more or less extent. Nay, even in the volumes, the pages of which
were numbered by Leonardo himself, their order, so far as the
connection of the texts was concerned, was obviously a matter of
indifference to him. The only point he seems to have kept in view,
when first writing down his notes, was that each observation should
be complete to the end on the page on which it was begun. The
exceptions to this rule are extremely few, and it is certainly
noteworthy that we find in such cases, in bound volumes with his
numbered pages, the written observations: "turn over", "This is the
continuation of the previous page", and the like. Is not this
sufficient to prove that it was only in quite exceptional cases that
the writer intended the consecutive pages to remain connected, when
he should, at last, carry out the often planned arrangement of his
writings?

What this final arrangement was to be, Leonardo has in most cases
indicated with considerable completeness. In other cases this
authoritative clue is wanting, but the difficulties arising from
this are not insuperable; for, as the subject of the separate
paragraphs is always distinct and well defined in itself, it is
quite possible to construct a well-planned whole, out of the
scattered materials of his scientific system, and I may venture to
state that I have devoted especial care and thought to the due
execution of this responsible task.

The beginning of Leonardo's literary labours dates from about his
thirty-seventh year, and he seems to have carried them on without
any serious interruption till his death. Thus the Manuscripts that
remain represent a period of about thirty years. Within this space
of time his handwriting altered so little that it is impossible to
judge from it of the date of any particular text. The exact dates,
indeed, can only be assigned to certain note-books in which the year
is incidentally indicated, and in which the order of the leaves has
not been altered since Leonardo used them. The assistance these
afford for a chronological arrangement of the Manuscripts is
generally self evident. By this clue I have assigned to the original
Manuscripts now scattered through England, Italy and France, the
order of their production, as in many matters of detail it is highly
important to be able to verify the time and place at which certain
observations were made and registered. For this purpose the
Bibliography of the Manuscripts given at the end of Vol. II, may be
regarded as an Index, not far short of complete, of all Leonardo s
literary works now extant. The consecutive numbers (from 1 to 1566)
at the head of each passage in this work, indicate their logical
sequence with reference to the subjects; while the letters and
figures to the left of each paragraph refer to the original
Manuscript and number of the page, on which that particular passage
is to be found. Thus the reader, by referring to the List of
Manuscripts at the beginning of Volume I, and to the Bibliography at
the end of Volume II, can, in every instance, easily ascertain, not
merely the period to which the passage belongs, but also exactly
where it stood in the original document. Thus, too, by following the
sequence of the numbers in the Bibliographical index, the reader may
reconstruct the original order of the Manuscripts and recompose the
various texts to be found on the original sheets--so much of it,
that is to say, as by its subject-matter came within the scope of
this work. It may, however, be here observed that Leonardo s
Manuscripts contain, besides the passages here printed, a great
number of notes and dissertations on Mechanics, Physics, and some
other subjects, many of which could only be satisfactorily dealt
with by specialists. I have given as complete a review of these
writings as seemed necessary in the Bibliographical notes.

In 1651, Raphael Trichet Dufresne, of Paris, published a selection
from Leonardo's writings on painting, and this treatise became so
popular that it has since been reprinted about two-and-twenty times,
and in six different languages. But none of these editions were
derived from the original texts, which were supposed to have been
lost, but from early copies, in which Leonardo's text had been more
or less mutilated, and which were all fragmentary. The oldest and on
the whole the best copy of Leonardo's essays and precepts on
Painting is in the Vatican Library; this has been twice printed,
first by Manzi, in 1817, and secondly by Ludwig, in 1882. Still,
this ancient copy, and the published editions of it, contain much
for which it would be rash to hold Leonardo responsible, and some
portions--such as the very important rules for the proportions of
the human figure--are wholly wanting; on the other hand they contain
passages which, if they are genuine, cannot now be verified from any
original Manuscript extant. These copies, at any rate neither give
us the original order of the texts, as written by Leonardo, nor do
they afford any substitute, by connecting them on a rational scheme;
indeed, in their chaotic confusion they are anything rather than
satisfactory reading. The fault, no doubt, rests with the compiler
of the Vatican copy, which would seem to be the source whence all
the published and extensively known texts were derived; for, instead
of arranging the passages himself, he was satisfied with recording a
suggestion for a final arrangement of them into eight distinct
parts, without attempting to carry out his scheme. Under the
mistaken idea that this plan of distribution might be that, not of
the compiler, but of Leonardo himself, the various editors, down to
the present day, have very injudiciously continued to adopt this
order--or rather disorder.

I, like other enquirers, had given up the original Manuscript of the
Trattato della Pittura for lost, till, in the beginning of 1880, I
was enabled, by the liberality of Lord Ashburnham, to inspect his
Manuscripts, and was so happy as to discover among them the original
text of the best-known portion of the Trattato in his magnificent
library at Ashburnham Place. Though this discovery was of a fragment
only--but a considerable fragment--inciting me to further search,


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