The character of Leonardo's notebooks as a whole

Leonardo's lack of synthetic faculty, perceptible in the notebooks as a whole, is partly responsible for their complete lack of order. Perhaps it would have been impossible at that date to give such an accumulation of facts any rational structure. The logical system of scholasticism, which compelled all facts into the service of God, had broken down under the weight of its own elaboration. The philosophical system of the seventeenth century with its faith in the laws of nature had yet to be evolved. But Leonardo's observations are not simply devoid of a controlling plan; they are put down at random with a capricious, or even wilful inconsequence, which students have found difficult to explain. Some writers have claimed that his sense of natural order was so great as to make all observations equally relevant to a central scheme. Il a un sens extraordinaire de la symétrie, says M. Valéry, qui lui fait problème de tout. This is the idealistic view of Leonardo, by which his defects, like disreputable Old Testament stories, are interpreted in the light of later spiritual experience and given a symbolical value. In contrast is the recent view that Leonardo was the victim of psychological frustrations, which prevented him from concentrating on a single theme: a poor theory by which to explain the author of the Last Supper, but perhaps nearer the truth than the first, for there was something abnormal about Leonardo's appetite for information, which led him to gobble up every fact with almost equal relish. Perhaps the chief reason for the lack of order in Leonardo's manuscripts is the one he himself gives in a kind of introductory note to the British Museum MS. He could not arrange his notes for lack of time. It is a miracle that any man should have observed, read and written down so much in a single lifetime; and we should not complain that in the urgency of his appetite for facts he did not always stop to consider their order or ultimate purpose.

Having outlined the character of Leonardo's notebooks as a whole, let me examine those which date from his first residence in Milan. The earliest of these, MS. B, I have already mentioned as containing the drawings for engines of war with which he hoped to win Ludovico's favour. In addition to these it contains a number of drawings which prove that in about the year 1487 Leonardo was seriously interested in the problems of architecture. Unfortunately, Leonardo's architecture has never been properly studied and I can only treat it here in a superficial way. At this date we can distinguish between two kinds of architectural employment, practical and real. The former arose out of his position at court, and consisted chiefly in the renovation or completion of buildings in which the Sforza were interested. For example, he made one of the many attempts to design a central tower or dome for the Cathedral of Milan, and in 1488 presented a model of his proposals, as did also Bramante, Luca Fancelli and Pietro da Gorgonzola. In 1490 he was summoned to Pavia where, in company with Amadeo and Francesco di Giorgio, he was consulted about the completion of the Cathedral. Solmi believes that some drawings of churches in MS. B were connected with this work, and certainly the manuscript dates from this period; but his evidence that any of Leonardo's designs were used is far-fetched. We may speculate on his relations with Francesco di Giorgio, who more than any of his older contemporaries shared his range of interests; but no record of their intercourse remains. MS. B also shows that he was continually occupied with the great castle of the Sforzas in Milan, on which, to a large extent, their power depended. In several drawings we see one of its towers raised to an unprecedented height in order to command the surrounding plain; in others new bastions, escarpments, moats and trenches. How far any of these grandiose projects were carried out, it is impossible to say. They were largely engineering jobs, and as such have remained anonymous. Leonardo's name is not connected by tradition with any building in the Milanese, and he probably contributed by giving rough sketches or verbal advice, rather than working plans. We can infer from the notebooks that he did supervise personally some modest architectural work for his patrons, a pavilion for the Duchess's garden and a heating system for her bath.

At the same date we have our first evidence of Leonardo's interest in town planning. The idea of building a model city was familiar to the Renaissance and had already been carried out in Ferrara and Pienza. The motive was partly aesthetic, partly practical, for it was hoped in this way to avoid the plagues which ravaged Italian towns once at least in every decade. Leonardo's plans for Milan were made in consequence of the terrible plagues of 1484-5, and his intention was to produce an efficient rather than a beautiful city. They should, however, be classed as ideal rather than practical, for they show a strain in Leonardo's character, to which I shall often refer--the romantic colouring which he gave to practical undertakings. In all his engineering work he wished to achieve grandiose and improbable results, to remove mountains and divert huge rivers. And so his re-planning of Milan was to involve a town on two levels: "No vehicles", he says, "should go in the upper streets; these should be reserved for the use of gentlemen. And through the lower streets would go the carts and barrows and things used by the populace." This plan also allows for subterranean canals. Town planning was to be one of his last recorded activities during his residence in France, but there again, we do not know how far his designs were carried out.