PREFACE

...many papers, which I have copied here, hoping later to put them in order in their proper places, according to the subjects they will deal with.” (R., 4.) Original: "molte carte, le quali io ho qui copiate..." This continues Leonardo’s introductory note to the Codex Arundel, where he admits his notes are a "collection without order" drawn from many papers he had already written.

This impatience toward "productive art" The author uses "productive art" (arte produttrice) to refer to the physical creation of paintings and sculptures for clients, as opposed to the theoretical study of nature. began as soon as the empirical practice of painting was superseded by the
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concept that to create, one must know the forms and the laws of phenomena. This attitude became harmful in Florence after 1472; 1472 marks the year Leonardo was recorded as a master in the Guild of St. Luke in Florence, beginning his professional career. it was forgotten for a moment in Milan after 1482; The year Leonardo moved to Milan to serve Ludovico Sforza, where he was initially more prolific in his artistic output. it reasserted itself with greater violence after 1494; The year of the French invasion of Italy and the beginning of the Italian Wars, which disrupted many of Leonardo's projects, including the great bronze horse. it became a necessity at the opening of the new 16th century; and it continued amidst ever-weakening resistance until his death. To his contemporaries, this seemed like a crime. They knew no other form of activity than that which was practical and artistic: science had taken refuge in the cloisters and was called theology; or it had lost itself in the inner chambers of the Kabbalah and was called magic. The author highlights that Leonardo’s empirical, observational "science" was unrecognizable to a society that viewed intellectual pursuit only through the lens of religion or the occult.

Leonardo da Vinci was dragged by the times toward art, and his genius led him toward science; he was pushed by the times toward the