Da Vinci's Ghost (33 page)

I’m very grateful to Dr. Annalisa Perissa Torrini, the director of the Office of Drawings and Prints at the Gallerie dell’ Accademia in Venice, for allowing me an unforgettable private viewing of Vitruvian Man and for sharing with me her expert technical understanding of the drawing. Thanks also to Martin Clayton, the deputy curator of the Print Room at the Royal Library in Windsor, England, for giving me the chance to inspect firsthand some thirty of Leonardo’s original anatomical and proportional studies, a number of which are reproduced in this book. Speaking of illustrations: without the translation help so ably and amiably offered to me by Valentina Zanca, the publicist at Profile Books, the British publisher of this book, I would not have been able to negotiate the bureaucratic demands and idiosyncrasies of the many Italian libraries from which I acquired images for this book.

I owe a special debt to three scholars without whose private counsel, published writings, and spirit of generosity this book would have been much diminished. Indra Kagis McEwen—an adjunct professor of art history at Concordia University, in Montreal, and the author of the remarkable study
Vitruvius: Writing the Body of Architecture,
from which much of my first chapter derives—opened my eyes to the richness of the world described and inhabited by Vitruvius, and then did her best to keep me honest as I distilled her ideas into dramatically reduced form. Richard Schofield, a professor of architectural history at the Istituto Universitario di Architettura, in Venice, provided all sorts of help: by offering expert perspective on the architectural environment in which Leonardo worked in the 1480s and 1490s; by translating several original fifteenth-century documents for me from Latin and Italian into English; by reading and commenting on a full early draft of this book; and, perhaps most important, by plying me with Chianti, pizza, and an evidently bottomless supply of sardonic wit during the two research visits I made to Venice. Finally, the architect Claudio Sgarbi introduced me to the remarkable drawing of Vitruvian Man that he discovered in Ferrara, shared with me his new findings about the drawing’s origins, and selflessly located and translated rare documents for me in the Biblioteca Comunale dell’ Archiginnasio, in Bologna—all while already fully occupied teaching architectural history and theory to Carleton University students in Ottawa and Bologna.

I’m also grateful to the following people, many of whom I approached out of the blue, for their advice and assistance: Carl Barnes, Yelitza Claypoole, Susan Dackerman, Claire Farago, Gregory Guzman, Christine Johnson, Martin Kemp, Matthew
Landrus, Domenico Laurenza, An Mertens, Rebecca Price, Jasper van Putten, Christine Smith, Ted Widmer, Mark Wilson Jones, Frank Zöllner, and Robert Zwijnenberg. Thanks especially to Daniel Crewe, Alison Lester, Valerie Lester, Cullen Murphy, and Steven Schlozman, each of whom read part or all of this book in early form and provided valuable comments and criticism. Robb Menzi, Bill Pistner, and Chris Stone, for their part, continued to provide critical periods of subzero perspective. Any errors of fact or judgement that remain in this book, of course, are entirely my own.

In writing this book I worked with the same publisher, Free Press, that I worked with in writing my previous book,
The Fourth Part of the World.
I can’t imagine a more professional and collegial publishing team than the one at Free Press, and I owe special thanks to many of its members: to Hilary Redmon, my terrific editor, whose critical eye and supportive nature have helped improve both of my books immeasurably; to Sydney Tanigawa, for so ably standing in for Hilary during her absence, and for shepherding this book through production; to Dominick Anfuso and Martha Levin, for their continuing interest in my work; to Ellen Sasahara for her wonderfully sensitive touch as a designer; and to Jocelyn Kalmus, for her help with publicity and her unflagging good cheer in confronting the not insubstantial challenges of promoting a book about really old pictures and ideas. Thanks also to Lynn Anderson, this book’s copy editor, for her thoughtful and meticulous attention to so many tiny details.

My literary agent, Rafe Sagalyn, helped me develop and shape the idea for this book, and then provided judiciously timed dollops of encouragement, perspective, and advice while
I was working on it. The same goes for Valerie Lester, Alison Lester, and Jane Lester, who all lived through a lot with me during the period I was writing the book. My daughters, Emma, Kate, and Sage, increasingly busy with their own lives, kept me grounded at home and did their best to ensure I wouldn’t finish this book too quickly. And then there’s my wife, Catherine Claypoole—who, while raising our girls with me and holding down a demanding day job that never stops expanding, also lived through the writing of this book with me day by day and helped me with it in more ways than I can possibly express. All I can say is this: more than fifteen years in, I still feel like the luckiest man alive for having found her.

Finally, a cosmic shout-out to my father, Jim Lester, who died while I was writing this book. He was, and will always be, my favorite Renaissance Man.

Plate 1
: Microcosm.
From
De natura rerum
, by Isidore of Seville. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (MS. Auct. F. 2. 20).

Plate 2
: Microcosm.
Also known as Byrhtferth’s diagram. By permission of the President and Fellows of St John’s College, Oxford (MS Oxford St John’s College 17, 7
v
).

Plate 3
: Microcosmic Man.
ÖNB/Wien (MSS VI 12600, fol 29
r
).

Plate 4
: The Ebstorf mappamundi.
Courtesy of Kloster Ebstorf. Map image courtesy of Martin Warnke, Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Institute for Culture and Aethetics of Digital Media (
www.leuphana.de/ebskart
).

Plate 5
: Microcosmic Man (Hildegard).
Lucca, Biblioteca Statale, with permission of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage (Lucca MS fol. 9
r
).

Plate 6
: God as architect.
ÖNB/Wein (Codex Vindobonensis 2554).

Plate 7
: Microcosmic Man (Taccola).
Department of Prints and Early Manuscripts, Munich Staatsbibliothek (Lat 197, I, 36
v
).

Plate 8
: Two skulls (Leonardo).
The Royal Collection © 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (RL 19057
r
).

Plate 9
: Vitruvian Man (Leonardo).
Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Courtesy of the Ministry for the Public Good and Cultural Activities.

Figure 1
: The Lambeth Palace world map.
From Nennius,
Historia brittonum.
Courtesy of the Lambeth Palace Library (MS 371, fol. 9
v
).

Figures 2
and
3
:
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (MS 282, Ashburnham 361, fols. 10
v
and 21
r
). Courtesy of the Ministry for the Public Good and Cultural Activities. All further reproduction is prohibited. Photos: Donato Pineider.

Figure 4
: Octavius coin.
Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction 46, Lot 466.

Figure 5
: Augustus coin.
Numismatica Ars Classica NAC AG, Auction 45, Lot 61.

Figure 6
: The Spear Bearer.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, The John R. Van Derlip Fund and Gift of funds from Bruce B. Dayton, an anonymous donor, Mr. and Mrs. Kenneth Dayton, Mr. and Mrs. W. John Driscoll, Mr. and Mrs. Alfred Harrison, Mr. and Mrs. John Andrus, Mr. and Mrs. Judson Dayton, Mr. and Mrs. Stephen Keating, Mr. and Mrs. Pierce McNally, Mr. and Mrs. Donald Dayton, Mr. and Mrs. Wayne MacFarlane, and many other generous friends of the Institute.

Figure 7
: The Prima Porta statue.
Courtesy of the Vatican Museums (Inv. 2290).

Figure 8
: Spherical cosmos.
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (Cod. Guelf. 36.23 Aug. 2°, fol. 51
v
).

Figure 9
: Cardinal directions.
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (Cod. Guelf. 36.23 Aug. 2°, fol. 42
v
).

Figure 10
: Roman colony.
Herzog August Bibliothek Wolfenbüttel (Cod. Guelf. 105 Gud. lat., fol. 51
v
).

Figure 11
: Oxford metrological relief.
Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford (AN Michaelis 83).

Figure 12
: Christ as a microcosm.
Department of Prints and Early Manuscripts, Munich Staatsbibliothek (Mu CLM 13002, fol. 7
v
).

Figure 13
: Early anatomical illustrations.
Department of Prints and Early Manuscripts, Munich Staatsbibliothek (Mu CLM 13002, fol. 3
r
).

Figure 14
: Tuscan landscape (Leonardo).
Uffizi Gallery (GDSU, cat. P, 8; Inv. fot. 543513). Photo: Alinari Archive.

Figure 15
: Florence.
From Hartmann Schedel’s
Nuremburg Chronicle.
Wikimedia Commons.

Figure 16
: David (Verrocchio).
Gabinetto Fotografico, S.S.P.S.A.E e per il Polo Museale della città di Firenze (B/N 579606).

Figure 17
: Perspectograph (Leonardo).
Copyright Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (CA 5
r
): VB 548/11.

Figure 18
: Armillary sphere and Christ.
From
Annotationi sopra la lettione della Spera del Sacro Bosco
(1550), by Fra Mauro. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (QB41.S4 M3).

Figure 19
: Man and the cosmos.
From
Margarita philosophica
(1503), by Gregor Reisch. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (Rosenwald 595 Rosenwald Coll).

Figure 20
: Alberti’s “definer.”
From
On Sculpture
, by Leon Battista Alberti, in
A Parallel of the Antient Architecture with the Modern
(1707), by Roland Fréart. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (NA2812 .F8 1707 Pre = 1801 Collection).

Figure 21
: Proportions of the ideal human form.
From
De statua
, by Leon Battista Alberti. The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford (MS. Canon. Misc. 172, fol 232
v
).

Figure 22
: Domes and study for the head of St. James (Leonardo).
The Royal Collection © 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (RL 12552).

Figure 23
: A machine of Brunelleschi’s.
Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Florence (Palatino 776, 10
r
). Reproduced by kind permission of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. No further reproduction allowed without express permission of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale.

Figure 24
: Siege engine.
From
De re militari
, by Roberto Valturio. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (Incun. 1472 .V21 Rosenwald Coll).

Figure 25
: Gun and mortar studies (Leonardo).
The Royal Collection © 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (RL 12652
r
).

Figure 26
: Madonna and child (Villard de Honnecourt).
Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF, MS Fr 19093, 10
v
).

Figure 27
: Wrestlers and church choir.
Drawing by Rebecca Price, and reprinted with her permission. Originally published in Carl F. Barnes,
The Portfolio of Villard de Honnecourt
(2009), 21,
Figure 11
.

Figure 28
: Geometrical drawings (Villard de Honnecourt).
Bibliothèque Nationale de France (BNF, MS Fr 19093, 18
v
).

Figure 29
: Domes (Leonardo).
Copyright Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan (CA 719
r
): VB 548/11.

Figure 30
: Heraclitus and Democritus (Bramante).
Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Photo: Alinari Archives, Florence.

Figure 31
: Grain mill (Martini).
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (MS 282, Ashburnham 361, fol. 33
v
). Courtesy of the Ministry for the Public Good and Cultural Activities. All further reproduction is prohibited. Photo: Donato Pineider.

Figures 32
and
33
: Head in capital (Martini)
and
Body in column (Martini).
Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence (MS 282, Ashburnham 361, fols. 20
v
and 13
v
). Courtesy of the Ministry for the Public Good and Cultural Activities. All further reproduction is prohibited. Photos: Donato Pineider.

Figure 34
: Skull and pillars (Leonardo).
The Royal Collection © 2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (RL 12608
r
).

Figure 35
: Public dissection.
From
Fasciculus medicinae
, by Johannes Ketham. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (Rosenwald 263).

Figures 36
and
37
: Zodiac Man
and
Bloodletting Man.
From an encyclopedic manuscript containing allegorical and medical drawings. Courtesy of the Rare Books and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress (Rosenwald Collection ms. no. 3).

Figure 38
: Wound Man.
Wellcome Library, London (WMS 290, 53
v
).

Figures 39
and
40
: Human head (Leonardo)
and
Human skull (Leonardo).
The Royal Collection ©2011, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II (RL 19018
r
and RL 19058
v
).

Figure 41
: Brain ventricles.
From
Philosophiae naturalis compendium
, by K. Peyligk (Leipzig, 1489), as reproduced in
Studies in the History and Method of Science
(1917), by Charles Singer, 116 (manuscript source not attributed).