Memorandum of 23 April 1490 and the Thefts of the Boy Giacomo
Beginning the book and the horse; a year's clothing accounts; a recipe; light figures
One of the most personal pages in the notebook. Leonardo records that on 23 April 1490 he began this book and resumed the horse, and that a ten-year-old boy named Giacomo came to live with him on the feast of the Magdalen; he then catalogues, with lire and soldi noted in the margin, the boy's repeated thefts and mischief, ending in the verdict 'thief, liar, obstinate, glutton.' A red-chalk column tallies the first year's outlay on cloaks, shirts, doublets, hose and shoes, and a pen note gives a recipe of powdered metals, alum and furnace smoke moistened with spirits. At lower right are three small figures of a luminous body and a shadowy body of equal or differing diameter.
On this page
Beginning the book and resuming the horse, 23 April 1490
On the 23rd of April 1490 Leonardo began this book and resumed the horse; and Giacomo, aged ten, came to stay with him on the day of the Magdalen in the same year.
The catalogue of Giacomo's thefts and mischief
The boy stole money set aside for his new clothes, broke three cruets and spilled wine at supper, took a silver stylus from Marco and another from Gian Antonio, robbed a groom's purse while helping arrange a joust for messer Galeazzo da Sanseverino, and sold a gift of Turkish hide for sweets. Leonardo brands him thief, liar, obstinate, glutton.
The first year's clothing expenses
A red-chalk column totals the first year: a cloak 2 lire, six shirts 4 lire, three doublets 6 lire, four pairs of hose 7 lire 8 soldi, a lined garment 5 lire, twenty-four pairs of shoes 6 lire 5 soldi, a cap 1 lira, and belts and laces 1 lira.
A pen recipe of powdered metals for medals
In pen: powder for medals, made of incombustible fungus wicks reduced to powder, burnt tin and all metals, flaky alum, and furnace smoke from brass, each moistened lightly with aqua vitae, malmsey, strong vinegar, distilled turpentine or oil, and thrown into little frames.
Three figures of luminous and shadowy bodies
At the lower right stand three small diagrams pairing a luminous body with a shadowy body of equal or differing diameter, each simply labelled 'luminous.'