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Leonardo da Vinci was born on April 15, 1452. He was the illegitimate son of a 25-year-old notary, Ser Piero, and a peasant girl, Caterina. He was born in Vinci, Italy, which is located just outside Florence. Leonardo's father took custody of him shortly after his birth. His mother went on to marry someone else and moved into a neighboring town. In the end, Leonardo ended up with 17 half brothers and sisters from both of his parents. Early in life, as an apprentice, he demonstrated strong talents in painting and sculpture. Ultimately, he mastered projects in engineering, anatomy, architecture, scientific illustration, map making, mathematics and optics. Although his completed works -- most notably the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper -- are few in number, his copious and disorderly notebooks continue to enthrall and fascinate people the world over. The enduring icon of the Renaissance set a mark unequaled by any who came after him.
Leonardo da Vinci’s notes, diaries, and books:
The enormous literary heritage of Leonardo da Vinci reached us in chaotic state, in his manuscripts, written with the left hand. Although Leonardo da Vinci did not print a single line, nevertheless in his notes he always addressed the imaginary reader and never left the thought of publishing his works especially in the last years of his life.
After Leonardo da Vinci’s death his friend and student Francesco Melzi chose some extracts on painting and grouped them into “A Treatise On Painting” (Trattato della pittura, 1st edition, 1651).
The full version of Leonardo’s manuscript was published only in the 19th and 20th centuries. Apart from its enormous scientific and historical significance, it also has artistic value due to the concise and energetic style and exceptionally clear language. Living in the heyday of humanism, when the Italian language was considered to be the secondary language compared to Latin, Leonardo da Vinci impressed his contemporaries with the beauty and expressiveness of his speech (according to the legend he was a good improviser), although he did not consider himself a literary man and wrote, as he spoke; his prose therefore is an example of the language spoken by the intellectuals of the 15th century, which saved it from artificiality and pomposity so common for the prose of humanists, although in some passages of the didactic writings of Leonardo da Vinci one can trace shades of pathos so typical for humanistic style.
Even in the least “poetic” fragments da Vinci’s style is distinguished by the bright picturesqueness; thus his “Treatise On Painting” is penetrated with wonderful descriptions (for instance, the famous description of the Flood), striking with the skill of verbal expression of picturesque and plastic images. Along with the descriptions, in which one can feel the manner of the painter, Leonardo da Vinci in his manuscripts gives many examples of narrative prose: fables, facetiae (humorous stories), aphorisms, allegories, prophecy. In his fables and facetiae Leonardo stands on the same level with prosaists of the 19th century with their simple-minded practical morality; while some of his facetiae cannot be distinguished from Sacchetti’s novels.
Allegories and prophecy have more fantastic character: in allegories, Leonardo da Vinci uses techniques of medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries; prophecy has the character of humorous riddles, distinguished by vividness and accuracy of phraseology and penetrated with acrimonious, almost Voltairian irony, directed at the famous preacher Girolamo Savonarola. Finally, the aphorisms of Leonardo da Vinci express his philosophic nature in epigrammatic form, his thoughts of the inner essence of things. Literature had purely utilitarian, subsidiary value for him.
Leonardo’s diaries:
Only 7000 pages of Leonardo’s diaries from different collections exist today. At first the priceless manuscripts belonged to da Vinci’s favourite student Francesco Melz, but when he died the manuscripts disappeared. Separate fragments started to appear at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. At first they did not arise due interest. Numerous owners did not even realize what treasure they had in their hands. But when scientists establish the authorship, it turned out that the stock books, art assays, anatomical sketches, strange drawings, research papers on geology, architecture, hydraulics, geometry, military fortifications, philosophy, optics, drawing techniques – all were made by the same man. All notes in Leonardo’s diaries were made in mirror image. |
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