1 English translation by MacCurdy, E. (The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, London, 1938 and later editions, Vol. II, ch. 45Google Scholar, ‘Prophecies’). Richter, J. P. (The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, 2nd ed. [Oxford, 1939], §705)Google Scholar places it in the category of ‘Ornaments and decorations for feasts.’ Cf. Disegni di Leonardo da Vinci e della sua scuola alla Biblioteca Reate di Torino, Catalogo a cura di Carlo Pedretti, con una introduzione su ‘Leonardo a Torino’ di Luigi Firpo (Florence, 1975), p. 44. Modern typographical conventions have been followed throughout this article for i and j, and u and v.

2 Turin catalogue, pp. xx-xxi. Firpo also discusses (pp. xi-xii) the only known reference to Turin in Leonardo's manuscripts, the note in MS. G, fol. 1^v, which is about a stone to be found near Saluzzo and which ends with the memorandum (as transcribed by Ravaisson-Mollien): ‘Arottino [?] da turino [?] na alcune chesson / berettine forte dure ‘ Firpo has shown that the interpretation of the person's name has been the subject of much speculation, and has proposed the reading ‘Perottino da Turino.’ A good photograph of the page and the original leave no doubt that the name is ‘trottino taburino,’ probably the same person to whom Bellincioni dedicates a sonnet (Sonetto 123. Faceto sopra il Tamburino).

3 Ms. I, fol. 63^v , ca. 1497, given by MacCurdy, Vol. II, ch. 45, and by Richter, §1299. The answer may be: ‘per il verno’ (because of winter). On the recto of the same sheet there are other ‘prophecies’ set forth without explanation (Richter, §1298), to which the answers may be: ‘The cats’ and ‘The mosquitos.’ For a full discussion of all the other Leonardo ‘prophecies,’ see my forthcoming Commentary to the Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci [Kress Foundation Studies in the History of European Art], Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1977, 2 vols.

4 Cf. my Leonardo da Vinci. The Royal Palace at Romorantin (Cambridge, Mass., 1972), PP. 51-52. See also Arundel Ms., fol. 270^v, ca. 1517: ‘facciasi fonti / (chom) incias/scuna piaza,’ as given in Romorantin Palace, p. 93, figs. 126, 153.

5 The English translation of all the ‘prophecies’ quoted above is by MacCurdy. A somewhat related riddle on the theme of snow and water is to be found in Luca Pacioli's unpublished De viribus quantitatis (MS. 250 in the Biblioteca Universitaria, Bologna), fol. 365^v: ‘Dimme qual è quella figliola o, figliolo ch’ fa la ma-/tre. o.ver g[e]nera la matre: Dirai la neve o.ver ghia/cio . ch'sonno figliuoli delaque . et loro fanno laqua ec.’ (Tell me who is that daughter or son whose mother she or he will generate. You will say, it is the snow or the ice, the daughter and the son of water, who in turn generate the water, etc.).

6 MacCurdy, Vol. II, ch. 48, ‘Dated Notes.’ In Madrid MS. II, fol. 55, Leonardo makes another reference to his project of a ‘musical’ fountain: ‘darmonia / duna chaduta dunacq^a di fonte se ne facci / unarmonia che conpōgha una piva comol/te consonāçe e boci —‘ (Of harmony. Let us turn the water fall of a fountain into a harmony by way of a bagpipe which produces many consonances and voices). This is followed by the explanation of the instrument (my own English translation): ‘fermereno i nostri vasi di terra di poi / il corso della(g)qua chessce devasi mova / una rota dentata nella(s)lbero suo liq^a/li denti apra le canne dellacq^a che chade ne / vasi di mano inmano sechondo illor bisogno / come fa la mano sopra li tassti dellorgano e ā/cora sia adattata chessi possa sonar cō / mano domāda messer marcello del / sono fatto chonacqua da vetruvio —‘ (Once the terracotta vessels are secured, the water streamlets issuing from them will turn a wheel which has teeth in its axle. And these teeth open the pipes for the water to fall into the vessels, from time to time as required, after the manner of the hand that touches the keys of the organ. And it may also be arranged that it can be played by hand. Ask messer Marcello about the sound made by water as described by Vitruvius). Below, next to a slight sketch of the mechanism: ‘vole infine essere in mo/do di tastame dorgano ac/co che tochando un tasto esa/lçi loposita (co) sua parte / e apra la cāna dellacq^a’ (It must be, in conclusion, like the keyboard of an organ, so that as a key is touched, its opposite end is raised and the waterpipe opens). This description applies to an instrument similar to the one sketched in Arundel MS., fols. 136-137^v The reference to Vitruvius is certainly to the water organ described in Book x, ch. 8, and the person Leonardo intends to consult for an interpretation of the difficult Latin text is probably Marcello Virgilio di Adriano Berti, one of Machiavelli's friends and his predecessor at the Florentine Chancery, who was also professor of Greek and Latin literature at the Florentine Studio. (‘Messer’ designates a doctor or a professor, not a master as translated by the editor of the codex.) Cf. Mara, D., La Cancelleria della Repubblica Fiorentina, Rocca S. Casciano, 1910, pp. 293–296 Google Scholar and passim. Another reference to the same person is probably in the memorandum on the back cover of MS. L, ca. 1502, given by Richter, §1419: ‘Marcello sta in chasa diacomo da mō/gardino’ (Marcello lives in the house of Jacomo da Mongardino). Leonardo's relationship with Machiavelli's circle in Florence soon after 1500 has been repeatedly stressed in my latest publications. Cf. RQ, 25 (1972), 417-425. See also the letter that Luca Ugolini wrote from Florence to Machiavelli in Rome on November 11, 1503, to announce the birth of a son to Machiavelli: ‘Compare charissimo. Profitio, et veramente mom Marietta vostra non v'à inghannato, ché tucto sputato vi somigla: Lionardo da Vinci non l'arebbe ritracto meglo’ (Dearest Godfather, best wishes. Truly, Mona Marietta, your wife, has not deceived you, for he is your spitting image. Leonardo da Vinci could not have portrayed him better). Cf. Machiavelli, N., Tutte le opere, ed. M. Martelli (Florence, 1971), p. 1055 Google Scholar.

7 This is preceded by another scurrilous jest: ‘una puta mostro il chuno [i.e., conno] duna / chapra nischābio del suo a ū prete / e prese un grosso e chosi lo beffo’ (A girl showed the vulva of a she-goat to a priest instead of her own, and took a grosso from him, thus fooling him). The same facetia is told by Giovanni Pontano. Cf. Speroni, C., Wits and Wisdom of the Italian Renaissance (Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1964), p. 175 Google Scholar.

8 Cf. Vinci, Leonardo da, Tutti gli scritti a cura di Augusto Marinoni, Scritti letterari (Milan, 1952), p. 143 Google Scholar, n. 3. In the second edition of the same work (Milan, 1974), p. 144, n. 15, Marinoni is inclined to consider the words ‘tre verità’ as referring to the muddy passage.

9 The note is a recipe for a ‘medicina dagrattature insegniomela laraldo / del re di frācia,’ the ingredients of which are also listed in MS. Hiii, fol. 136^V, and MS. Hi, fol. 18^v, thus pointing to the date ca. 1493-94.

10 This is on the ‘parent sheet’ of the Windsor fragment no. 12725, and my early description of it as representing a bullrush (Leonardo da Vinci, Fragments at Windsor Castle from the Codex Atlanticus [London, 1957], p. 42) has never been questioned. In fact, it appears again in the second edition of Lord Clark's Catalogue (London, 1968), but I am now inclined to recognize in the drawing the representation of a layered vine, as it seems to be made sufficiently clear by the form of the old stem and of the leaves. I do not know of any publication on Leonardo's botanical studies (e.g., Baldacci's, De Toni's, etc.) that mentions this drawing.

11 MS. Hi, fol. 38: ‘vigne di visievane / adi 20 di março 1494 / ella vernata si sotterano’ (Richter, §1025). Cf. Calvi, I., ‘Leonardo studioso di agricoltura,’ Raccolta Vinciana, 15-16 (1935-39), 175–183 Google Scholar, fig. 53. The practice of layering vines (propagginare) was widespread in Italy since antiquity (cf. Vergil, Georgica II.125-126) and is recorded by Pietro Crescendo, De agricoltura, rv, ch. 10. It was of course well known in Tuscany. Cf. Alamanni, Coltivazione, I.350-363.

12 Codex Atlanticus, fol. 252^r-a, ca. 1503-05, which is the ‘parent sheet’ of the Windsor fragment no. 12459, and which contains the well-known statement: ‘quādo io feci domene dio putto voi mi mettesti in prigione / ora sio lo fo grāde voi mi farete pegio’ given by Richter, §1364. For its conjugated sheet and other problems of chronology, see my forthcoming The Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo da Vinci. A Catalogue of Its Newly Restored Sheets, Florence and New York, n. to fol. 606.

13 Horace, De arte poetica, 70. It is with this line that Gerolamo Calvi ends his book on the chronology of the Leonardo manuscripts (Bologna, 1925). For the explanation of other Leonardo riddles and the identification of their sources see my XV Lettura Vinciana (Florence, 1975), pp. 21-22 and 31-34. An extensive series of Leonardo's emblems and allegories is to be found in my forthcoming Commentary.