Notebooks (40 page)
Authors: Leonardo da Vinci,Irma Anne Richter,Thereza Wells
Tags: #History, #Fiction, #General, #European, #Art, #Renaissance, #Leonardo;, #Leonardo, #da Vinci;, #1452-1519, #Individual artists, #Art Monographs, #Drawing By Individual Artists, #Notebooks; sketchbooks; etc, #Individual Artist, #History - Renaissance, #Renaissance art, #Individual Painters - Renaissance, #Drawing & drawings, #Drawing, #Techniques - Drawing, #Individual Artists - General, #Individual artists; art monographs, #Art & Art Instruction, #Techniques
The willow and the gourd
The weak are used for the benefit of the strong; and on trying to free themselves are liable to become the prey of worse parasites.
The hapless willow, finding that she could not enjoy the pleasure of seeing her slender branches grow and attain the height she wished, and point to the sky, because she was always being maimed and lopped and spoiled for the sake of the vine and any trees that grew near, collected her spirits and opened wide the portals of her imagination; and remaining in continual meditation she sought in the world of plants for one wherewith to ally herself which had no need of the help of her withes. Having stood for some time in this prolific imagination the gourd presented itself to her thoughts with a sudden flash, and tossing all her branches with extreme delight she thought that she had found the companion suited to her purpose, since the gourd is more apt to bind others than to need binding. Having come to this conclusion the willow straightened her branches towards the sky awaiting some friendly bird who should be the mediator of her wishes. Seeing the magpie among others near to her she said to it: ‘O gentle bird! By the refuge that you found among my branches during these days in the morning, when the hungry, cruel, and rapacious falcon wanted to devour you, and by the rest which you have always found in me when your wings craved repose, and by the pleasure you have enjoyed among my boughs when playing with your companions and making love I entreat you to find the gourd and obtain from her some of her seeds, and tell her that those that are born of them will be treated by me as though they were my own offspring; and in this way use all such words for the same persuasive purport; though indeed, since you are master of language, there is no need for me to teach you. And if you do me this service I shall be happy to have your nest in the fork of my boughs for all your family free of rent.’ Then the magpie after making and confirming certain new stipulations with the willow—and principally that she should never give admittance to any snake or polecat, cocked its tail, lowered its head and flung itself down from the bough throwing its weight on its wings; and beating the fleeting air with these bearing about inquisitively now here now there while its tail served as a rudder to steer, it came to the gourd. There, with a few polite words and a handsome bow, it obtained the required seeds and carried them to the willow who received it with cheerful looks. And having with its claws scraped the earth near the willow, it planted the grains in a circle around it with its beak.
In a short time these started to sprout, and the branches grew and spread out and began to occupy all the boughs of the willow while their broad leaves deprived it of the beauty of the sun and sky. But this evil was not enough; the gourds then began to drag down towards the earth by their big weight the ends of the tender shoots inflicting strange twisting and discomfort.
Then the willow shook itself in vain to throw off the gourd. After raving in vain for some days because the grasp of the gourd was sure and firm as to forbid such plans, it saw the wind go by and commended itself to him. The wind blew hard and the old and hollow stem of the willow opened up in two parts down to the roots and fell; and it bewailed itself in vain and recognized that it was born to no good fate.
The legend of the wine and Mohammed
Leonardo describes the pride of the wine and its effect on drunkards, and he approves of its prohibition as enforced by Mohammed.
Wine, the divine juice of the grape, finding itself in a golden and richly wrought cup on Mohammed’s table, was puffed up with pride at so much honour; when suddenly it was struck by a contrary mood saying to itself: ‘What am I about, that I rejoice, not perceiving that I am now nearing my death and that I shall leave my golden abode in this cup in order to enter into the foul and fetid caverns of the human body and be transmuted from a fragrant and delicious liquor into foul and base fluid. And as though so much evil were not enough, I shall for a long time have to lie in hideous receptacles, together with other fetid and corrupt matter cast out from human intestines.’ And it cried to heaven imploring vengeance for so much damage, and that an end be henceforth put to so much insult, and that since this country produced the finest and best grapes in the whole world these at least should not be made into wine. Then Jove caused the wine drunk by Mohammed to rise in spirit to his brain; contaminating it and making him mad, and giving birth to so many follies that when he had recovered, he made a law that no Asiatic should drink wine; and henceforth the vine was left free with its fruit.
As soon as wine enters the stomach it begins to ferment and swell; then the spirit of that man begins to abandon his body, rising towards heaven and the brain finds itself parting from the body. Then it begins to degrade him, and makes him rave like a madman, and then he commits irreparable errors, killing his friends.
The ant and the grain of millet
Long discussions are superfluous when reason dictates the course of action.
The ant found a grain of millet. The seed, feeling itself caught, cried out: ‘If you do me the kindness to allow me to accomplish my function of reproduction, I will give you a hundred such as I am.’ And so it was.
The spider and the bunch of grapes
The unscrupulous self-seeker who abuses the hospitality of others ends by being punished.
A spider found a bunch of grapes which for its sweetness was much resorted to by bees and divers kinds of flies. It seemed that it had found a most convenient spot to spread its net and having settled on its delicate web it entered into its new habitation. Every day, hiding in the spaces between the grapes, it fell like a thief on the wretched animals which were unaware of the danger. But after a few days had passed the vintager came, and cut the bunch of grapes and placed it with others that were trodden, and thus the grapes were a snare and pitfall both for the deceitful spider and the deceived flies.
The nut and the campanile
The artfulness and ingratitude of those who insinuate themselves into favours for their own benefit.
A nut found itself carried by a crow to the top of a tall campanile, and by falling into a crevice was released from its deadly beak; and it besought the wall by that grace which God had bestowed upon it in allowing it to be so high and great, and so rich in having bells of such beauty and of such noble tone, that it would give help; that as it had not been able to drop beneath the green branches of its old father and lie in the fallow earth covered by his fallen leaves, the wall would not abandon it, for when it found itself in the beak of the cruel crow it had vowed that if it escaped thence it would end its life in a little hole. At these words the wall, moved with compassion, was content to shelter it in the spot where it had fallen; and within a short time the nut began to burst open and to put its roots in between the crevices of the stones, and push them apart, and throw up shoots from its hollow; and these soon rose above the building, and as the twisted roots grew thicker they began to thrust the walls apart and force the ancient stones from their old places. Then the wall too late and in vain bewailed the cause of its destruction, and in a short time it was torn asunder and a great part of it fell in ruin.
The moth and the candle
A warning to those who forsake the true light in order to pursue transient glories.
The vain and wandering moth, not content with its power to fly through the air at its ease, and overcome by the seductive flame of the candle, decided to fly into it; but its joyous movement was the cause of instant woe; for in the flame its delicate wings were consumed. And the hapless moth dropped all burnt at the foot of the candlestick. After much lamentation and repentance it wiped the tears from its streaming eyes and raising its face exclaimed: ‘O false light! how many like me must thou have miserably deceived in times past; and if my desire was to see light ought I not to have distinguished the sun from the false glimmer of dirty tallow?’
The citron
The consequences of pride and haughtiness.
The citron, puffed up with pride of its beauty, separated itself from the trees around it and in so doing it turned towards the wind; which, not being broken in its fury, flung it uprooted to the ground.
The consequences of vanity and ignorance.
The citron, desirous of producing a fine and noble fruit high up on its topmost shoot, set to work with all the strength of its sap. But when this fruit had grown it caused the tall, straight top of the tree to bend down.
The peach, envious of the great quantity of fruit on the walnut tree nearby, determined to do likewise, and loaded itself with its own fruit to such an extent that the weight pulled it down to the ground, uprooted and broken.
The walnut tree standing by the roadside and displaying the wealth of its fruit was stoned by every man who passed.
When the fig tree was without fruit nobody would look at it; then wishing to be praised by men for its production of fruit, it was bent and broken by them.
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The fig tree standing by the side of the elm and seeing that its boughs were without fruit and that it nevertheless had the audacity to keep the sun from its own unripe figs said reprovingly: ‘O elm, are you not ashamed to stand in front of me? But wait till my offspring are ripe and you will see where you are!’ But when her fruit was ripe a troop of soldiers passing by fell upon the fig tree and tore off the figs, cutting and breaking the boughs. And as the fig tree stood thus maimed in all its limbs, the elm tree asked it: ‘O fig tree, how much better it is to be without offspring than to be brought through them into so miserable a plight.’
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The lily on the banks of a torrent
Proud things of beauty may find the soil on which they have established a foothold slipping away beneath them.
The lily set itself by the shores of the Ticino and the current carried away the river bank and the lily with it.
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The vine and the willow
One’s fate is determined by the fate of one’s companions and associates.
The vine that has grown old on an old tree falls with the collapse of the tree and perishes through its bad companionship.
The willow which as it grows hopes to outstrip every other plant by its long shoots, is crippled every year because of its association with the vine.
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The stone by the roadside
Love for solitude and country life.
A stone of good size recently uncovered by the waters lay on a certain spot perched on the edge of a delightful grove, above a stony road, surrounded by plants and various flowers of divers colours, and looked upon the great quantities of stones which had collected together in the roadway below. And it began to wish to let itself down there, saying within itself: ‘What am I doing here with these plants? I want to live in the company of those my sisters.’ And letting itself fall it ended its rapid descent among those desired companions. When it had been there some time it found itself in continual distress from the wheels of the carts, the iron hoofs of horses, and the feet of the passers-by. One rolled it over, another trod upon it; sometimes it raised itself up a little as it lay covered with mud or the dung of some animal, but it was in vain that it looked up at the spot whence it had come as a place of solitude and tranquil peace.
So it happens to those who leaving a life of solitary contemplation choose to come to dwell in cities among people full of infinite evil.
The razor
The rusty blade is compared to the lazy mind.
One day the razor emerging from the handle which served it as a sheath and placing itself in the sun, saw the sun reflected in its body, at which thing it took great pride, and turning it over in its thoughts it began to say to itself: ‘And shall I return again to that shop from which I have just come? Certainly not! It cannot be the pleasure of the gods that such splendid beauty be turned to such base uses! What folly it would be that should lead me to shave the lathered beards of rustic peasants and perform such menial service? Is this body destined for such work? Certainly not! I will hide myself in some retired spot and there pass my life in tranquil repose.’ And so having hidden itself for some months, returning one day into the open and coming out of its sheath, it saw that it had acquired the appearance of a rusty saw and that its surface no longer reflected the resplendent sun. With useless repentance it deplored in vain the irreparable mischief, saying to itself: ‘Oh, how much better was it to use at the barber that lost edge of mine of such exquisite keenness! Where is that lustrous surface? In truth this vexatious and unsightly rust has consumed it!’
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