The Manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci

The manuscripts of Leonardo have their own history. We find the first mention of them from the pen of a secretary to the Cardinal of Aragon, who came to Cloux The Château of Clos Lucé in France on October 18, 1516. "...Leonardo has also written on the nature of water. Of various machines and other things, he has filled an infinite number of volumes, all written in the common tongue original: "langue vulgaire"; referring to Italian rather than Latin and which, when published, will be of the greatest utility and the most delightful charm."

By his will, he gave to Francesco de Melzi, "a gentleman of Milan, to thank him for the services he has rendered him in the past, all and each of the books that the testator possesses and other instruments and drawings concerning his art and the profession of painter."

In 1519, Melzi left the Château of Cloux—the master's death having occurred on May 2nd—and retired to Vaprio, taking the manuscripts with him. From them, he extracted what has been published under the name Treatise on Painting, a collection of pieces scattered throughout all the notebooks, and to it he added the Treatise on Light and Shadow. Copies of this work circulated; Cellini Benvenuto Cellini, the famous Renaissance goldsmith and sculptor bought one for the price of fifteen gold crowns while he was in the service of Francis I; he lent it to Sebastiano Serli An influential Italian Mannerist architect. In an incomplete state, the Treatise on Painting was published for the first time in Paris, in 1651, and translated immediately.

Mr. Piot has provided an account from a certain Ambrosio Mazzenta; it dates from the first quarter of the seventeenth century.