The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, Vol. I

The sequence of the leaves has not been changed since Leonardo used them. The help these provide for a chronological arrangement of the manuscripts is generally self-evident. Using this evidence, I have assigned to the original manuscripts—now scattered throughout England, Italy, and France—the order in which they were produced. In many matters of detail, it is highly important to be able to verify the time and place at which certain observations were made and recorded. For this purpose, the Bibliography of the Manuscripts provided at the end of Volume II may be regarded as a nearly complete index of all of Leonardo's surviving literary works. The consecutive numbers (from 1 to 1566) at the top of each passage in this work indicate their logical order based on subject matter. Meanwhile, the letters and numbers to the left of each paragraph refer to the original manuscript and page number where that specific passage can be found. Thus, by referring to the List of Manuscripts at the beginning of Volume I and to the Bibliography at the end of Volume II, the reader can easily determine in every instance not only the period to which the passage belongs but also exactly where it was located in the original document. In this way, by following the sequence of numbers in the bibliographical index, the reader may reconstruct the original order of the manuscripts and piece together the various texts found on the original sheets—at least as much of them as fell within the scope of this work. It should be noted here, however, that Leonardo's manuscripts contain, besides the passages printed here, a great number of notes and essays on mechanics, physics, and other subjects, many of which could only be properly handled by specialists. I have provided as complete a review of these writings as seemed necessary in the bibliographical notes.

In 1651, Raphael Trichet Dufresne of Paris published a selection from Leonardo's writings on painting. This treatise became so popular that it has since been reprinted about twenty-two times original: "two-and-twenty" and in six different languages. However, none of these editions were derived from the original texts, which were thought to have been lost. Instead, they were based on early copies in which Leonardo's text had been more or less altered original: "mutilated" and which were all fragmentary. The oldest and, on the whole, the best copy of Leonardo's essays and principles original: "precepts" on painting is in the Vatican Library. This has been printed twice: first by Manzi in 1817, and secondly by Ludwig in 1882. Still, this ancient copy and its published editions contain much for which it would be unwise original: "rash" to hold Leonardo responsible, and some portions—such as the very—