The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
edizione di "Venetia Bernardino di Novara_, 1487" _e _"_Milano
per Joanne Angelo Scinzenzeler_ 1500," _in_-4°*. (G. D'A.)
Five books out of this list are noted by Leonardo
in another MS. (Tr. 3): _donato,--lapidario,--plinio,
--abacho,--morgante._
]
1470.
Nonius Marcellus, Festus Pompeius, Marcus Varro.
[Footnote: Nonius Marcellus and Sextus Pompeius Festus
were Roman grammarians of about the fourth century
A. D. Early publications of the works of Marcellus
are: _De proprietate sermonis, Romae_ (about 1470),
and 1471 (place of publication unknown). _Compendiosa
doctrina, ad filium, de proprietate sermonum._ Venice,
1476. BRUNET, _Manuel du libraire_ (IV, p. 97)
notes: _Le texte de cet ancien grammairien a ete reimprime
plusieurs fois a la fin du XVe siecle, avec ceux de Pomponius
Festus et de Terentius Varro. La plus ancienne
edition qui reunisse ces trois auteurs est celle de Parme_,
1480 ... _Celles de Venise_, 1483, 1490, 1498, _et de
Milan_, 1500, _toutes in-fol,, ont peli de valeur._]
1471.
Map of Elephanta in India which Antonello
Merciaio has from maestro Maffeo;--there for
seven years the earth rises and for seven
years it sinks;--Enquire at the stationers
about Vitruvius.
1472.
See 'On Ships' Messer Battista, and Frontinus
'On Acqueducts' [Footnote 2: 2. _Vitruvius de Arch., et Frontinus de Aquedoctibus._
Florence, l5l3.--This is the earliest edition of
Frontinus.--The note referring to this author thus
suggests a solution of the problem of the date of
the Leicester Manuscript.].
[Footnote: Compare No. 1113, 25.]
1473.
Anaxagoras: Every thing proceeds from
every thing, and every thing becomes every
thing, and every thing can be turned into
every thing else, because that which exists in
the elements is composed of those elements.
**Wrong text!
1474-
The Archimedes belonging to the Bishop
of Padua.
1475-
Archimedes gave the quadrature of a poly-
gonal figure, but not of the circle. Hence
Archimedes never squared any figure with
curved sides. He squared the circle minus
the smallest portion that the intellect can
conceive, that is the smallest point visible.
1476.
If any man could have discovered the
utmost powers of the cannon, in all its
various forms and have given such a secret
to the Romans, with what rapidity would
they have conquered every country and have
vanquished every army, and what reward could
have been great enough for such a service!
Archimedes indeed, although he had greatly
damaged the Romans in the siege of Syra-
cuse, nevertheless did not fail of being offered
great rewards from these very Romans; and
when Syracuse was taken, diligent search was
made for Archimedes; and he being found
dead greater lamentation was made for him
by the Senate and people of Rome than if
they had lost all their army; and they
did not fail to honour him with burial and
with a statue. At their head was Marcus
Marcellus. And after the second destruction
of Syracuse, the sepulchre of Archimedes was
found again by Cato[25], in the ruins of a
temple. So Cato had the temple restored and
the sepulchre he so highly honoured....
Whence it is written that Cato said that he
was not so proud of any thing he had done
as of having paid such honour to Archimedes.
1474. See No. 1421, 1. 3, 6 and Vol. I, No. 343.
1475. Compare No. 1504.
1476. Where Leonardo found the statement that
Cato had found and restored the tomb of Archi-
medes, I do not know. It is a merit that Cicero
claims as his own (Tusc. V, 23) and certainly with
a full right to it. None of Archimedes' biographers
-not even the diligent Mazzucchelli, mentions any
version in which Cato is named. It is evidently a
slip of the memory on Leonardo's part. Besides,
according to the passage in Cicero, the grave was
not found 'nelle mine ffun tempio'-which is highly
improbable as relating to a Greek-but in an open
spot (H. MULLER-STROBING).--See too, as to Archi-
medes, No. 1417.
Leonardo says somewhere in MS. C.A.: Archi-
tronito e una macchina di fino rame, invenzlon d* Archi-
mede (see 'Saggiol, p. 20).
I.2 82b]
1477.
Aristotle, Book 3 of the Physics, and
Albertus Magnus, and Thomas Aquinas and
the others on the rebound of bodies, in
the 7th on Physics, on heaven and earth.
M. 62a]
1478.
Aristotle says that if a force can move
a body a given distance in a given time, the
same force will move half the same body
twice as far in the same time.
C. A. 284b; 865b]
1479.
Aristotle in Book 3 of the Ethics: Man
merits praise or blame solely in such mat-
ters as lie within his option to do or not
to do.
C.A. 121a; 375a]
1480.
Aristotle says that every body tends to
maintain its nature.
K.2 3b]
1481.
On the increase of the Nile, a small book
by Aristotle.
[Footnote: _De inundatione Nili_, is quoted here and
by others as a work of Aristotle. The Greek
original is lost, but a Latin version of the beginning
exists (Arist. Opp. IV p. 213 ed. Did. Par.).
In his quotations from Aristotle Leonardo possibly
refers to one of the following editions: _Aristotelis libri IV
de coelo et mundo; de anima libri III; libri VIII physi-
corum; libri de generatione et corruptione; de sensu et
sensato... omnia latine, interprete Averroe, Venetiis 1483_
(first Latin edition). There is also a separate edition
of _Liber de coelo et mundo_, dated 1473.]
W.A. IV.151b]
1482.
Avicenna will have it that soul gives birth
to soul as body to body, and each member
to itself.
[Footnote: Avicenna, see too No. 1421, 1. 2.]
F. o"]
1483.
Avicenna on liquids.
Br.M. 71b]
1484.
Roger Bacon, done in print.
[Footnote:The earliest printed edition known to Brunet
of the works of Roger Bacon, is a French translation, which appeared about fourty years after Leonardo's
death.]
C.A. 139b; 419b]
1485.
Cleomedes the philosopher.
[Footnote: Cleomede. A Greek mathematician of the
IVth century B. C. We have a Cyclic theory of
Meteorica by him. His works were not published before
Leonardo's death.]
Tr. 4]
1486.
CORNELIUS CELSUS.
The highest good is wisdom, the chief
evil is suffering in the body. Because, as
we are composed of two things, that is soul
and body, of which the first is the better,
the body is the inferior; wisdom belongs
to the better part, and the chief evil belongs
to the worse part and is the worst of all.
As the best thing of all in the soul is
wisdom, so the worst in the body is suf-
fering. Therefore just as bodily pain is the
chief evil, wisdom is the chief good of the
soul, that is with the wise man; and nothing
else can be compared with it.
[Footnote: Aulus Cornelius Celsus, a Roman physician,
known as the Roman Hippocrates, probably contemporary with Augustus. Only his eight Books 'De
Medicina", are preserved. The earliest editions are:
Cornelius Celsus, de medicina libr. VIII., Milan 1481
Venice 1493 and 1497.]
Tr. 57]
1487.
Demetrius was wont to say that there was
no difference between the speech and words
of the foolish and ignorant, and the noises
and rumblings of the wind in an inflated
stomach. Nor did he say so without reason,
for he saw no difference between the parts
whence the noise issued; whether their lower
parts or their mouth, since one and the
other were of equal use and importance.
[Footnote: Compare Vol. I, No. 10.]
S.K.M. III.93a]
1488.
Maestro Stefano Caponi, a physician, lives
at the piscina, and has Euclid De Ponderibus.
K.2 2a]
1489.
5th Book of Euclid. First definition: a
part is a quantity of less magnitude than
the greater magnitude when the less is
contained a certain number of times in the
greater.
A part properly speaking is that which
may be multiplied, that is when, being
multiplied by a certain number, it forms exactly
the whole. A common aggregate part ...
Second definition. A greater magnitude is
said to be a multiple of a less, when the
greater is measured by the less.
By the first we define the lesser [magnitude]
and by the second the greater is defined.
A part is spoken
K.2 2b]
1490.
of in relation to the whole; and all their
relations lie between these two extremes, and
are called multiples.
S.K.M.III. 16b]
1491.
Hippocrates says that the origin of men's
sperm derives from the brain, and from the
lungs and testicles of our parents, where the
final decocture is made, and all the other
limbs transmit their substance to this sperm
by means of expiration, because there are no
channels through which they might come to
the sperm.
[Footnote: The works of Hippocrates were printed first after Leonardo's death.] Ash.II. IIb]
1492.
Lucretius in his third [book] 'De Rerum
Natura'. The hands, nails and teeth were (165)
the weapons of ancient man.
They also use for a standard a bunch of
grass tied to a pole (167).
[Footnote: Lucretius, de rerum natura libri VI were
printed first about 1473, at Verona in 1486, at Brescia in 1495, at Venice in 1500 and in 1515, and at Florence in 1515. The numbers 165 and 167 noted by Leonardo at
the end of the two passages seem to indicate pages,
but if so, none of the editions just mentioned can
here be meant, nor do these numbers refer to the
verses in the poems of Lucretius.]
Tr. 2]
1493.
Ammianus Marcellinus asserts that seven
hundred thousand volumes of books were
burnt in the siege of Alexandria in the time
of Julius Cesar.
[Footnote: Ammiani Marcellini historiarum libri qui
extant XIII, published at Rome in 1474.]
Tr. 2]
W. XXIII.]
1494.
Mondino says that the muscles which
raise the toes are in the outward side of
the thigh, and he adds that there are no
muscles in the back [upper side] of the feet,
because nature desired to make them light, so
as to move with ease; and if they had been
fleshy they would be heavier; and here
experience shows ...
[Footnote: "Mundini anatomia. Mundinus, Anothomia (sic).
Mundini praestantissimorum doctorum almi studit ticiensis
(sic) cura diligentissime emendata. Impressa Papiae per magistrum Antonium de Carfano 1478," in-fol.; ristampata:
"Bononiae Johan. de Noerdlingen, 1482," in-fol.; "Padova
per Mattheum Cerdonis de Vuindischgretz, 1484," in-40;
"Lipsia, 1493," in-40; "Venezia, 1494," in-40 e ivi
"1498,"
con fig. Queste figure per altro non sono, come si e
preteso, le prime che fossero introdotte in un trattato di Notamia. Nel 'fasciculus Medicinae' di Giovanni Ketham,
che riproduce F'Anatomia' del Mundinus, impresso pure a
Venezia da J. e G. de Gregoriis, 1491, in-fol.,
contengosi intagli in legno (si vogliono disegnati non gia incisi da
Andrea Mantegna) di grande dimensione, e che furono
piu volte riprodotti negli anni successivi. Quest' edizione
del "fasciculus" del 1491, sta fra nostri libri e potrebbe
benissimo essere il volume d'Anatomia notato da Leonardo.
(G. D'A.)]
G. 8a]
1495.
Of the error of those who practice without knowledge;--[Footnote 3:**where is it?**]
See first the 'Ars poetica' of Horace [Footnote 5: **where is it?**].
[Footnote: A 3--5 are written on the margin at the side
of the title line of the text given, entire as No. 19
1496.
The heirs of Maestro Giovanni Ghiringallo
have the works of Pelacano.
1497.
The catapult, as we are told by Nonius
and Pliny, is a machine devised by those &c.
[Footnote: _Plinius_, see No. 946.]
1498.
I have found in a history of the Spaniards
that in their wars with the English Archimedes
of Syracuse who at that time was living
at the court of Ecliderides, King of the
Cirodastri. And in maritime warfare he ordered that
the ships should have tall masts, and that on
their tops there should be a spar fixed [Footnote 6: Compare No. 1115.] of
40 feet long and one third of a foot thick. At
one end of this was a small grappling iron and