Draft Letter to the Vicar on Judicial Cases
Orders on punishing a cloth-thief and night intruders, and settling a dispute over costs
A letter addressed to 'Vicario Valente' replying on several judicial matters: a thief who has stolen nine pieces of cloth, to be punished as the law provides; two men who stole muscatel, to be held in chains for four hours in public as an example; men caught trying to enter the town by night; and a dispute in which Dionisio Aribaldo is to pay the costs owed to Martino Biscosso, whom he had wounded. The main text is written in an upright chancery hand rather than in Leonardo's mirror script. A faint mechanical sketch is visible in the lower part of the sheet, which the Ambrosiana catalogues under water-driven instruments, but it is not transcribed.
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Punishments for a cloth-thief, muscatel-thieves and night intruders
The writer directs that a thief who stole nine pieces of cloth be punished as the law provides, and approves holding the muscatel-thieves in chains for four hours in public as an example to others. Those caught trying to enter the town by night are to be punished according to law, weighing the penalty for scaling the walls or slipping in through the great gate.
Faint mechanical sketch at the foot of the sheet
Below the letter, faintly drawn, is a mechanical structure with what appear to be stacked and coiled elements. It is not described in the transcribed text; the Ambrosiana catalogues the leaf under water-driven instruments and machines.