The life of Leonardo da Vinci by John William Brown

Childhood and Apprenticeship

Among the many distinguished individuals who flourished. in Italy about the middle of the fifteenth century, there is none more worthy -of commemoration than Leonardo da Vinci, whether we consider his splendid and almost universal talents, or the excellence of his character. Through a long and active life his mind was zealously devoted to the revival of the Arts, to which he contributed in a greater degree, perhaps, than any single individual of ancient or modern times.

The arts of Poetry, Music, and especially Painting, were embraced by him with an enthusiasm which awakened that of others, and gave a mighty impulse to the mental energies, not only of his contemporaries and countrymen, but of distant nations and posterity. Every incident in the life of such a man must be full of in- serest to the lovers of biography the more so from the very remarkable fact, that in no language have those incidents been properly collected, though abundant and authentic sources of information exist on which such a work might be founded. To supply in some degree this deficiency, is the object of the following Pages.

Leonardo da Vinci was born in the year 1452, at Vinci, in the Val d'Arno inferiore, on the confines of the Pistoiese territory, not far from the Lake of Fucecchio. He was the natural son of Pietro da Vinci and it is said that his mother was a servant in his father's family; but this most remain uncertain, from the length of time that has since elapsed, and the numerous reports that contradict each other, not only in what relates to his origin, but even to the year of his birth, in which there is a difference of no less than ten years.

It is however certain, that he was entirely brought up in his father's family : a fact attested by an old and well authenticated register, found among the ancient archives of Florence by Signore Dei, who has written largely on the subject of Leonardo's genealogy.. It is a matter of some regret, that, amidst all his learned and elaborate researches, that gentleman has not been able to procure any documents to prove that Da Vinci was subsequently declared legitimate, which from various circumstances appears to be extremely probable. If we may believe the register, and there is no better authority, Leonardo was seventeen years old when his father was forty; no that he must have been been when Pietro was a young man, and most likely before his marriage.

His father had three wives, Giovanna da Zenobi Amadori, Francesca di Ser Giuliano Lanfredini, and Lucrezia di Guglielmo Cortigiani; and a proof that Leonardo still formed a part of his family after his third marriage, is afforded by a passage in one of Belincionni's sonnets, addressed to Madonna Lucrezia do Vinci, which begins:
"A Fiesole con Piero e Leonardo"
and relates the pleasures he enjoyed at their villa near Florence. It is hardly probable that he would have received such unvarying attentions, had he been considered merely as a natural child. Moreover, we find from several documents in the " Codice At!antics", that his family were at all times proud of his relationship, and his uncle Francesco da Vinci left him an equal share of his property with his other brothers and sisters.

Leonardo was gifted with one of the finest forms that can be imagined, in which strength and symmetry were beautifully combined; his face was strongly expressive of his ardent mind, and of the frankness and energy of his character. He would, it may be presumed, have distinguished himself in the literary world while in his youth, had he not been as unsteady as he was enthusiastic in his various pursuits. He made such wonderful progress in arithmetic, that when a child he frequently proposed questions which his master himself was unable to resolve. He next attached himself to music as a science, and soon arrived at such perfection in playing on the lyre, which was his favourite instrument, as to compose extemporaneous accompaniments to his own poetical effusions.