VINCI
444
VINCI
in the collection at the Vatican. It dates from 1514.
Leonardo spent the last three years of his unquiet hfe
in France. The king gave him a pension of 7000
crowns and had given him a dweUing in the Chateau
of Cloux near Amboise. At this period the master
was very tired, and his faculties were dechning. He
was still engaged with the question of canahzation
and studied ways of regulating the course of the
Loire and making it navigable. He filed amid these
occupations at the age of 67. A legend, popularized
by Ingres's picture, relates that he passed away in the
arms of Francis I; but on that day the king was at
Saint-Germain-en-Laye.
II. The Scholar. — Art represents only a small part of Leonardo's activity. Always and especially at Milan from 1.506 his genius was absorbed in scien- tific matters, but these researches had begun in Ver- rocchio's studio, as is shown by the letter of 1482 to Ludovico il Moro. It is impossible to give here a de- tailed analy.?i8 even of his principal works, for his studies included aU branches of knowledge. On the other hand their strictly personal natiu-e, the secret and deliberately cabbalistic practices with which he loved to surround them, the methods of abbre\aation and cryptography of which he made use in order to conceal his discourse (he wrote from right to left, in an inverted hand which could probably only be read with the aid of a mirror), all this mystery removes a great deal of the interest from the treasures of observation which Leonardo consigned to coiintless MSS. In fact by refusing to disclose his discoveries, by wishing to retain the monopoly of his processes and secrets, he condemned this portion of his work to obUvion and sterihty. However, his art is in so many ways con- nected with his science that the former cannot be known without an acquaintance with the latter. In his drawings of flowers, plants, landscapes, and in his studies of persons, it is impossible to say whether it is the botanist, the geologist, the anatomist or the artist who interests us most. In Leonardo, knowledge and art are never separate. The characteristics frequently Been in the men of the Renaissance, the encyclopedic turn of mind so striking in a Leone Battista Alberti, a Bramante, or a Diirer, is never more brilliantly evi- dent than in Leonardo da Vinci. His method is based exclusively on observation and ex-periment. He rec- ognized no mistress save nature. Neither in science nor in art did he admit the authority of either the ancients or the scholastics.
Furthermore he clearly understood: (1) that science should be subject to formulation in mathematical laws; (2) that science has power over nature, an ability to foresee phenomena and at need to reproduce or imitate them. This granted, there were few ques- tions which this tireless mind did not study, and to which he did not bring ingenious views and new solu- tions. Often he perceived truths established by mod- em science. Long before Bacon and with a far differ- ent range of apphcation he invented the positive sci- ences. As a geologist, for example, he discerned that there was a "history of the earth", that the outside of the globe was not formed at a single stroke, and in this history, guided by studies of hydrauhcs, he successfully saw fiirough the function of water. He divined the true nature of fossils. In botany he formulated the laws of the alternation of leaves, that of the eccen- tricity of trunks, and that of .solar attraction. As an anatomist (he had dissected nine bodies) he gave fig- ures concerning the insertion of the nuiscles and their movements which specialists still admire for their accuracy. He devised the earliest theories concerning the muscular movements of the rardiac valves. By his studies in embryology he laid the foimdations for comparative anatomy. In UKThanics he understood the power of steam and if he did not invent any ac- tion machines he at least made it an agent of propul- sion, for he invented a steam cannon. He composed
explosives and shells. But perhaps his most "mod-
ern " title to fame lies in his having laid down the prin-
ciple of aviation, devoting years to this task. He fore-
saw nearly all the forms, parachute and montgolfier,
but by boldly adhering to the "heavier than air"
principle he constructed the first artificial bird. Long
series of studies analyze with astonishing clearness the
flight of the bird, the form and movement of the wing.
Leonardo distinguishes between the soaring flight and
that made by successive flappings, in each case de-
fining the action of the air and the part played by it;
he understands that the bird rises obliquely on an
aerial inchned plane, forming under it a kind of angle
and that currents form in the concavity of the wing
which serve it as momentary supports to recover its
equilibrium, like the waves on which the oar is rested
to propel the boat.
Leonardo was more a scholar than a philosopher, nevertheless liis wholly naturalistic science implies a certain philosophy, which if it is neither the kind of paganism nor the materiahsm in which the Renais- sance so often resulted cannot be called truly Chris- tian. Either through prudence or through scorn of abstract ideas Leonardo seems to have avoided de- claring himself on this subject. Nevertheless it is easy to see that the idea of miracles is repugnant to his imagination. He admits or would logically admit only an immanent Providence, a God who refrains from in- tervention in the universe hke the God of Lucretius or the Stoics. It is also certain, and he does not conceal it, that he did not like monks. However, as an artist, he accommodated himself perfectly to the Christian tradition. His art, though not at all mystic, is in its forms certainly less pagan than that of Raphael or even Michelangelo. He died a very Christian death.
His MSS. are now divided among several deposi- tories. The most important are (1) the gigantic col- lection in the Ambrosian Library of Milan called the Codex Atlanticus consisting of 393 folio pages on which are pasted more than 1600 leaves of notes; (2) at Paris in the hbrarj- of the Institut twelve IvISS. numbered from A to M; (3) at London three volumes at South Kensington, a MS. of 566 pages at the British Museum, and at Windsor splendid ana- tomical plates and drawings. Other books are in the possession of Count Manzoni and the Earl of Leices- ter. The treatise on painting is his first work. It was printed at Paris in folio in 1651 in the Itahan text by Raphael du Fresne and almost immediately trans- lated into French by Frcart de Chambray. More cor- rect editions have since been issued, notably that of Manzi (1817), and that of Ludwig made according to a Vatican MS. (3 vols., at Vienna, 1883). Ventura compiled a memoir on Leonardo's scientific works properly so called which he presented to the Institute in 1797. He announced that this would soon be followed by the publication of original docu- ments, but this promise was not kept. In 1872 the Itahan Government issued a hmited number of copies of a de luxe work, "Saggio dell' opere di L. da V.", containing extracts from the Codex Atlanticus with twenty-four facsimiles. In 1889 J. P. Richter issued at London, under the title "The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci", two quarto volumes comprising more than 1500 extracts and fragments of MSS. systematically classified, with beautiful reproductions.
However, Ravaisson-MoUier had undertaken the entire publication of the MSS. of the Institut in a model edition with facsimiles of the original text, transcription in ordinarv characters and French trans- lation (6 vols, fob, Paris, 1881-92). The example was followed in 1891 when Signor Beltrani published at Milan a MS. of Leonardo's belonging to Prince Trivulzio. .Vnd since 1892 the .Vccademia dei Lincei has published completely the Codex Atlanticus. If tlu< London MS. were publislied wc should have as complete knowledge as possible of this extraordinary
