Literary and Philosophical Fragments

tion that law has as its own foundation sensory perception and experience, and as its own expression, mathematics. Everything that exceeds sense and experience, everything that cannot be demonstrated "by any natural example," original: "per nessuno esempio naturale" resides in the realm of fantasy, and floats in a dream. The problems concerning the essence of things, the ultimate purpose, and the nature of the soul and of God, therefore remain in the field of unfruitful discussions.*

This moment must have been a solemn one in the life of da Vinci; weakened by the intensity of his labor, the vast collection of his manuscripts, compiled through constant daily work, must have appeared to him as the highest and most solemn work of his life. A note from the Codex Atlanticus original: Codice Atlantico — the largest and most significant collection of Leonardo’s drawings and writings. shows him in the Belvedere A villa within the Vatican complex where Leonardo lived and worked while in Rome. in the studio created for him by the Magnificent Giuliano de' Medici, Leonardo's patron and brother of Pope Leo X, often referred to with this title in contemporary accounts., absorbed in nocturnal exercises in mathematics. Another note presents him at Monte Mario A prominent hill located in the northwest of Rome. entirely intent on searching for signs of an ancient past, when the sea covered

• SOLMI, Studies on the Natural Philosophy of Leonardo da Vinci. Modena, Vincenzi, 1898, page 57.