Page:The painters of Florence from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century (1915).djvu/312

268 Leonardo's remains were buried in the royal chapel of St. Florentin, at Amboise, and, in obedience to his last wishes, thirty masses were said for the repose of his soul, and sixty poor persons followed him to the grave with lighted candles. The date of his final burial is recorded in the following document, discovered by M. Hardouin in 1863 in the registers of St. Florentin of Amboise, and published by M. Müntz.

Leonardo's writings give us the best insight into his mind, and explain many problems that meet us in his works. From these scattered sayings, written down at odd moments, on loose sheets and scraps of paper, on the backs of drawings and in the corners of plans, we can reconstruct a whole philosophy of life. We see him as he was, with his clear and noble intellect, singularly free from the prejudices and superstitions of his age, ever seeking after more light and wider knowledge, but not without a deep reverence for the great First Cause whose nature lies beyond the range of human thought. And if together with his written words we study the magnificent collections of his drawings in the Uffizi, the Louvre, and the royal Library at Windsor, we shall begin to understand the marvellous genius of the man. Everywhere we see the same passionate longing to penetrate