Sacred Texts  Age of Reason  Index 
I. Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting Index
  Previous  Next 

---

Buy this Book at Amazon.com

The Da Vinci Notebooks at sacred-texts.com

p. 1

I.

Prolegomena and General Introduction to the Book on Painting.

Clavis sigillorum.

1. In the few instances in which Leonardo has written from left to right in the ordinary way this is stated in a note. In all other cases the writing is backwards.

2. The numbers printed above the line in the revised text: ², ³, ⁴ &c. indicate the heads of the lines in the original MS. In many instances the breaking off of the lines in the original MS. accounts for peculiarities in the construction of Leonardo's sentences. In the translation the numbers refer only to the footnotes and they have been introduced in such passages, which require an explanation.

3. Clerical errors and obvious mistakes in spelling have been corrected in the text, but are given in the notes, so that all the peculiarities of the original text which are omitted in the revised text may be seen at a glance.

4. Leonardo frequently employs the following abbreviations:--

These occur so constantly and are so unimportant that it has not been thought necessary to point them out. He also uses:

p. 2

5. Such abbreviations as are common in familiar speech are retained in the text; e. g. un sol punto.

6. Leonardo's usual way of spelling, ochio spechio for occhio specchio, has also been left unaltered.

7. The combinations of two or three words into one, which Leonardo so frequently used, and which are so puzzling to the eye as to render reading difficult, though plain to the ear, have been separated in the revised text; e. g. leforme ditutti = le forme di tutti. These combinations were, however, intentional no doubt; in almost every case they indicate the author's desire of substituting a sort of phonetic writing for the rules in general use. This doubling of the letters--as, for instance in chessia for che sia and essella for e se la--is, I believe, clear evidence of what may be called the orthography of Leonardo da Vinci. The separation of the words has involved the loss of these doubled letters, but the original spelling has been given, for reference, in the foot notes.

8. Leonardo commonly wrote ā ē ī ō ū or v̊ for an, en, in, on, un. This sign occasionally, but not often, represents m. It has been retained, as it was usual in printed type in the XV^th and XVI^th centuries.

9. Leonardo sometimes writes j for i, particularly where it is joined to m, n or u; e. g. linje, tienj, mjnor. As he never sets a dot over the ordinary i (at any rate when he writes from right to left), it is plain that he uses j for i (he does not dot the j) simply to avoid confounding ni or ui with m, or mi with nu. As this difficulty cannot occur in print I have restored the usual spelling i for j without referring to it in the notes.

10. Accents and apostrophes are entirely lacking in the original manuscript, but it seemed necessary to introduce them into the printed text. The accent has also been added in those parts of the verb avere in which Leonardo had dropped the h: as ò, ài, à, ànno.

11. In the MSS. there are no marks of punctuation but these, and they have been retained wherever they occur. • is always placed by Leonardo just above the line of writing and is never used as a full stop, but only to divide the words according to the sense; it very often occurs between every word, particularly in MSS. of about 1490. When a letter or number is placed between two points, as . a ., or . 3 ., it usually refers to a corresponding sign on a diagram or sketch.

commonly serve to separate sentences which are entirely distinct.

. This mark commonly indicates that words written above or below the line are to be inserted. In the revised text they have been simply inserted.

In the notes these passages are distinguished by the following signs:--

« » indicates that the words were written above the line.

that the words were written below the line.

() This mark is used by Leonardo to mark off a digression, or parenthesis, or a quotation from some other work of his own; but it often takes the place of the colon:

( A simple bracket placed at the beginning of one or more lines serves to lay stress on particular sentences; it is also used to mark distinct sentences which have no connection with the rest of the text on the same page. In the printed text such sentences have been denoted by the mark ¶.

p. 3

-- The last line of a section commonly ends with a horizontal line of variable length, making it of equal length with the preceding lines of writing.

12. 3, 4, 5. These figures, if written large, or some similar mark, are occasionally placed at the end of a page or at the beginning of a passage that has been crossed out; and this indicates that the continuation is to be sought for elsewhere, where the same sign is repeated.

The signs , which occur in the passages on painting, have been added by some early copyist and have therefore not been reproduced in the notes.

13. , . : ; ! ? These stops are never used in the original MSS. It seemed necessary however to insert such marks in order to render the text intelligible. A full stop is only used at the end of a section to avoid confusion with Leonardo's own use of points (see No. 11), for he never places one at the end of a section or paragraph. Wherever a full stop seemed wanting in the course of the text I have put a semi colon () The colon (:) is used instead of a full stop where, in the original, a point (.) occurs.

14. [ ] Passages between brackets are crossed out in the original.

15. When a word or passage of the revised text is printed in small type it indicates that the reading is doubtful in consequence of partial obliteration.

16. indicates passages in which the original writing is entirely destroyed.

17. R indicates that the passage is written in red chalk.

18. (R) indicates that the original writing in red chalk has been written over in pen and ink.

19. P indicates that the original writing is in silverpoint.

20. 1^a 2^a 3^a &c. the front page--recto--of sheet 1, 2, 3, &c.

    1^b 2^b 3^b &c. the back page--verso--of sheet 1, 2, 3, &c.

The MSS. Tr. and S. K. M. I² are the only ones in which the pages are numbered. In all other MSS. the leaf only is numbered. In referring to the Codex Atlanticus a double series of numbers has been used. The first apply only to the larger leaves of the Codex, on which two or more of the original leaves of the MS. have been mounted; the second series does not exist in the Codex itself; it refers to the original pages in the order in which they have been placed in it. By this second series of numbers the correspondence of the front and back pages has been verified. Wherever, in addition to the consecutive numbering, a different number occurs in Leonardo's writing it is quoted in a parenthesis, thus:--C 27^b (3^a), and this indicates that the back page of leaf 27 in the MS. C was originally numbered 3.

21. A Roman II, as 26 II^a 26 II^b, indicates that the same number (26) occurs twice. In the Codex Atlanticus is used for II.

22. O′, O″ indicates that the passages so marked are originally notes written on the inside of the cover of the MS.; O′ within the front or upper cover, O″ within the under cover.

23. The wood-cuts introduced into the text are facsimile-reproductions of Leonardo's own sketches and drawings which accompany the MSS. But the letters and numbers affixed to them have been inserted in ordinary writing.

p. 4

24. The following is a list of Leonardo's letters and numbers, as they are found on those original drawings which are here reproduced by facsimile engravings. The reader will have to refer to this list, by which he will be enabled to identify the letters and numbers on the originals with the corresponding figures in the printed text.

p. 8

Contrary to the universal custom of western nations, Leonardo committed almost all his notes to paper in a handwriting that goes from right to left. This singular habit has sometimes been accounted for by supposing that Leonardo felt it necessary to put every difficulty in the way of the publication of his works. This assumption, however, seems to me to rest on no solid grounds, and is but an hypothesis at best. Perfectly explicit statements prove, on the contrary, that Leonardo wished to publish his writings, and that lie cared greatly that they should be known and read; and any one who has taken the trouble to make himself familiar with the Master's writing will, I think, hardly resist the conviction that even the character of the writing was expressly adapted to that view.

We know from the evidence of his friend Luca Paciolo that Leonardo drew with his left hand, and used it with perfect ease. 1 In point of fact, in almost every drawing authentically known to be genuine--as those included in the texts of MSS. must be--wherever shading is introduced the strokes lie from left to right (downwards) as they would be drawn with the left hand. 2

The question as to why Leonardo drew and wrote with his left hand is now probably a vain one. There is nothing to justify us in deciding whether accidental circumstance or mere caprice was the cause. It is worthy of remark, that the earliest notes, written in his twenty-first year, when he could hardly have had such reasons for caution as are attributed to him 3, are written backwards.

The contents of Leonardo's MSS. sufficiently prove that he certainly intended them for publication, though the form is probably not always what he finally meant it to be.

The appeal or address 'tu', which frequently occurs and more particularly in theoretical passages, is often no doubt meant for the reader; but in other cases it indicates rather the specially meditative character of the passage. Abstract speculations acquire a particular charm from this soliloquizing form--it is as if we overheard the mental process of the author.

In the passages indicated below Leonardo expresses himself clearly as to the end and purpose of his literary labours.

In one passage in the MS. at Holkham (No. 1) he speaks of keeping a certain invention to himself, and not making it public. As he uses this reserve in no other instance, this exception sufficiently proves the rule.

p. 9

In the passage from the MS. F (No. 2) the expression "mettere insieme" is equally characteristic of his method of working and of the condition of the MSS. By it he means the classification of the separate details of his researches so as to make a connected whole, which could be done the more easily since it was his practice to write separate chapters on separate sheets.

The MS. in the British Museum begins with an apology (No. 4) which is very interesting, for the self-evident disorder of the MS. This apology applies equally well to the notes on mathematics--where it is placed--and to all the branches of science on which Leonardo wrote.

The passages (Nos. 5-7) are soliloquies, and refer to the arrangement of different MSS. as preparatory to publication in the form intended by Leonardo himself. From all this it was clearly not his intention that the notes should be printed as they lay, in confusion, under his hand.

The schemes, which Leonardo himself proposed for the arrangement of the Book on Painting. as well as of his other writings, give us a clue--as we shall presently see--which enables us perfectly to construct the whole work on the basis of his own rules and with some pretention to logical sequence.

We may conclude that the sections 9, 10 and 11 headed 'Proemio' refer to the Book on Painting, and more particularly to the lessons on Perspective, because section 21 with its special title "Proemio di prospettiva" is, in the original (Cod. At. 117^b; 561^b), written on the same sheet.

Sections 12 to 20 give us the guiding idea of the general plan and of the object and purpose of the Libro di Pittura.

No. 21 'Proemio di prospettiva, cioè dell’ ufitio dell’ ochio' follows naturally after the other general introductions. Our acceptance of this introduction, it is true, wholly invalidates the arrangement of the materials which has been adopted by every editor of the old copies of the Trattato since DUFRESNE; but those, it must be remembered, contain only disconnected fragments of Leonardo's treatise on Perspective. His investigations in all the branches of optics do not, of course, come under consideration here. With regard to the physiology of the eye the reader will find, in Nos. 24, 28-39, passages which show that Leonardo understood the effect of the variation in the size of the pupil on the perception of objects. The insertion of these passages seemed indispensable because they form the basis of certain general principles of Perspective. The same may be said about his explanation of the difference between seeing with one eye and seeing with two (No. 25-29) as well as of his acute remarks as to the apparent variation in the size of objects according to the amount of light in which they are seen (No. 30-39).

Footnotes

8:1 "Scrivesi ancora alla rovescia e mancina the non si posson legere se non con lo specchio, ovvero guardando la carta dal suo rovescio contro alla luce, come so m’intendi senz’ altro dica, e come fa it nostro Leonardo da Vinci, lume della pittura, quale è mancino, come pia volte è detto." (L. PACIOLO, Divina Proportione, Venezia, 1509.)

8:2 This was first pointed out in the 'Critical review of the drawings by the old Masters in the Dresden Gallery' by Senatore Gtov. MORELLI.

8:3 "Pour s'exprimer à peu près comme lui, des esprits etroits et routiniers d’une part, et de l’autre des aventuriers partant à cheval contre tout ce qui avait permis jusque-là d’etablir ces règles qui, déterminant la limite du possible et de l’impossible, empêchent le chercheur de tomber dans le désespoir et la mélancolie, exagéraient à plaisir ce qu’il avait dit (?) pour réagir contre les abus et les paradoxes, et se servaient de ses propres expressions (?) pour le représenter comme un charlatan ou un fou. Lorsqu’il parlait du moins, son éloquence persuasive donnait à ses idées toute leur valeur; mais laisser voir dans ses papiers des pensées incomplètement exprimées, des rédactions inachevées, des projets d’inventions de toutes sortes, c’eût été s’exposer à la calomnie et au vol." (CH. RAVAISSON-MOLLIEN, Les Manuscrits de L. de Vinci, Paris 1881, p. 2). But we might suppose that Leonardo would have considered his papers and his instruments quite safe, by keeping them locked away in his own room.