The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — CompleteLeonardo, da Vinci
Science
The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci — Complete
Leonardo, da Vinci
Leonardo, da Vinci, 1452-1519 -- Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc.
Perhaps it will seem to you that you may reproach me with having
represented the currents made through the air by the motion of the
wind notwithstanding that the wind itself is not visible in the air.
To this I must answer that it is not the motion of the wind but only
the motion of the things carried along by it which is seen in the
air.
THE DIVISIONS. [Footnote 76: These observations, added at the bottom
of the page containing the full description of the doluge seem to
indicate that it was Leonardo's intention to elaborate the subject
still farther in a separate treatise.]
Darkness, wind, tempest at sea, floods of water, forests on fire,
rain, bolts from heaven, earthquakes and ruins of mountains,
overthrow of cities [Footnote 81: _Spianamenti di citta_ (overthrow
of cities). A considerable number of drawings in black chalk, at
Windsor, illustrate this catastrophe. Most of them are much rubbed;
one of the least injured is reproduced at Pl. XXXIX. Compare also
the pen and ink sketch Pl. XXXVI.].
Whirlwinds which carry water [spouts] branches of trees, and men
through the air.
Boughs stripped off by the winds, mingling by the meeting of the
winds, with people upon them.
Broken trees loaded with people.
Ships broken to pieces, beaten on rocks.
Flocks of sheep. Hail stones, thunderbolts, whirlwinds.
People on trees which are unable to to support them; trees and
rocks, towers and hills covered with people, boats, tables, troughs,
and other means of floating. Hills covered with men, women and
animals; and lightning from the clouds illuminating every thing.
[Footnote: This chapter, which, with the next one, is written on a
loose sheet, seems to be the passage to which one of the compilers
of the Vatican copy alluded when he wrote on the margin of fol. 36:
"_Qua mi ricordo della mirabile discritione del Diluuio dello
autore._" It is scarcely necessary to point out that these chapters
are among those which have never before been published. The
description in No. 607 may be regarded as a preliminary sketch for
this one. As the MS. G. (in which it is to be found) must be
attributed to the period of about 1515 we may deduce from it the
approximate date of the drawings on Pl. XXXIV, XXXV, Nos. 2 and 3,
XXXVI and XXXVII, since they obviously belong to this text. The
drawings No. 2 on Pl. XXXV are, in the original, side by side with
the text of No. 608; lines 57 to 76 are shown in the facsimile. In
the drawing in Indian ink given on Pl. XXXIV we see Wind-gods in the
sky, corresponding to the allusion to Aeolus in No. 607 1.
15.-Plates XXXVI and XXXVII form one sheet in the original. The
texts reproduced on these Plates have however no connection with the
sketches, excepting the sketches of clouds on the right hand side.
These texts are given as No. 477. The group of small figures on Pl.
XXXVII, to the left, seems to be intended for a '_congregatione
d'uomini._' See No. 608, 1. 19.]
609.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DELUGE.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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