
mass of ice would be piled up there by the layers of hail, and in
the middle of July I found it very considerable; and I saw the sky
above me quite dark, and the sun as it fell on the mountain was far
brighter here than in the plains below, because a smaller extent of
atmosphere lay between the summit of the mountain and the sun.
[Footnote 6: _in una eta._ This is perhaps a slip of the pen on
Leonardo's part and should be read _estate_ (summer).]
Leic. 9b]
1061.
In the mountains of Verona the red marble is found all mixed with
cockle shells turned into stone; some of them have been filled at
the mouth with the cement which is the substance of the stone; and
in some parts they have remained separate from the mass of the rock
which enclosed them, because the outer covering of the shell had
interposed and had not allowed them to unite with it; while in other
places this cement had petrified those which were old and almost
stripped the outer skin.
1062.
Bridge of Goertz-Wilbach (?).
[Footnote: There is a slight sketch with this text, Leonardo seems
to have intended to suggest, with a few pen-strokes, the course of
the Isonzo and of the Wipbach in the vicinity of Gorizia (Goerz). He
himself says in another place that he had been in Friuli (see No.
1077 1. 19).]
The Appenins (1063-1068).
1063.
That part of the earth which was lightest remained farthest from the
centre of the world; and that part of the earth became the lightest
over which the greatest quantity of water flowed. And therefore that
part became lightest where the greatest number of rivers flow; like
the Alps which divide Germany and France from Italy; whence issue
the Rhone flowing Southwards, and the Rhine to the North. The Danube
or Tanoia towards the North East, and the Po to the East, with
innumerable rivers which join them, and which always run turbid with
the soil carried by them to the sea.
The shores of the sea are constantly moving towards the middle of
the sea and displace it from its original position. The lowest
portion of the Mediterranean will be reserved for the bed and
current of the Nile, the largest river that flows into that sea. And
with it are grouped all its tributaries, which at first fell into
the sea; as may be seen with the Po and its tributaries, which first
fell into that sea, which between the Appenines and the German Alps
was united to the Adriatic sea.
That the Gallic Alps are the highest part of Europe.
1064.
And of these I found some in the rocks of the high Appenines and
mostly at the rock of La Vernia. [Footnote 6: _Sasso della Vernia._
The frowning rock between the sources of the Arno and the Tiber, as
Dante describes this mountain, which is 1269 metres in height.
This note is written by the side of that given as No. 1020; but
their connection does not make it clear what Leonardo's purpose was
in writing it.]
1065.
At Parma, at 'La Campana' on the twenty-fifth of October 1514.
[Footnote 2: _Capano_, an Inn.]
A note on the petrifactions, or fossils near Parma will be found
under No. 989.]
1066.
A method for drying the marsh of Piombino. [Footnote: There is a
slight sketch with this text in the original.--Piombino is also
mentioned in Nos. 609, l. 55-58 (compare Pl. XXXV, 3, below). Also
in No. 1035.]
1067.
The shepherds in the Romagna at the foot of the Apennines make
peculiar large cavities in the mountains in the form of a horn, and
on one side they fasten a horn. This little horn becomes one and the
same with the said cavity and thus they produce by blowing into it a
very loud noise. [Footnote: As to the Romagna see also No. 1046.]
1068.
A spring may be seen to rise in Sicily which at certain times of the
year throws out chesnut leaves in quantities; but in Sicily chesnuts
do not grow, hence it is evident that that spring must issue from
some abyss in Italy and then flow beneath the sea to break forth in
Sicily. [Footnote: The chesnut tree is very common in Sicily. In
writing _cicilia_ Leonardo meant perhaps Cilicia.]
II.
FRANCE.
1069.
GERMANY. FRANCE.
a. Austria, a. Picardy.
b. Saxony. b. Normandy.
c. Nuremberg. c. Dauphine.
d. Flanders.
SPAIN.
a. Biscay.
b. Castille.
c. Galicia.
d. Portugal.
e. Taragona.
f. Granada.
[Footnote: Two slightly sketched maps, one of Europe the other of
Spain, are at the side of these notes.]
1070.
Perpignan. Roanne. Lyons. Paris. Ghent. Bruges. Holland.
[Footnote: _Roana_ does not seem to mean here Rouen in Normandy, but
is probably Roanne (Rodumna) on the upper Loire, Lyonnais (Dep. du
Loire). This town is now unimportant, but in Leonardo's time was
still a place of some consequence.]
1071.
At Bordeaux in Gascony the sea rises about 40 braccia before its
ebb, and the river there is filled with salt water for more than a
hundred and fifty miles; and the vessels which are repaired there
rest high and dry on a high hill above the sea at low tide.
[Footnote 2: This is obviously an exaggeration founded on inaccurate
information. Half of 150 miles would be nearer the mark.]
1072.
The Rhone issues from the lake of Geneva and flows first to the West
and then to the South, with a course of 400 miles and pours its
waters into the Mediterranean.
1073.
_c d_ is the garden at Blois; _a b_ is the conduit of Blois, made in
France by Fra Giocondo, _b c_ is what is wanting in the height of
that conduit, _c d_ is the height of the garden at Blois, _e f_ is
the siphon of the conduit, _b c_, _e f_, _f g_ is where the siphon
discharges into the river. [Footnote: The tenor of this note (see
lines 2 and 3) seems to me to indicate that this passage was not
written in France, but was written from oral information. We have no
evidence as to when this note may have been written beyond the
circumstance that Fra Giocondo the Veronese Architect left France
not before the year 1505. The greater part of the magnificent
Chateau of Blois has now disappeared. Whether this note was made for
a special purpose is uncertain. The original form and extent of the
Chateau is shown in Androvet, _Les plus excellents Bastiments de
France, Paris MDCVII,_ and it may be observed that there is in the
middle of the garden a Pavilion somewhat similar to that shown on
Pl. LXXXVIII No. 7.
See S. DE LA SAUSSAYE, _Histoire du Chateau de Blois 4eme edition
Blois et Paris_ p. 175: _En mariant sa fille ainee a Francois, comte
d'Angouleme, Louis XII lui avait constitue en dot les comtes de
Blois, d'Asti, de Coucy, de Montfort, d'Etampes et de Vertus. Une
ordonnance de Francois I. lui laissa en_ 1516 _l'administration du
comte de Blois.
Le roi fit commencer, dans la meme annee, les travaux de celle belle
partie du chateau, connue sous le nom d'aile de Francois I, et dont
nous avons donne la description au commencement de ce livre. Nous
trouvons en effet, dans les archives du Baron de Foursanvault, une
piece qui en fixe parfaitement la date. On y lit: "Je, Baymon
Philippeaux, commis par le Roy a tenir le compte et fair le payement
des bastiments, ediffices et reparacions que le dit seigneur fait
faire en son chastu de Blois, confesse avoir eu et receu ... la
somme de trois mille livres tournois ... le cinquieme jour de
juillet, l'an mil cinq cent et seize._ P. 24: _Les jardins avaient
ete decores avec beaucoup de luxe par les differents possesseurs du
chateau. Il ne reste de tous les batiments qu'ils y eleverent que
ceux des officiers charges de l'ad_ministration et de la culture des
jardins, et un pavilion carre en pierre et en brique flanque de
terrasses a chacun de ses angles. Quoique defigure par des mesures
elevees sur les terrasses, cet edifice est tris-digne d'interet par
l'originalite du plan, la decoration architecturale et le souvenir
d'Anne de Bretagne qui le fit construire._ Felibien describes the
garden as follows: _Le jardin haut etait fort bien dresse par grands
compartimens de toutes sortes de figures, avec des allees de
meuriers blancs et des palissades de coudriers. Deux grands berceaux
de charpenterie separoient toute la longueur et la largeur du
jardin, et dans les quatres angles des allees, ou ces berceaux se
croissent, il y auoit 4 cabinets, de mesme charpenterie ... Il y a
pas longtemps qu'il y auoit dans ce mesme jardin, a l'endroit ou se
croissent les allees du milieu, un edifice de figure octogone, de
plus de 7 thoises de diametre et de plus de neuf thoises de haut;
avec 4 enfoncements en forme de niches dans les 4 angles des allies.
Ce bastiment.... esloit de charpente mais d'un extraordinairement
bien travaille. On y voyait particulierement la cordiliere qui
regnati tout autour en forme de cordon. Car la Reyne affectait de la
mettre nonseulement a ses armes et a ses chiffres mais de la faire
representer en divers manieres dans tous les ouvrages qu'on lui
faisait pour elle ... le bastiment estati couvert en forme de dome
qui dans son milieu avait encore un plus petit dome, ou lanterne
vitree au-dessus de laquelle estait une figure doree representant
Saint Michel. Les deux domes estoient proprement couvert d'ardoise
et de plomb dore par dehors; par dedans ils esloient lambrissez
d'une menuiserie tres delicate. Au milieu de ce Salon il y avait un
grand bassin octogone de marbre blanc, dont toutes les faces
estoient enrichies de differentes sculptures, avec les armes et les
chiffres du Roy Louis XII et de la Reine Anne, Dans ce bassin il y
en avait un autre pose sur un piedestal lequel auoit sept piedz de
diametre. Il estait de figure ronde a godrons, avec des masques et
d'autres ornements tres scauamment taillez. Du milieu de ce
deuxiesme bassin s'y levoit un autre petit piedestal qui portait un
troisiesme bassin de trois pieds de diametre, aussy parfaitement
bien taille; c'estoit de ce dernier bassin que jallissoit l'eau qui
se rependoit en suitte dans les deux autres bassins. Les beaux
ouvrages faits d'un marbre esgalement blanc et poli, furent brisez
par la pesanteur de tout l'edifice, que les injures de l'air
renverserent de fond en comble.]
1074.
The river Loire at Amboise.
The river is higher within the bank _b d_ than outside that bank.
The island where there is a part of Amboise.
This is the river that passes through Amboise; it passes at _a b c
d_, and when it has passed the bridge it turns back, against the
original current, by the channel _d e_, _b f_ in contact with the
bank which lies between the two contrary currents of the said river,
_a b_, _c d_, and _d e_, _b f_. It then turns down again by the
channel _f l_, _g h_, _n m_, and reunites with the river from which
it was at first separated, which passes by _k n_, which makes _k m_,
_r t_. But when the river is very full it flows all in one channel
passing over the bank _b d_. [Footnote: See Pl. CXV. Lines 1-7 are
above, lines 8-10 in the middle of the large island and the word
_Isola_ is written above _d_ in the smaller island; _a_ is written
on the margin on the bank of the river above 1. I; in the
reproduction it is not visible. As may be seen from the last
sentence, the observation was made after long study of the river's
course, when Leonardo had resided for some time at, or near,
Amboise.]
1075.
The water may be dammed up above the level of Romorantin to such a
height, that in its fall it may be used for numerous mills.
1075.
The river at Villefranche may be conducted to Romorantin which may
be done by the inhabitants; and the timber of which their houses are
built may be carried in boats to Romorantin [Footnote: Compare No.
744.]. The river may be dammed up at such a height that the waters
may be brought back to Romorantin with a convenient fall.
1076.
As to whether it is better that the water should all be raised in a
single turn or in two?
The answer is that in one single turn the wheel could not support
all the water that it can raise in two turns, because at the half
turn of the wheel it would be raising 100 pounds and no more; and if
it had to raise the whole, 200 pounds in one turn, it could not
raise them unless the wheel were of double the diameter and if the
diameter were doubled, the time of its revolution would be doubled;
therefore it is better and a greater advantage in expense to make
such a wheel of half the size (?) the land which it would water and
would render the country fertile to supply food to the inhabitants,
and would make navigable canals for mercantile purposes.
The way in which the river in its flow should scour its own channel.
By the ninth of the third; the more rapid it is, the more it wears
away its channel; and, by the converse proposition, the slower the
water the more it deposits that which renders it turbid.
And let the sluice be movable like the one I arranged in Friuli
[Footnote 19: This passage reveals to us the fact that Leonardo had
visited the country of Friuli and that he had stayed there for some
time. Nothing whatever was known of this previously.], where when
one sluice was opened the water which passed through it dug out the
bottom. Therefore when the rivers are flooded, the sluices of the
mills ought to be opened in order that the whole course of the river
may pass through falls to each mill; there should be many in order
to give a greater impetus, and so all the river will be scoured. And
below the site of each of the two mills there may be one of the said
sluice falls; one of them may be placed below each mill.
1078.
A trabocco is four braccia, and one mile is three thousand of the
said braccia. Each braccio is divided into 12 inches; and the water
in the canals has a fall in every hundred trabocchi of two of these
inches; therefore 14 inches of fall are necessary in two thousand
eight hundred braccia of flow in these canals; it follows that 15
inches of fall give the required momentum to the currents of the
waters in the said canals, that is one braccio and a half in the
mile. And from this it may be concluded that the water taken from
the river of Ville-franche and lent to the river of Romorantin
will..... Where one river by reason of its low level cannot flow
into the other, it will be necessary to dam it up, so that it may
acquire a fall into the other, which was previously the higher.
The eve of Saint Antony I returned from Romorantin to Amboise, and
the King went away two days before from Romorantin.
>From Romorantin as far as the bridge at Saudre it is called the
Saudre, and from that bridge as far as Tours it is called the Cher.
I would test the level of that channel which is to lead from the
Loire to Romorantin, with a channel one braccio wide and one braccio
deep.
[Footnote: Lines 6-18 are partly reproduced in the facsimile on p.
254, and the whole of lines 19-25.
The following names are written along the rivers on the larger
sketch, _era f_ (the Loire) _scier f_ (the Cher) three times. _Pote
Sodro_ (bridge of the Soudre). _Villa francha_ (Villefranche)
_banco_ (sandbank) _Sodro_ (Soudre). The circle below shows the
position of Romorantin. The words '_orologio del sole_' written
below do not belong to the map of the rivers. The following names
are written by the side of the smaller sketch-map:--_tors_ (Tours),
_Abosa_ (Amboise) _bres_--for Bles (Blois) _mo rica_ (Montrichard).
_Lione_ (Lyons). This map was also published in the 'Saggio'
(Milano, 1872) Pl. XXII, and the editors remark: _Forse la linia
retta che va da Amboise a Romorantin segna l'andamento proposto d'un
Canale, che poi rembra prolungarsi in giu fin dove sta scritto
Lione._
M. Ravaisson has enlarged on this idea in the Gazette des Beaux Arts
(1881 p. 530): _Les traces de Leonard permettent d'entrevoir que le
canal commencant soit aupres de Tours, soit aupres de Blois et
passant par Romorantin, avec port d'embarquement a Villefranche,
devait, au dela de Bourges, traverser l'Allier au-dessous des
affluents de la Dore et de la Sioule, aller par Moulins jusqu' a
Digoin; enfin, sur l'autre rive de la Loire, depasser les monts du
Charolais et rejoindre la Saone aupres de Macon._ It seems to me
rash, however, to found so elaborate an hypothesis on these sketches
of rivers. The slight stroke going to _Lione_ is perhaps only an
indication of the direction.--With regard to the Loire compare also
No. 988. l. 38.]
1079.
THE ROAD TO ORLEANS
At 1/4 from the South to the South East. At 1/3 from the South to
the South East. At 1/4 from the South to the South East. At 1/5 from
the South to the South East. Between the South West and South, to
the East bearing to the South; from the South towards the East 1/8;
thence to the West, between the South and South West; at the South.
[Footnote: The meaning is obscure; a more important passage
referring to France is to be found under No. 744]
On the Germans (1080. 1081).
1080.
The way in which the Germans closing up together cross and
interweave their broad leather shields against the enemy, stooping
down and putting one of the ends on the ground while they hold the
rest in their hand. [Footnote: Above the text is a sketch of a few
lines crossing each other and the words _de ponderibus_. The meaning
of the passage is obscure.]
1081.
The Germans are wont to annoy a garrison with the smoke of feathers,
sulphur and realgar, and they make this smoke last 7 or 8 hours.
Likewise the husks of wheat make a great and lasting smoke; and also
dry dung; but this must be mixed with olive husks, that is olives
pressed for oil and from which the oil has been extracted.
[Footnote: There is with this passage a sketch of a round tower
shrouded in smoke.]
The Danube.
1082.
That the valleys were formerly in great part covered by lakes the
soil of which always forms the banks of rivers,--and by seas, which
afterwards, by the persistent wearing of the rivers, cut through the
mountains and the wandering courses of the rivers carried away the
other plains enclosed by the mountains; and the cutting away of the
mountains is evident from the strata in the rocks, which correspond
in their sections as made by the courses of the rivers [Footnote 4:
_Emus_, the Balkan; _Dardania_, now Servia.], The Haemus mountains
which go along Thrace and Dardania and join the Sardonius mountains
which, going on to the westward change their name from Sardus to
Rebi, as they come near Dalmatia; then turning to the West cross
Illyria, now called Sclavonia, changing the name of Rebi to Albanus,
and going on still to the West, they change to Mount Ocra in the
North; and to the South above Istria they are named Caruancas; and
to the West above Italy they join the Adula, where the Danube rises
[8], which stretches to the East and has a course of 1500 miles; its
shortest line is about l000 miles, and the same or about the same is
that branch of the Adula mountains changed as to their name, as
before mentioned. To the North are the Carpathians, closing in the
breadth of the valley of the Danube, which, as I have said extends
eastward, a length of about 1000 miles, and is sometimes 200 and in
some places 300 miles wide; and in the midst flows the Danube, the
principal river of Europe as to size. The said Danube runs through
the middle of Austria and Albania and northwards through Bavaria,
Poland, Hungary, Wallachia and Bosnia and then the Danube or Donau
flows into the Black Sea, which formerly extended almost to Austria
and occupied the plains through which the Danube now courses; and
the evidence of this is in the oysters and cockle shells and
scollops and bones of great fishes which are still to be found in
many places on the sides of those mountains; and this sea was formed
by the filling up of the spurs of the Adula mountains which then
extended to the East joining the spurs of the Taurus which extend to
the West. And near Bithynia the waters of this Black Sea poured into
the Propontis [Marmora] falling into the Aegean Sea, that is the
Mediterranean, where, after a long course, the spurs of the Adula
mountains became separated from those of the Taurus. The Black Sea
sank lower and laid bare the valley of the Danube with the above
named countries, and the whole of Asia Minor beyond the Taurus range
to the North, and the plains from mount Caucasus to the Black Sea to
the West, and the plains of the Don this side--that is to say, at
the foot of the Ural mountains. And thus the Black Sea must have
sunk about 1000 braccia to uncover such vast plains.
[Footnote 8: _Danubio_, in the original _Reno_; evidently a mistake
as we may infer from _come dissi_ l. 10 &c.]
III.
THE COUNTRIES OF THE WESTERN END OF THE MEDITERRANEAN.
The straits of Gibraltar (1083-1085).
1083.
WHY THE SEA MAKES A STRONGER CURRENT IN THE STRAITS OF SPAIN THAN
ELSEWHERE.
A river of equal depth runs with greater speed in a narrow space
than in a wide one, in proportion to the difference between the
wider and the narrower one.
This proposition is clearly proved by reason confirmed by
experiment. Supposing that through a channel one mile wide there
flows one mile in length of water; where the river is five miles
wide each of the 5 square miles will require 1/5 of itself to be
equal to the square mile of water required in the sea, and where the
river is 3 miles wide each of these square miles will require the
third of its volume to make up the amount of the square mile of the
narrow part; as is demonstrated in _f g h_ at the mile marked _n_.
[Footnote: In the place marked A in the diagram _Mare Mediterano_
(Mediterranean Sea) is written in the original. And at B, _stretto
di Spugna_ (straits of Spain, _i.e._ Gibraltar). Compare No. 960.]
1084.
WHY THE CURRENT OF GIBRALTAR IS ALWAYS GREATER TO THE WEST THAN TO
THE EAST.
The reason is that if you put together the mouths of the rivers
which discharge into the Mediterranean sea, you would find the sum
of water to be larger than that which this sea pours through the
straits into the ocean. You see Africa discharging its rivers that
run northwards into this sea, and among them the Nile which runs
through 3000 miles of Africa; there is also the Bagrada river and
the Schelif and others. [Footnote 5: _Bagrada_ (Leonardo writes
Bragada) in Tunis, now Medscherda; _Mavretano_, now Schelif.]
Likewise Europe pours into it the Don and the Danube, the Po, the
Rhone, the Arno, and the Tiber, so that evidently these rivers, with
an infinite number of others of less fame, make its great breadth
and depth and current; and the sea is not wider than 18 miles at the
most westerly point of land where it divides Europe from Africa.
1085.
The gulf of the Mediterranean, as an inland sea, received the
principal waters of Africa, Asia and Europe that flowed towards it;
and its waters came up to the foot of the mountains that surrounded
it and made its shores. And the summits of the Apennines stood up
out of this sea like islands, surrounded by salt water. Africa
again, behind its Atlas mountains did not expose uncovered to the
sky the surface of its vast plains about 3000 miles in length, and
Memphis [Footnote 6: _Mefi._ Leonardo can only mean here the citadel
of Cairo on the Mokattam hills.] was on the shores of this sea, and
above the plains of Italy, where now birds fly in flocks, fish were
wont to wander in large shoals.
1086.
Tunis.
The greatest ebb made anywhere by the Mediterranean is above Tunis,
being about two and a half braccia and at Venice it falls two
braccia. In all the rest of the Mediterranean sea the fall is little
or none.
1087.
Libya.
Describe the mountains of shifting deserts; that is to say the
formation of waves of sand borne by the wind, and of its mountains
and hills, such as occur in Libya. Examples may be seen on the wide
sands of the Po and the Ticino, and other large rivers.
1088.
Majorca.
Circumfulgore is a naval machine. It was an invention of the men of
Majorca. [Footnote: The machine is fully described in the MS. and
shown in a sketch.]
1089.
The Tyrrhene Sea.
Some at the Tyrrhene sea employ this method; that is to say they
fastened an anchor to one end of the yard, and to the other a cord,
of which the lower end was fastened to an anchor; and in battle they
flung this anchor on to the oars of the opponent's boat and by the
use of a capstan drew it to the side; and threw soft soap and tow,
daubed with pitch and set ablaze, on to that side where the anchor
hung; so that in order to escape that fire, the defenders of that
ship had to fly to the opposite side; and in doing this they aided
to the attack, because the galley was more easily drawn to the side
by reason of the counterpoise. [Footnote: This text is illustrated
in the original by a pen and ink sketch.]
IV.
THE LEVANT.
The Levantine Sea.
1090.
On the shores of the Mediterranean 300 rivers flow, and 40, 200
ports. And this sea is 3000 miles long. Many times has the increase
of its waters, heaped up by their backward flow and the blowing of
the West winds, caused the overflow of the Nile and of the rivers
which flow out through the Black Sea, and have so much raised the
seas that they have spread with vast floods over many countries. And
these floods take place at the time when the sun melts the snows on
the high mountains of Ethiopia that rise up into the cold regions of
the air; and in the same way the approach of the sun acts on the
mountains of Sarmatia in Asia and on those in Europe; so that the
gathering together of these three things are, and always have been,
the cause of tremendous floods: that is, the return flow of the sea
with the West wind and the melting of the snows. So every river will
overflow in Syria, in Samaria, in Judea between Sinai and the
Lebanon, and in the rest of Syria between the Lebanon and the Taurus
mountains, and in Cilicia, in the Armenian mountains, and in
Pamphilia and in Lycia within the hills, and in Egypt as far as the
Atlas mountains. The gulf of Persia which was formerly a vast lake
of the Tigris and discharged into the Indian Sea, has now worn away
the mountains which formed its banks and laid them even with the
level of the Indian ocean. And if the Mediterranean had continued
its flow through the gulf of Arabia, it would have done the same,
that is to say, would have reduced the level of the Mediterranean to
that of the Indian Sea.
The Red Sea. (1091. 1092).
1091.
For a long time the water of the Mediterranean flowed out through
the Red Sea, which is 100 miles wide and 1500 long, and full of
reefs; and it has worn away the sides of Mount Sinai, a fact which
testifies, not to an inundation from the Indian sea beating on these
coasts, but to a deluge of water which carried with it all the
rivers which abound round the Mediterranean, and besides this there
is the reflux of the sea; and then, a cutting being made to the West
3000 miles away from this place, Gibraltar was separated from Ceuta,
which had been joined to it. And this passage was cut very low down,
in the plains between Gibraltar and the ocean at the foot of the
mountain, in the low part, aided by the hollowing out of some
valleys made by certain rivers, which might have flowed here.
Hercules [Footnote 9: Leonardo seems here to mention Hercules half
jestingly and only in order to suggest to the reader an allusion to
the legend of the pillars of Hercules.] came to open the sea to the
westward and then the sea waters began to pour into the Western
Ocean; and in consequence of this great fall, the Red Sea remained
the higher; whence the water, abandoning its course here, ever after
poured away through the Straits of Spain.
1092.
The surface of the Red Sea is on a level with the ocean.
A mountain may have fallen and closed the mouth of the Red Sea and
prevented the outlet of the Mediterranean, and the Mediterranean Sea
thus overfilled had for outlet the passage below the mountains of
Gades; for, in our own times a similar thing has been seen [Footnote
6: Compare also No. 1336, ll. 30, 35 and 36.-- Paolo Giovio, the
celebrated historian (born at Como in 1483) reports that in 1513 at
the foot of the Alps, above Bellinzona, on the road to Switzerland,
a mountain fell with a very great noise, in consequence of an
earthquake, and that the mass of rocks, which fell on the left
(Western) side blocked the river Breno (T. I p. 218 and 345 of D.
Sauvage's French edition, quoted in ALEXIS PERCY, _Memoire des
tremblements de terre de la peninsule italique; Academie Royale de
Belgique._ T. XXII).--]; a mountain fell seven miles across a valley
and closed it up and made a lake. And thus most lakes have been made
by mountains, as the lake of Garda, the lakes of Como and Lugano,
and the Lago Maggiore. The Mediterranean fell but little on the
confines of Syria, in consequence of the Gaditanean passage, but a
great deal in this passage, because before this cutting was made the
Mediterranean sea flowed to the South East, and then the fall had to
be made by its run through the Straits of Gades.
At _a_ the water of the Mediterranean fell into the ocean.
All the plains which lie between the sea and mountains were formerly
covered with salt water.
Every valley has been made by its own river; and the proportion
between valleys is the same as that between river and river.
The greatest river in our world is the Mediterranean river, which
moves from the sources of the Nile to the Western ocean.
And its greatest height is in Outer Mauritania and it has a course
of ten thousand miles before it reunites with its ocean, the father
of the waters.
That is 3000 miles for the Mediterranean, 3000 for the Nile, as far
as discovered and 3000 for the Nile which flows to the East, &c.
[Footnote: See Pl. CXI 2, a sketch of the shores of the
Mediterranean Sea, where lines 11 to 16 may be seen. The large
figures 158 are not in Leonardo's writing. The character of the
writing leads us to conclude that this text was written later than
the foregoing. A slight sketch of the Mediterranean is also to be
found in MS. I', 47a.]
The Nile (1093-1098).
1093.
Therefore we must conclude those mountains to be of the greatest
height, above which the clouds falling in snow give rise to the
Nile.
1094.
The Egyptians, the Ethiopians, and the Arabs, in crossing the Nile
with camels, are accustomed to attach two bags on the sides of the
camel's bodies that is skins in the form shown underneath.
In these four meshes of the net the camels for baggage place their
feet.
[Footnote: Unfortunately both the sketches which accompany this
passage are too much effaced to be reproduced. The upper represents
the two sacks joined by ropes, as here described, the other shows
four camels with riders swimming through a river.]
1095.
The Tigris passes through Asia Minor and brings with it the water of
three lakes, one after the other of various elevations; the first
being Munace and the middle Pallas and the lowest Triton. And the
Nile again springs from three very high lakes in Ethiopia, and runs
northwards towards the sea of Egypt with a course of 4000 miles, and
by the shortest and straightest line it is 3000 miles. It is said
that it issues from the Mountains of the Moon, and has various
unknown sources. The said lakes are about 4000 braccia above the
surface of the sphere of water, that is 1 mile and 1/3, giving to
the Nile a fall of 1 braccia in every mile.
[Footnote 5: _Incogniti principio._ The affluents of the lakes are
probably here intended. Compare, as to the Nile, Nos. 970, 1063 and
1084.]
1096.
Very many times the Nile and other very large rivers have poured out
their whole element of water and restored it to the sea.
1097.
Why does the inundation of the Nile occur in the summer, coming from
torrid countries?
1098.
It is not denied that the Nile is constantly muddy in entering the
Egyptian sea and that its turbidity is caused by soil that this
river is continually bringing from the places it passes; which soil
never returns in the sea which receives it, unless it throws it on
its shores. You see the sandy desert beyond Mount Atlas where
formerly it was covered with salt water.
Customs of Asiatic Nations (1099. 1100).
1099.
The Assyrians and the people of Euboea accustom their horses to
carry sacks which they can at pleasure fill with air, and which in
case of need they carry instead of the girth of the saddle above and
at the side, and they are well covered with plates of cuir bouilli,
in order that they may not be perforated by flights of arrows. Thus
they have not on their minds their security in flight, when the
victory is uncertain; a horse thus equipped enables four or five men
to cross over at need.
1100.
SMALL BOATS.
The small boats used by the Assyrians were made of thin laths of
willow plaited over rods also of willow, and bent into the form of a
boat. They were daubed with fine mud soaked with oil or with
turpentine, and reduced to a kind of mud which resisted the water
and because pine would split; and always remained fresh; and they
covered this sort of boats with the skins of oxen in safely crossing
the river Sicuris of Spain, as is reported by Lucant; [Footnote 7:
See Lucan's Pharsalia IV, 130: _Utque habuit ripas Sicoris camposque
reliquit, Primum cana salix madefacto vimine parvam Texitur in
puppim, calsoque inducto juvenco Vectoris patiens tumidum supernatat
amnem. Sic Venetus stagnante Pado, fusoque Britannus Navigat oceano,
sic cum tenet omnia Nilus, Conseritur bibula Memphitis cymbo papyro.
His ratibus transjecta manus festinat utrimque Succisam cavare nemus
]
The Spaniards, the Scythians and the Arabs, when they want to make a
bridge in haste, fix hurdlework made of willows on bags of ox-hide,
and so cross in safety.
Rhodes (1101. 1102).
1101.
In [fourteen hundred and] eighty nine there was an earthquake in the
sea of Atalia near Rhodes, which opened the sea--that is its
bottom--and into this opening such a torrent of water poured that
for more than three hours the bottom of the sea was uncovered by
reason of the water which was lost in it, and then it closed to the
former level.
[Footnote: _Nello ottanto_ 9. It is scarcely likely that Leonardo
should here mean 89 AD. Dr. H. MULLER- STRUBING writes to me as
follows on this subject: "With reference to Rhodes Ross says (_Reise
auf den Griechischen Inseln, III_ 70 _ff_. 1840), that ancient
history affords instances of severe earthquakes at Rhodes, among
others one in the second year of the 138th Olympiad=270 B. C.; a
remarkably violent one under Antoninus Pius (A. D. 138-161) and
again under Constantine and later. But Leonardo expressly speaks of
an earthquake "_nel mar di Atalia presso a Rodi_", which is
singular. The town of Attalia, founded by Attalus, which is what he
no doubt means, was in Pamphylia and more than 150 English miles
East of Rhodes in a straight line. Leake and most other geographers
identify it with the present town of Adalia. Attalia is rarely
mentioned by the ancients, indeed only by Strabo and Pliny and no
earthquake is spoken of. I think therefore you are justified in
assuming that Leonardo means 1489". In the elaborate catalogue of
earthquakes in the East by Sciale Dshelal eddin Sayouthy (an
unpublished Arabic MS. in the possession of Prof. SCHEFER, (Membre
de l'Institut, Paris) mention is made of a terrible earthquake in
the year 867 of the Mohamedan Era corresponding to the year 1489,
and it is there stated that a hundred persons were killed by it in
the fortress of Kerak. There are three places of this name. Kerak on
the sea of Tiberias, Kerak near Tahle on the Libanon, which I
visited in the summer of l876--but neither of these is the place
alluded to. Possibly it may be the strongly fortified town of
Kerak=Kir Moab, to the West of the Dead Sea. There is no notice
about this in ALEXIS PERCY, _Memoire sur les tremblements de terres
ressentis dans la peninsule turco- hellenique et en Syrie (Memoires
couronnes et memoires des savants etrangers, Academie Royale de
Belgique, Tome XXIII)._]
1102.
Rhodes has in it 5000 houses.
Cyprus (1103. 1104).
1103.
SITE FOR [A TEMPLE OF] VENUS.
You must make steps on four sides, by which to mount to a meadow
formed by nature at the top of a rock which may be hollowed out and
supported in front by pilasters and open underneath in a large
portico,
[Footnote: See Pl. LXXXIII. Compare also p. 33 of this Vol. The
standing male figure at the side is evidently suggested by Michael
Angelo's David. On the same place a slight sketch of horses seems to
have been drawn first; there is no reason for assuming that the text
and this sketch, which have no connection with each other, are of
the same date.
_Sito di Venere._ By this heading Leonardo appears to mean Cyprus,
which was always considered by the ancients to be the home and birth
place of Aphrodite (Kirpic in Homer).]
in which the water may fall into various vases of granite,
porphyryand serpentine, within semi-circular recesses; and the water
may overflow from these. And round this portico towards the North
there should be a lake with a little island in the midst of which
should be a thick and shady wood; the waters at the top of the
pilasters should pour into vases at their base, from whence they
should flow in little channels.
Starting from the shore of Cilicia towards the South you discover
the beauties of the island of Cyprus.
The Caspian Sea (1105. 1106).
1104.
>From the shore of the Southern coast of Cilicia may be seen to the
South the beautiful island of Cyprus, which was the realm of the
goddess Venus, and many navigators being attracted by her beauty,
had their ships and rigging broken amidst the reefs, surrounded by
the whirling waters. Here the beauty of delightful hills tempts
wandering mariners to refresh themselves amidst their flowery
verdure, where the winds are tempered and fill the island and the
surrounding seas with fragrant odours. Ah! how many a ship has here
been sunk. Ah! how many a vessel broken on these rocks. Here might
be seen barks without number, some wrecked and half covered by the
sand; others showing the poop and another the prow, here a keel and
there the ribs; and it seems like a day of judgment when there
should be a resurrection of dead ships, so great is the number of
them covering all the Northern shore; and while the North gale makes
various and fearful noises there.
1105.
Write to Bartolomeo the Turk as to the flow and ebb of the Black
sea, and whether he is aware if there be such a flow and ebb in the
Hyrcanean or Caspian sea. [Footnote: The handwriting of this note
points to a late date.]
1106.
WHY WATER IS FOUND AT THE TOP OF MOUNTAINS.
>From the straits of Gibraltar to the Don is 3500 miles, that is one
mile and 1/6, giving a fall of one braccio in a mile to any water
that moves gently. The Caspian sea is a great deal higher; and none
of the mountains of Europe rise a mile above the surface of our
seas; therefore it might be said that the water which is on the
summits of our mountains might come from the height of those seas,
and of the rivers which flow into them, and which are still higher.
The sea of Azov.
1107.
Hence it follows that the sea of Azov is the highest part of the
Mediterranean sea, being at a distance of 3500 miles from the
Straits of Gibraltar, as is shown by the map for navigation; and it
has 3500 braccia of descent, that is, one mile and 1/6; therefore it
is higher than any mountains which exist in the West.
[Footnote: The passage before this, in the original, treats of the
exit of the waters from Lakes in general.]
The Dardanelles.
1108.
In the Bosphorus the Black Sea flows always into the Egean sea, and
the Egean sea never flows into it. And this is because the Caspian,
which is 400 miles to the East, with the rivers which pour into it,
always flows through subterranean caves into this sea of Pontus; and
the Don does the same as well as the Danube, so that the waters of
Pontus are always higher than those of the Egean; for the higher
always fall towards the lower, and never the lower towards the
higher.
Constantinople.
1109.
The bridge of Pera at Constantinople, 40 braccia wide, 70 braccia
high above the water, 600 braccia long; that is 400 over the sea and
200 on the land, thus making its own abutments.
[Footnote: See Pl. CX No. 1. In 1453 by order of Sultan Mohamed II.
the Golden Horn was crossed by a pontoon bridge laid on barrels (see
Joh. Dukas' History of the Byzantine Empire XXXVIII p. 279). --The
biographers of Michelangelo, Vasari as well as Condivi, relate that
at the time when Michelangelo suddenly left Rome, in 1506, he
entertained some intention of going to Constantinople, there to
serve the Sultan, who sought to engage him, by means of certain
Franciscan Monks, for the purpose of constructing a bridge to
connect Constantinople with Pera. See VASARI, _Vite_ (ed. Sansoni
VII, 168): _Michelangelo, veduto questa furia del papa, dubitando di
lui, ebbe, secondo che si dice, voglia di andarsene in
Gostantinopoli a servire il Turco, per mezzo di certi frati di San
Francesco, che desiderava averlo per fare un ponte che passassi da
Gostantinopoli a Pera._ And CONDIVI, _Vita di M. Buonaroti chap._
30_; Michelangelo allora vedendosi condotto a questo, temendo
dell'ira del papa, penso d'andarsene in Levante; massimamente
essendo stato dal Turco ricercato con grandissime promesse per mezzo
di certi frati di San Francesco, per volersene servire in fare un
ponte da Costantinopoli a Pera ed in altri affari._ Leonardo's plan
for this bridge was made in 1502. We may therefore conclude that at
about that time the Sultan Bajazet II. had either announced a
competition in this matter, or that through his agents Leonardo had
first been called upon to carry out the scheme.]
The Euphrates.
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