XXI. Letters. Personal Records. Dated Notes.

1342.

You would like to see a model which will prove useful to you and to me, also it will be of use to those who will be the cause of our usefulness.

[Footnote: 1342. 1343. These two notes occur in the same not very voluminous MS. as the former one and it is possible that they are fragments of the same letter. By the Modello, the equestrian statue is probably meant, particularly as the model of this statue was publicly exhibited in this very year, 1493, on tne occasion of the marriage of the Emperor Maximilian with Bianca Maria Sforza.]

1343.

There are here, my Lord, many gentlemen who will undertake this expense among them, if they are allowed to enjoy the use of admission to the waters, the mills, and the passage of vessels and when it is sold to them the price will be repaid to them by the canal of Martesana.

1344.

I am greatly vexed to be in necessity, but I still more regret that this should be the cause of the hindrance of my wish which is always disposed to obey your Excellency.

Perhaps your Excellency did not give further orders to Messer Gualtieri, believing that I had money enough.

I am greatly annoyed that you should have found me in necessity, and that my having to earn my living should have hindered me ...

[12] It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters, instead of following up the work which your Lordship entrusted to me. But I hope in a short time to have earned so much that I may carry it out quietly to the satisfaction of your Excellency, to whom I commend myself; and if your Lordship thought that I had money, your Lordship was deceived. I had to feed 6 men for 56 months, and have had 50 ducats.

1345.

And if any other comission is given me
                            by any ...
of the reward of my service. Because I am
                            not [able] to be ...
things assigned because meanwhile they
                have ... to them ...
... which they well may settle rather than I ...
not my art which I wish to change and ...
given some clothing if I dare a sum ...

My Lord, I knowing your Excellency's
               mind to be occupied ...
to remind your Lordship of my small matters
                  and the arts put to silence
that my silence might be the cause of making
                  your Lordship scorn ...
my life in your service. I hold myself ever
                 in readiness to obey ...

[Footnote 11: See No. 723, where this passage is repeated.]

Of the horse I will say nothing because
              I know the times [are bad]
to your Lordship how I had still to receive
              two years' salary of the ...
with the two skilled workmen who are constantly
in my pay and at my cost
that at last I found myself advanced the
             said sum about 15 lire ...
works of fame by which I could show to
    those who shall see it that I have been
everywhere, but I do not know where I
could bestow my work [more] ...

[Footnote 17: See No. 1344 l. 12.] I, having been working to gain my
                       living ...

I not having been informed what it is, I find
                         myself ...

[Footnote 19: In April, 1498, Leonardo was engaged in painting the Saletta Nigra of the Castello at Milan. (See G. MONGERI, l'Arte in Milano, 1872, p. 417.)]

remember the commission to paint the                        rooms ...

I conveyed to your Lordship only requesting                             you ...

[Footnote: The paper on which this is written is torn down the middle; about half of each line remains.]

Draft of letter to be sent to Piacenza (1346. 1347).

[Footnote: 1346. 1347. Piacenza belonged to Milan. The Lord spoken of in this letter, is no doubt Lodovico il Moro. One may infer from the concluding sentence (No. 1346, l. 33. 34 and No. 1347), that Leonardo, who no doubt compiled this letter, did not forward it to Piacenza himself, but gave it to some influential patron, under whose name and signature a copy of it was sent to the Commission.]

1346.

Magnificent Commissioners of Buildings I, understanding that your Magnificencies have made up your minds to make certain great works in bronze, will remind you of certain things: first that you should not be so hasty or so quick to give the commission, lest by this haste it should become impossible to select a good model and a good master; and some man of small merit may be chosen, who by his insufficiency may cause you to be abused by your descendants, judging that this age was but ill supplied with men of good counsel and with good masters; seeing that other cities, and chiefly the city of the Florentines, has been as it were in these very days, endowed with beautiful and grand works in bronze; among which are the doors of their Baptistery. And this town of Florence, like Piacenza, is a place of intercourse, through which many foreigners pass; who, seeing that the works are fine and of good quality, carry away a good impression, and will say that that city is well filled with worthy inhabitants, seeing the works which bear witness to their opinion; and on the other hand, I say seeing so much metal expended and so badly wrought, it were less shame to the city if the doors had been of plain wood; because, the material, costing so little, would not seem to merit any great outlay of skill...

Now the principal parts which are sought for in cities are their cathedrals, and of these the first things which strike the eye are the doors, by which one passes into these churches.

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