lettere” (an unlettered man), as he described himself, had a difficult relationship with the written word. His knowledge was without equal in all the world, but his ignorance of Latin and grammar prevented him from communicating in writing with the learned men of his time. Certainly he thought he could set down much of his science more clearly in drawings than in words. “O scrittore, con quali lettere scriverai tu con tal perfezione la intera figurazione qual fa qui il disegno?” (O writer, with what letters can you convey the entire figuration with such perfection as drawing gives us here?), he wrote in his notebooks on anatomy. And not just in science but also in philosophy, he was confident he could communicate better by means of painting and drawing. Still he also felt an incessant need to write, to use writing to investigate the world in all its polymorphous manifestations and secrets, and also to give shape to his fantasies, emotions, and rancors—as when he inveighs againstmen of letters, who were able only to repeat what they had read in the books of others, unlike those who were among the “inven-tori e interpreti tra la natura e li omini” (inventors and interpreters between nature and men). He therefore wrote more and more. With the passing of the years, he gave up painting and expressed himself through writing and drawing, as if following the thread of a single discourse in drawings and in words, filling his notebooks with his left-handed mirror writing.
On folio 265 of the Codex Atlanticus, Leonardo begins to jot down evidence to prove a theory of the growth of the earth. After giving examples of buried cities swallowed up by the soil, he goes on to the marine fossils found in the mountains and in particular to certain bones that he supposes must have belonged to an antediluvian sea monster. At this moment his imagination must have been caught by a vision of the immense animal as it was swimming among the waves. At any rate, he turns the page upside down and tries to capture the image of the animal, three times attempting a sentence that will convey all the wonder of that evocation.
O quante volte ftisti tu veduto in fra Ponde del gonfiato e grande oceano, col setoluto e nero dosso, a guisa di mon-tagna e con grave e superbo andamento!
O how many times were you seen among the waves of the great swollen ocean, with your black and bristly back, looming like a mountain, and with grave and stately bearing!
Then he tries to give more movement to the monster's progress by introducing the verb
volteggiare
(to whirl).
E spesse volte eri veduto in fra Ponde del gonfiato e grande oceano, e col superbo e grave moto gir volteggiando in frale marine acque. E con setoluto e nero dosso, a guisa di montagna, quelle vincere e sopraffare!
And many times were you seen among the waves of the great swollen ocean, and with stately and grave bearing go swirling in the sea waters. And with your black and bristly back, looming like a mountain, defeating and overwhelming them!
But the word
volteggiare
seems to him to have lessened the impression of grandeur and majesty that he wants to evoke. So he chooses the verb
solcare
(to furrow) and alters the whole construction of the passage, giving it compactness and rhythm with sure literary judgment:
O quante volte fusti tu veduto in fra Ponde del gonfiato e grande oceano, a guisa di montagna quelle vincere e so-praffare, e col setoluto e nero dosso solcare le marine acque, e con superbo e grave andamento!
O how many times were you seen among the waves of the great swollen ocean, looming like a mountain, defeating and overwhelming them, and with your black and bristly back furrowing the sea waters, and with stately and grave bearing!
His pursuit of the apparition, which is presented almost as a symbol of the solemn force of nature, gives us an inkling of how Leonardo's imagination worked. I leave you this image at the very end of my talk so that you may carry it in your
On folio 265 of the Codex Atlanticus, Leonardo begins to jot down evidence to prove a theory of the growth of the earth. After giving examples of buried cities swallowed up by the soil, he goes on to the marine fossils found in the mountains and in particular to certain bones that he supposes must have belonged to an antediluvian sea monster. At this moment his imagination must have been caught by a vision of the immense animal as it was swimming among the waves. At any rate, he turns the page upside down and tries to capture the image of the animal, three times attempting a sentence that will convey all the wonder of that evocation.
O quante volte ftisti tu veduto in fra Ponde del gonfiato e grande oceano, col setoluto e nero dosso, a guisa di mon-tagna e con grave e superbo andamento!
O how many times were you seen among the waves of the great swollen ocean, with your black and bristly back, looming like a mountain, and with grave and stately bearing!
Then he tries to give more movement to the monster's progress by introducing the verb
volteggiare
(to whirl).
E spesse volte eri veduto in fra Ponde del gonfiato e grande oceano, e col superbo e grave moto gir volteggiando in frale marine acque. E con setoluto e nero dosso, a guisa di montagna, quelle vincere e sopraffare!
And many times were you seen among the waves of the great swollen ocean, and with stately and grave bearing go swirling in the sea waters. And with your black and bristly back, looming like a mountain, defeating and overwhelming them!
But the word
volteggiare
seems to him to have lessened the impression of grandeur and majesty that he wants to evoke. So he chooses the verb
solcare
(to furrow) and alters the whole construction of the passage, giving it compactness and rhythm with sure literary judgment:
O quante volte fusti tu veduto in fra Ponde del gonfiato e grande oceano, a guisa di montagna quelle vincere e so-praffare, e col setoluto e nero dosso solcare le marine acque, e con superbo e grave andamento!
O how many times were you seen among the waves of the great swollen ocean, looming like a mountain, defeating and overwhelming them, and with your black and bristly back furrowing the sea waters, and with stately and grave bearing!
His pursuit of the apparition, which is presented almost as a symbol of the solemn force of nature, gives us an inkling of how Leonardo's imagination worked. I leave you this image at the very end of my talk so that you may carry it in your
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