Windsor, RL 12277 (1502/1504) by Leonardo da VinciMuseo Galileo - Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza
Leonardo cartographer
Leonardo's cartographic activity is largely concentrated in the period between 1502-1504, in the service of Cesare Borgia and the Republic of Florence, and 1515 in the service of Giuliano de' Medici. To the first period date the maps of central Italy and the Tuscan territory, drawn for military and hydrographic purposes; some of them were specifically drawn to elaborate the great project of navigating the Arno. To the second period, on the other hand, dates the beautiful map of the Agro Pontino, presumably intended for the definition of the land reclamation project desired by Giuliano de' Medici. From a hydrographic point of view, Leonardo's maps are the most detailed of the time, while on the level of representation they are distinguished by a three-dimensional rendering rendered effectively through the use of color, shading and bird's-eye perspective.
General map of Tuscany, with large portions of Romagna, Marche, Umbria, and Lazio.
Cesare Borgia's political ambitions seem to be able to be linked to the General Map of Tuscany, which illustrates the territory over which Valentino counted on ruling with the support of his father, Pope Alexander VI, and the King of France, Louis XII. A larger territory than that of modern Tuscany, which, as Leonardo notes in the margin of the drawing, "is defined by the sea and the Magra, the Tiber and the Alpe [the Apennine chain]." The Windsor map is not a finished product. The mirror-like writing indicates that it still represents a stage of study that cleanly shows only the distribution of rivers and lakes, neatly revealing the predominance of the hydrographic theme. The attention given to water is also evident from the number of place names: more than one hundred and fifty names of rivers, lakes and swamps are given against about fifty localities.
Preparatory drawing for the general map of Tuscany (Windsor, RL 12277)
The map shows neatly only the distribution of rivers and lakes with some place names.
Bird's eye map of Tuscany (and part of Umbria) with Val di Chiana (and Lake Trasimeno), between Arezzo, Volterra, Siena, Sovana, Chiusi, Cortona and Sansepolcro, c. 1502
This sheet dates from the time when Leonardo traveled in Tuscany and central Italy as architect and plenipotentiary engineer to Cesare Borgia. Given the care and coolness in the setting and execution of the details, the writing from left to right, the deforming forcing in the lower right to include references of Lake Bolsena and the Tyrrhenian Sea, it appears to be an illustrative support for the presentation of a plan for the hydrographic regulation of the Val di Chiana in relation primarily to the Arno, as well as to the Trasimeno and Tiber rivers. And perhaps also of a strategic plan in relation to the rivers between the left bank of the Arno, the Cecina and the Grosseto Ombrone.
Bird's eye view of Arezzo and the Val di Chiana with measurements of distances, c. 1502
This perspective view, sketched with visual trajectory marks and chiaroscuro effects, is supposed to date from the time when Leonardo stayed in the Valdichiana to coincide with the uprising of Arezzo, supported by Vitellozzo Vitelli, general of Cesare Borgia, against Florence. This is an early elaboration, with mirror writing, of a detail from paper RLW 12278. It is an exemplary demonstration of how Leonardo "built" an intermediate representation between a landscape drawing from life and a topographical plan, in a bird's-eye reinvention; and how he synthesized the vision of perspective space and the measurement of distances.
Map of the Valle di Chio (between Castiglione and Montecchio) and a portion of the Valdichiana, c. 1503.
The map shows the localities of "Mammi," "Montanina," "Montecchio," and "Castiglione Aretino," depicted as walled castles on top of the hills flanking the valley. Road distances between the various places are also transcribed, as well as the various waterways that descend from the Chio Valley to the "Lake."
Preliminary study for the detour of the Arno through Prato, Pistola and Serravalle by a canal from Florence to Vicopisano, c. 1503.
The map is a study drawing of the project to deviate the Arno to make the river navigable from Florence to the sea. It reads 18 place names: "Calenzano, Canpi, Montiliveto, Settimo, Signa, Malmantile, Poggio, Tizana, Ciecina, Montecatini, Montelupo, Fuciechio, Pesscia, Monsomano, Basilica, Santa Croce, Arno, Castel[fran]co." Among the observations to be added, curious is the completely incorrect location of Monsummano in the vicinity of Pescia and Villa Basilica.
Map of Northwest Tuscany (from Florence to Barga, Ripafratta and Bientina) with studies for the detour of the Arno into the Florence Canal, through Prato, Pistoia and Serravalle, c. 1503.
Illustrative and demonstrative variant (with toponyms written without mirroring) of map RL 12279, anticipating the more precise one in the Madrid Codex II on folios 22v-23r. The route of the canal runs from Florence to Serravalle, crosses the Padule di Fucecchio and skims Lake Bientina. A scale equivalent to about 1:217/230,000 is shown on the left margin, which allows the distances between the places to be measured: from Bientina to Lucca there are cm 8.9, which should correspond to about 13 Florentine miles and thus to about km 21.5, but the real distance is km 17; on the other hand, from Bientina to Florence there are cm 21.7 corresponding to about 31 miles and thus to about km 51 while the real distance is km 52. Florence is depicted without a name but is also well recognizable by the dome of the Duomo. Among the most glaring inaccuracies in this map are, strangely enough, the erroneous positions of buildings well known to Leonardo, such as the Abbey of San Giusto and the Spedale di Sant'Alluccio on the Montalbano, points of reference in his youthful travels and reconnaissance for the Arno detour.
Map of Northwest Tuscany from Florence to the Sea with Lines of the Arno Canal Project through Prato or Poggio a Caiano, Pistoia and Serravalle, and Pisa, c. 1503.
This map is perhaps the last one, among those that have come to us, that presents studies for the detour of the waters of the Arno, as can be seen from some changes from the tracings found on Windsor maps RL 12685 and RL 12279. Note certain graphic details between "Artimino" and "Capraia" and the persistence of serpentine excesses, not corresponding to reality, even around Empoli and Pontorme. Among the errors, the misplacement of Verghereto and Fornia, small Montalbano localities in the municipality of Carmignano, is surprising. Leonardo also indicates the distances of the routes between Lamporecchio and Monsummano on the Vinci side of Montalbano and the route between Montale-Pistoia to Villa Basilica. Interesting are the lines of the different routes of the Florence-Pistoia-Serravalle canal that could have passed via Prato or via Poggio a Caiano. Only the names of the streams Bure and Vincio, near Pistoia, are spelled in a mirrored manner.
Map of the environs of Pisa for projects to divert the waters of the Arno, c. 1503.
The map was drafted in 1503, when Leonardo entered the service of the Republic of Florence as a military architect. Among his first assignments was a project to deviate the Arno at the gates of Pisa in order to end the long siege of the city by the Florentines. A dam was to block the course of the river near Riglione, feeding the waters into a canal that would flow through Stagno in Livorno into the sea near Calambrone. The site of the detour is shown on the map as "Rotta d'Arno." Stubbornly desired by Niccolò Machiavelli, the project was put in place in August 1504 with significant modifications from Leonardo's directions. Despite measurements and inspections by water masters, the level of the Livorno Pond turned out to be higher than that of the Arno. In October a flood destroyed the dam and the river regained its bed, ending any further attempts to block its waters.
Bird's eye map of western Tuscany with the coast from Campiglia and San Vincenzo to Lucca, with the surroundings of Pisa, Livorno, Volterra and the Valdera, c. 1503.
Illustrative map in which place names appear in non-mirrored writing. At the bottom, on the right bank of the Arno, in the area between Vicopisano, Castelfranco, S. Maria a Monte and S. Croce, then between the swamps of Bientina and Fucecchio, castles and towns are indicated without names (Vicopisano is recognizable, however). This detail helps to exclude this map from the drawings aimed at the detour of the Arno into the Florence Canal through the Valdinievole; instead, it is evident that this is a demonstration map for the project of detouring the Arno away from Pisa toward Stagno in Livorno. The verisimilitude of the port of Livorno is remarkable, even in relation to a youthful sketch in the Codex Atlanticus (f. 147a-r). The scale is about 1:200,000.
Plan of the lake of San Lorenzo in Arniano.
The drawing shows the design of an artificial lake east of Vinci Castle in the Serravalle area. The lake would have been formed by the inflow of water brought by tributaries of the Streda and would possibly have served the activity of various mills in the area.
Schematic and idealized plan of Florence (with list of the gates of Milan added presumably by Francesco Melzi), c. 1515.
In this drawing, the urban section of the Arno is rectified according to a straight course that remains so for a long stretch outside the walls, in the direction of Signa (below). The linear course was intended to facilitate the flow of water during floods, preventing the numerous meanders from creating bottlenecks that would cause the city and the countryside to flood.
Map of the right bank of the Arno between Bisarno, La Rotta and Ricorboli, c. 1503
The map illustrates the rushing current of the river upstream from Florence. The waters burst over two dams, break them and push violently on the right bank causing two breaks, one of 60 fathoms and the other, a little further downstream, of 100 ("“qui la roctura è braccia 100”"). The observation of this reality was instrumental in developing the river course restoration project in the urban section.
