Page:Vasari - Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects, volume 2.djvu/400

392 in Milan and elsewhere, but it shall suffice me to have mentioned this one, which is his best. Marco Uggioni was likewise a disciple of Leonardo, and painted the Assumption of Our Lady in the church of Santa Maria della Pace, with the Marriage at Cana of Galilee, also in the same church. For the question as to whether and to what extent Leonardo practised the art of engraving, the reader is referred to Ottley, Inquiry into the History of Early Engraving. See also Zani, Enciclopedia Metodica delle Belle Arti, &c.; Amoretti, Memorie Storiche, &c., has an interesting document, a letter namely, addressed by Leonardo da Vinci to the Duke Lodovico il Moro, which we subjoin with its translation. Vasari has but slightly alluded to the distinction obtained by Leonardo as an engineer: his acquirements in civil and military architecture, and in mechanics generally, are, nevertheless, unquestionable, and the letter just alluded to, though well known and frequently cited, will not be unacceptble, expressing, as it does, the opinion of Leonardo himself on that subject. It was written to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan, in 1483; consequently, when Leonardo was little more than thii’ty years old. VVe give the original, with the writer’s orthography, and as it was copied by Oltracchi from the Autograph, which is now in the Ambrosian Library, Milan. — See Amoretti, ut supra, p. 16, et seq. “Havendo, Sro. mio Ill., visto e considerate oramai ad sufficientia le prove di tutti quelli che si reputano maestri et compositori d’instrumenti bellici; et che le inventione et operatione de dicti instrument! non sono niente alien! dal comune uso; mi exforsero, non derogando a nessuno altro, farm! intendere da Vostra Excellentia, aprendo a quello li segreti miei: et appresso offerendoli, ad ogni suo piacimento, in tempi opportuni, operare cum effecto circha tutte quelle cose, che sub brevita in presente sarrano qui sotto notate. “1. Ho mode di far punti (ponti) leggerissimi et acti ad portare facilissimamente, et cum quelli seguire et alcuna volta fuggire li inimici; et altri securi et inoffensibili da fuoco et battaglia; facili et commodi da levare et ponere. Et modi de ardere et disfare quelli de linimici. “2. So in la obsidione de una terra toglier via laqua de’ fossi et fare infiniti pontighatti a scale et altri instrument! pertinentiad dicta expeditione. “3. Item se per altezza de argine o per fortezza de loco et di sito non si pottesse in la obsidione de una terra usare lofficio delle bombarde: ho modo di ruinare ogni roccia o altra fortezza, se gia non fusse fondativ sul saxo.