PREFACE

Before the month of August, toward the beginning of June, Millin’s Encyclopedic Magazine original: "Magasin encyclopédique," a major scholarly journal of the era already announced, on one hand, the dispatch of five manuscripts by Leonardo da Vinci, and on the other, as intended expressly for the National Library, that of the "manuscript of the works of Leonardo Vinci on Mathematics and Mechanics¹."

However, many weeks were still to pass before the objects of art and science, long since announced, arrived in Paris. On September 9 (23 Fructidor) Fructidor was the twelfth month of the French Republican Calendar, the Government Commissioners to the Army of Italy, Garrau and Saliceti, received a letter from the Directory signed by Carnot, Reubell, and P. Barras, the end of which follows:

You have replied nothing until now to what we wrote to you regarding the prompt dispatch to France of the artistic productions which have been gathered in Italy for this purpose; however, the season is advancing and the transport of these precious effects would become very difficult if the time were delayed any longer; see to it, citizens, that the Directory does not have to return to the same subject in its correspondence with you ².

And on October 21 (30 Vendémiaire), in a letter from which I have already quoted a passage relating to Tinet and the search for manuscripts that for a moment were believed lost, La Billardière wrote to the Minister of Foreign Relations:

I received, in recent days, a letter from my colleagues by which I learn that the Directory is very dissatisfied that the objects of art and science chosen by the Commission have not yet been delivered to Paris. As I have been charged with supervising this convoy, it is important that you be informed of the obstacles I have encountered...

Finally, on November 25, the crates containing our manuscripts and other objects arrived, and the Official Journal published a detailed notice of them on November 28, 1796 (Octidi, 8 Frimaire, Year V.)

In 1815, when the Allies took back the greater part of the objects of art and science which had been transported from foreign countries to Paris, the Austrian commissioner representing Italy wished to recover the Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts for Milan. Here is a note regarding the manner in which he proceeded toward the National Library, which I owe to the kindness of Mr. L. Delisle, current director of that establishment:

Note of the manuscripts from the Ambrosian Library of Milan transported to the Royal Library in Paris.

A volume covered in leather, 13 by 29 1/2 [inches/units], of 398 leaves, containing various drawings of mechanics, hydraulics, hydrostatics, geometry, civil and military architecture, tactics, various machines and weapons of war, both bladed and firearms, among which are two drawings of a mortar and a trumpet, figure drawings, etc., by Leonardo da Vinci, with various annotations written in left-handed script original: "mano mancina," referring to Leonardo's famous mirror-writing by the same. Collected by Pompeo Leoni and donated by the Marquis Galeazzo Arconati of Milan to the Ambrosian Library, as per the commemorative plaque.
Another 12 volumes, both large and small, by the same Leonardo da Vinci, of which one in folio covered in leather treats of light and shadow; the others contain various geometric figures etc. and various thoughts of the author.
Joseph the Jew.... Likely a reference to a manuscript of Flavius Josephus
The works of Virgil.
A chronicle of the Popes...
A Divine Comedy by Dante....
Galileo Galilei, on the ebb and flow of the sea...
Galileo Galilei, treatise on fortifications....

1. Encyclopedic Mag., 2nd year, vol. I, p. 568.
2. Archives of the Ministry of War, Reg. G 2, p. 100.