Memorandum of errands, purchases and books to procure
With a pen sketch of a coffered vaulted stage-set, to be covered with cloth and nailed
A running memorandum of things to do: find Ligny and arrange travel to Rome and Naples, have a deed of donation drawn up, and secure books and instruments including Vitelo's optics, the treatise 'De ponderibus', a lathe and a theatre model. It runs on into a shopping list of chests, bed-covers, tablecloths, caps, hose and a chamois jerkin, seeds and garlic to gather, and craft techniques to learn from Gian di Paris (dry colouring, pasted papers, tempera, dissolving gum lac). At upper centre a pen-and-ink drawing shows a coffered barrel vault with a decorated soffit, captioned as a detail of the stage-set that is to be covered with cloth and then nailed.
On this page
Errands, travel and books to secure
A private reminder-list: find Ligny and tell him to wait at Rome and travel on to Naples; have the deed of donation drawn up; take Vitelo's book and the measurements of public buildings; get the theatre of Verona from Giovan Lombardo; take 'De ponderibus' and the works of Leonardo of Cremona. It reads as a note to self before a journey.
Things to buy, gather and sell
The note turns into an inventory of goods: 2 covered chests or bed-covers (one to be left at Vinci), tablecloths and napkins, caps, slippers, 4 pairs of hose, a chamois jerkin and skins, seeds of lilies, starwort and sea gourds, and garlic of Piacenza. It also lists items to sell off what cannot be carried and a stolen andiron to recover.
Coffered vaulted stage-set
At upper centre a pen drawing shows a barrel vault springing from a decorated pier, its soffit divided into coffers, with a separate diagram of a round-headed arch of voussoirs below. The caption notes it as a detail of the stage scenery, which is to be covered with cloth and then nailed in place.
Colouring and material techniques to learn
Among the reminders are craft methods to acquire from Gian di Paris: the way of colouring dry, the way of the white salt, the making of pasted papers (single and in many folds), his box of colours, the tempering of the [cornage], and how to dissolve gum lac.