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47-a.

Leonardo da Vinci. First draft letter

1508

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Codex Atlanticus. Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan, fol. 1037v

Displayed reprint: 1973–1975. Il Codice Atlantico Vol. 12. Florenz: Giunti

Pen and brown ink on paper
28.1 x 21.3 cm

Two Draft Letters

Only a few letters by Leonardo have survived, among them the early “job application” to Ludovico Sforza

(67 ▲) und the draft letters shown here about the implementation of Leonardo’s royal privilege to take water from a Milan canal. The earlier collection fol. 1037v contains three letters on this matter addressed to various persons including Milan’s governor, Charles d’Amboise (center). This delicate balancing act between respectfulness and pragmatic goals, which includes strategic references to the painting Leonardo had just completed for the French king, appears in fol. 872r, reworked as a clean copy. The fact that Leonardo, who usually seemed so self-confident as an artist and scholar, made several drafts of a letter reveals his latent uncertainty about letter-writing. Leonardo tried to compensate for this by acquiring collections of model letters called Epistolari (43 ■), written by authors with exemplary rhetorical skills.

47-a

References

Bambach, Carmen C. 2019a. Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered. Bd. 3: The late Years 1506–1519. 4 Bde. New Haven / London: Yale University Press, 4–5, 262.

———. 2019b. Leonardo da Vinci Rediscovered. Bd. 4: Scholarly Apparatus to Volumes one, two, and three. 4 Bde. New Haven / London: Yale University Press, 362, Anm. 36.

Leonardo da Vinci. 1952. Tutti gli scritti. Scritti letterari. Herausgegeben von Augusto Marinoni. Mailand: Rizzoli, 212–214.

Manni, Paola. 2011. „Sulla duplice redazione di una lettera di Leonardo (Codice Atlantico, cc. 872r, 1037v)“. In Da riva a riva. Studi di lingua e letteratura italiana per Ornella Castellani Polidori, herausgegeben von Paola Manni und Nicoletta Maraschio. Quaderni della Rassegna 67. Florenz: Franco Cesati Editore, 273–284.

Marani, Pietro C., Hrsg. 2019. Lettres de Léonard de Vinci aux princes et aux puissants de son temps. Rom: De Luca Editori d’Arte.