Tales, Jests, & Fables
Leonardo the Storyteller
I will create a fiction which shall express great things.
— Leonardo da Vinci
Overview
Among the scientific observations and engineering diagrams, Leonardo's notebooks contain stories, jokes, and fables — evidence that the great polymath also had a sense of humor and a gift for narrative. These range from elaborate fantasy tales (a giant rampaging through Libya) to short, sharp jokes about friars and painters to moral fables in the Aesop tradition.
Many were likely written for performance at courtly gatherings. Vasari records that Leonardo was a brilliant conversationalist and entertainer. These texts show that side of him — playful, witty, occasionally barbed.
The Giant of Libya
Leonardo's most elaborate fiction
Dear Benedetto, — To give you the news of the things here from the east, you must know that in the month of June there appeared a giant who came from the Libyan desert. This giant was born on Mount Atlas, and was black, and he fought against Artaxerxes with the Egyptians and Arabs, the Medes and Persians; he lived in the sea upon the whales, the great leviathans and the ships.
C.A. 311 r. a
The black visage at first sight is most horrible and terrifying to look upon, especially the swollen and bloodshot eyes set beneath the awful lowering eyebrows which cause the sky to be overcast and the earth to tremble. And believe me there is no man so brave but that, when the fiery eyes were turned upon him, he would willingly have put on wings in order to escape, for the face of infernal Lucifer would seem angelic by contrast with this.
C.A. 311 r. a
This is a fantasy epic written in the form of letters — like Tolkien by way of Herodotus. The vivid physical descriptions and the narrative energy are remarkable. Leonardo the visual artist creates images with words as powerful as any he drew with a pen. -D
Jests
Leonardo's jokes
A priest while going the round of his parish on the Saturday before Easter in order to sprinkle the houses with holy water as was his custom, coming to the studio of a painter, and there beginning to sprinkle the water upon some of his pictures, the painter turning round with some annoyance asked him why he sprinkled his pictures in this manner. The priest replied that it was the custom and that it was his duty to act thus, that he was doing a good deed and that whoever did a good deed might expect a recompense as great or even greater; for so God had promised that for every good deed which we do on the earth we shall be rewarded a hundredfold from on high. Then the painter, having waited until the priest had made his exit, stepped to the window above and threw a large bucket of water down on to his back, calling out to him: — "See there is the reward that comes to you a hundredfold from on high as you said it would, on account of the good deed you did me with your holy water with which you have half ruined my pictures."
C.A. 119 r. a
If Petrarch loved the laurel so much it was because it is good with sausages and thrushes; I don't attach any value to their trifles.
Tr. 1 a
The Petrarch joke is priceless. Petrarch was famously devoted to "Laura" — which is also the laurel, the poet's crown. Leonardo reduces the whole courtly love tradition to a seasoning for meat. That's the humor of a man who has no patience for pretension. -D
The Friars and the Chicken
A tale of revenge served cold (and wet)
The Franciscan friars at certain seasons have periods of fasting, during which no meat is eaten in their monasteries, but if they are on a journey, as they are then living on almsgiving, they are allowed to eat whatever is set before them. Now a couple of these friars travelling under these conditions chanced to alight at an inn at the same time as a certain merchant and sat down at the same table, and on account of the poverty of the inn nothing was served there except one roasted cockerel. At this the merchant as he saw that it would be scant fare for himself turned to the friars and said: — "On days like these if I remember rightly you are not permitted in your monasteries to eat any kind of meat." The friars on hearing these words were constrained by their rule to admit without any attempt at argument that this was indeed the case: so the merchant had his desire and devoured the chicken, and the friars fared as best they could.
Now after having dined in this wise all three table-companions set out on their journey together, and having gone a certain distance they came to a river of considerable breadth and depth, and as they were all three on foot, the friars by reason of their poverty and the other from niggardliness, it was necessary according to the custom of the country that one of the friars who had no shoes and stockings should carry the merchant on his shoulders. But as it so happened the friar when he found himself in the middle of the stream bethought himself of another of his rules, and coming to a standstill after the manner of St. Christopher raised his head towards him who was weighing heavily upon him and said: — "Just tell me, have you any money about you?" "Why you know quite well that I have," replied the other. "How do you suppose a merchant like me could travel about otherwise?" "Alas!" said the friar, "our rule forbids us to carry any money on our backs"; and he instantly threw him into the water.
C.A. 150 v. b
A perfectly constructed joke. The setup (the merchant's greed), the escalation (the river crossing), and the punchline (the friar's literal reading of the rule) all build toward an inevitable, satisfying payoff. Leonardo was a master storyteller. -D
People forget Leonardo was funny. He could spin a yarn, tell a joke, and plant a moral lesson inside a story about a friar dropping a merchant in a river. These passages are some of the most readable in all the notebooks — no geometry required. -D