The Great Cavern, and the Two Lines of Fossil Shells
Leonardo's prose: fossil strata, the deluge, volcanoes, and the entrance of a dark cavern
On the left folio Leonardo debates, in a Pro and Contra dialogue, why two lines of fossil shells lie in the rock - whether the earth plunged beneath the sea to make one stratum and the flood made the other - reflecting on nature's endless creation of life, the balance struck by animals feeding on one another and by pestilent vapours upon crowded multitudes, and the soul's longing to return to the primal chaos, like the moth to the flame, closing that man is the model of the world. The right folio opens with the fury of whirlwinds, the north wind between Scylla and Charybdis, and the eruptions of Stromboli and Etna (Mongibello), then turns to the celebrated autobiographical passage in which, drawn by eager desire to see nature's strange forms, he comes to the mouth of a great dark cavern and feels rise in him two things: fear and desire. The spread is written entirely in dense prose without diagrams.
On this page
Two lines of fossil shells: strata of sea and flood
For the two lines of shells one must say that the earth in disdain plunged beneath the sea and made the first stratum, then the flood made the second. The animals are held up as an example of the life of the world, whose terrestrial matter nature continually increases.
Nature's balance of life, food, and pestilence
Nature, taking pleasure in creating continual lives and forms as an increase of her terrestrial matter, is more prompt to create than time is to consume, and so ordains that many animals be food for one another; failing this, she sends poisonous and pestilent vapours and plague upon the great multiplications of animals, and above all upon men.
The longing to return to primal chaos, like the moth to the flame
The hope and desire of returning to the first chaos acts like the moth to the light, like the man who with continual longing awaits the new spring and does not perceive that he desires his own undoing; this desire is the quintessence, the spirit of the elements enclosed as the soul of the human body, ever wishing to return to its sender - for man is the model of the world.
The whirlwind, the north wind, and the fires of Etna and Stromboli
Like a whirling wind driving all before it through a hollow sandy valley, the northern aquilone strikes back the tempestuous sea with foamy waves between Scylla and Charybdis; nor do Stromboli or Mongibello roar less when their shut-in sulphurous flames break open the great mountain and hurl stone and earth through the air with the vomited flame.
At the mouth of the great cavern: fear and desire
Drawn on by eager desire to see the abundance of strange forms made by artful nature, and having wandered among shadowy rocks, he came to the entrance of a great cavern; bending his back into an arch and shading his lowered brows, he peered within, and suddenly two things arose in him - fear of the threatening dark cavern, and desire to see whether some miraculous thing were within.