Maxims and the Emblem of the Vigilant Cranes
Red-chalk moral sayings under the heading 'Loyalty', with the cranes that guard their king
This closely written red-chalk page gathers a set of moral maxims and an emblematic bestiary note. Under the heading 'Loyalty' Leonardo recalls how cranes, to keep their king from perishing through a careless watch, stand about him at night holding stones in their feet, and he assigns the words love, fear and reverence to three such stones. The surrounding sayings warn that he who undermines a wall is crushed by it and that a felled plant avenges itself in its own ruin.
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Maxims of self-inflicted ruin
Leonardo writes that he who undermines the wall has it fall upon him, and that he who cuts down the plant is avenged by its own downfall. The paired sayings turn acts of destruction back upon their author. They stand among his aphoristic moral notes.
'Loyalty': the cranes that guard their king
Under the heading Loyalty, the cranes keep their king from perishing by a poor watch by standing around him at night with stones held in their feet. Leonardo directs that love, fear and reverence be written on three of the cranes' stones. He adds that the traitor escapes death because, even when he shows loyalty, it is not believed of him.