fome few years fince removed from the Ambrofian library at Milan; and of one folio volume in manufcript alfo, in the poffeffion of his Majesty the King of Great Britain. Of thofe at Paris, J. B. Venturi, Profeffor of Natural Philofophy at Modena, and of the Inftitute of Bologna, &c. who was permitted to infpect them, fays, that "they contain fpeculations in thofe branches of natural philofophy nearest allied to geometry; that they are firft sketches and occafional notes, the author always intending afterwards to compofe from them com. plete treatises." He adds further, "that they are written backwards from right to left, in the manner of the Oriental writers, probably with intention that the curious fhould not rob him of his difcoveries. The fpirit of geometry guided him throughout, whether it were in the art of analyfing a fubject in the connexion of the difcourfe, or the care of always generalizing his ideas. As to natural philofophy, he never was fatisfied on any propofition if he had not proved it by experiment." From the extracts given from these manufcripts by Venturi himself, and which he has ranged under the different heads mentioned in the note*, the contents of thefe volumes appear to be extremely miscellaneous; and it is evident, as Venturi has marked by references where each extract is to be found in the original, that from the great distance at which paffages on the fame fubject are placed from each other, they must have been entered without any regard to method or arrangement of any kind whatever." P. li.

The volume in the poffeffion of his Majefly, is well-known by the beautiful and accurate publication of Mr. Chamberlain. We proceed, therefore, to give the history of the MSS. collectively, from the prefent life.

"It has been already feen, that these volumes were originally given by the will of Leonardo to Francifco Melzi; and their fubfequent history we are enabled to ftate on the authority of John Ambrofe Mazenta, through whofe hands they paffed. Du Frefne, in the life prefixed to the edition which he published in Italian, of Leonardo da Vinci's Treatife on Painting, has, in a very loose way, and without citing any authority, given their hiftory; but Venturi has inferted ta tranflation into French, from the original manufcript memoir of Mazenta; and from him a verfion of it into English is here given, with the addition of Venturi's notes, rendered alfo into English.

"Sect. 1. Of the Defcent of heavy Bodies, combined with the Rotation of the Earth. 2. Of the Earth divided into Particles. 3. Of the Earth and the Moon. 4. Of the Action of the Sun on the Sea. 5. Of the ancient State of the Earth. 6. Of the Flame and the Air. 7. Of Statics. 8. Of the Defcent of heavy Bodies by inclined Planes. 9. Of the Water which one draws from a Canal. 10. Of Whirlpools. 11. Of Vifion. 12. Of military Architecture. 13. Of fome Inftraments. 14. Two chymical Proceffes. 15. Of Method."

" + P. 33.".

"It is near fifty years* fince there fell into my hands thirteen volumes of Leonardo da Vinci in folio and quarto, written backwards. Accident brought them to me in the following manner: I was refiding at Pifa, for the purpose of ftudying the law, in the family of Aldus Manutius the younger, a great lover of books. A perfon named Lelio Gavardi, of Áfola, Prevost of S. Zeno, at Pavia, à very near relation of Aldus, came to our houfe; he had been a teacher of the belles lettres in the family of the Melzi of Milan, called de Vavero, to diftinguish them from other families of the fame name in that city. He had, at their country houfe at Vavero, niet with feveral drawings, inftruments, and books of Leonardo. Francifco Melzi + approached nearer than any one to the manner of Da Vinci; he worked little, because he was rich; his pictures are very much finished, they are often confounded with thofe of his master. At his death he left the works of Leonardo in his house at Vavero, to his fons, who having taftes and purfuits of a different kind, neglected these treafures, and foon difperfed them; Lelio Gavardi poffeffed himself of as many of them as he pleased; he carried thirteen volumes to Florence, in hopes of receiving for them a good price from the Grand Duke Francis, who was eager after works of this fort; and the rather as Leonardo was in great reputation in his own country. But this prince died as foon as Gavardi was arrived at Florence. He then went to Pifa, to the house of Manutius. I could not approve his proceeding; it was fcandalous. My ftudies being finished, I had occafion to return to Milan. He gave me the volumes of Vinci, defiring me to return them to Melzi; I acquitted myfelf faithfully of my commiffion; I carried them all back to Horatio, the chief of the family of Melzi, who was furprized at my being willing to give myself this trouble. He made me a prefent of these books, telling me he had fill many drawings by the fame author, long neglected in the garrets of his houfe in the country. Thus thefe books became my property, and afterwards they belonged to my brothers. Thefe latter having made too much parade of this acquifition, and the eafe with which I was brought to it, excited the envy of other amateurs, who befet Horatio, and obtained from him fome drawings, fome figures, fome anatomical pieces, and other valuable remains of the cabinet of Leonardo. One of the fe fpungers for the works of Leonardo, was Pompeo Aretin, fon of the Cavalier Leoni, formerly a difciple of Buonaroti, and who was about Philip II. King

J. A. Mazenta died in 1635. He gave the defigns for the fortifications of Livorno in Tufcany; and has written on the method of rendering the Adda navigable. Argelati Script. Mediol, vol. ii.” Venturi, 33.

"We fhall fee afterwards that this man was Leonardo's heir: he had carried back these writings and drawings from France to Milan.” Venturi, 34.

This was in 1587." Venturi, p. 34.

J. Amb. Mazenta made himself a Barnabite in 1590." Venturi, 34."

of

of Spain, for whom he did all the bronzes which are at the Efcurial. Pompeo engaged himself to procure for Melzi an employment to the fenate of Milan, if he fucceeded in recovering the thirteen books, wifhing to offer them to King Philip, a lover of fuch curiofities. Flattered with this hope, Melzi went to my brother's houfe: he befought him on his knees to restore him his prefent; he was a fellowcollegian, a friend, a benefactor: seven volumes were returned to him*. Of the fix others which remained to the Mazenta family, one was prefented to Cardinal Frederic Borromeo, for the Ambrofial libraryt. My brother gave a fecond to Ambrofe Figini, a celebrated painter of his time, who left it to his heir Hercole Bianchi, with the rest of his cabinet. Urged by the Duke of Savoy, I procured for him a third ; and in conclufion, my brother having died at a distance from Milan‡, the three remaining volumes came alfo into the hands of Pompeo Arctin; he re affembled alfo others of them, he separated the leaves of them to form a thick volumes, which paffed to his heir Polidoro Calchi, and was afterwards fold to Galeazzo Arconati. This gentleman keeps it now in his rich library; he has refused it to the Duke of Savoy, and to other princes who were defirous of it."

"In addition to this memoir, Venturi notices, that Howard, Earl of Arundel, made ineffectual efforts to obtain this large volume, and offered for it as far as 60,000 franks, in the name of the King of England. Arconati would never part with it; he bought eleven other books of Da Vinci, which came alfo, according to appearance, from Leoni; in 1637 he made a gift of them all to the Ambrofian library, which already was in poffeffion of the volume E, from Mazenta, and received afterwards the volume K from Horatio Archinto, in 1674**.

"Venturi fays, this is the hiftory of all the manufcripts of Vinci that are come into France; they are in number fourteen, because the volume B contains an appendix of eighteen leaves, which may be feparated, and confidered as the fourteenth volumett." P. liv.

"The drawings and books of Vinci are come for the most part into the hands of Pompeo Leoni, who has obtained them from the fon of Francifco Melzi. There are fome alfo of thefe books in the poffeffion of Guy Mazenta Lomazzo, Tempio della Pittura, in 4o, Milano 1590, page 17." Venturi, 35.

"It is volume C. There is printed on it in gold, Vidi Mazenta Patriti Mediolanenfis liberalitate An. 1603." Venturi, 35.

"He died in 1613." Venturi, 35.

"This is volume Ñ, in the National Library. It is in folio, of a large fize, and has 392 leaves: it bears on the cover this title: Difegni di Macchine delle Arti fecreti et altre Cofe di Leonardo da Vinci, raccolte da Pompeo Leoni." Venturi, 35.

| P. 36.

"A memorial is preferved of this liberality by an infcription." Venturi, 35.

« ** This is marked at p. 1 of the fame volume." Venturi, 36.

❝tt Venturi, 36.”

BRIT. CRIT. VOL. XXIV. JULY, 1804.

This volume is illuftrated by upwards of twenty plates, engraved in outline, but with force and fpirit; befides feveral wooden cuts and diagrams intermixed with the letter-prefs. In the edition of Du Frefne, the defigns are finished with fhades, which probably diminifh their utility to the ftudent. It may be useful, however, for fuch perfons to compare the one with the other, and make their remarks upon the execution. We cannot but congratulate the public on the acceffion thus gained to the flore of inftruction on the art of painting, of which we only regret, that we had not given an earlier notice.

ART. XII. The Fashionable World difplayed. By Theophilus Chriftian, Efq. 12mo. 3s. 6d. Hatchard. 1804.

WHO

HO Mr. Theophilus Chriftian is, we do not pretend to know; but we have no difficulty in afferting, of his tra&t, that a happier specimen of ironical writing has hardly been seen fince the time of Swift. The author begins with lamenting that this people, namely, the Fafhionable World, has never fufficiently exercifed the talents of our writers. They have indeed been occafionally glanced at; Mrs. More has delineated their religion; Lord Chefterfield their morals; and other writers, in Court Calendars and Court Almanacks, have, from time to time, made us acquainted with the modes of dress in the fashionable world, and its moft diftinguifhed inhabitants. But this it feems is not, in this author's opinion, enough; a complete and fyftematic account of the fathionable world is ftill a defideratum in cofmography.

Theophilus Chriftian, therefore, has undertaken, and with much fpirit and fuccefs, to bring more particulars on this fubject into a group than former writers have done; and exhibits an outline, hereafter to be extended and improved by others of more enlarged experience.

His firft Chapter gives an account of the fituation, boundaries, climate, and feafons of the fashionable world; he then proceeds to the invefligation of their government and laws, their religion and morality. In following Chapters, he dif cuffes their education, manners, drefs, amufements, and language; and finally eftimates their proportion of happiness, and exhibits plans for their reform. All this is performed in a ftyle of admirable humour, in which the most poignant, and we fear the moft juft, cenfure is conveyed, without any invidious perfonalities. A fhort fpecimen, we are perfuaded, will

induce the majority of our readers attentively to read the whole. Speaking of the climate of the fafhionable world, the author fays:

"The climate of Fashion is almost entirely factitious and artificial, and confequently differs in many material refpects from the natural temperature of thofe refpective places over which its jurifdiction extends. Though changes from heat to cold, and vice verfa, are very common among these people, yet heat may be faid to be the prevailing character of the climate. They appear to me to have but two feafons in their year; these they call, in conformity to common language rather than to juft calculation, Winter and Summer. Of fummer little is known; for it feems to be a rule among this people to difband and difperfe at the approach of it, and not to rally or reunite till the winter has fairly commenced: though, therefore, they exift fomehow or fomewhere during the fummer months, they wish it to be confidered, that they do not exist under their fashionable cha racter. They wash themfelves in the fea, drink laxative waters, lofe a little money at billiards, or catch a few colds at public rooms; but all these things they do as individuals, and wholly out of their corporate capacity as members of the community of Fashion: fo that in their mode of difpofing of the fummer, they invert the ftanding rule of most other animals; they choose the fair feafon for their torpid ftate, and fhow no figns of life but during the winter. It is not eafy to fay exactly when the winter begins in the fashionable world; an inhabitant of Bath would have one mode of reckoning, and an inhabitant of London another: to do justice to the fubject, the commencement of winter ought to be regulated by the former of thefe places, and the close of it by the latter. Suppoling, therefore, that it begins fome time in November, there can be no difficulty in fettling its du ration; for the 4th of June is, by a tacit, yet binding ordinance, confidered as a limit over which a fashionable winter can never pass.

"There are many circumstances in which the climate of Fashion ftands peculiarly diffinguished from every other. It has already been intiated, that heat is its prevailing characteristic; it is, however, not a little remarkable, that this heat is at its highest point in the winter season; and that the inhabitants often perfpire more freely when the fnow is upon the ground than they do in the dog-days. The truth is, that, as was before faid, the climate is wholly created by artificial circumstances, and the natural temperature of the air is com pletely done away; the fort of communication which they keep up with each other requires a species of apparatus which fills their atmof phere with an immoderate degree of phlogifton. Befides this, they are notoriously fond of affembling in infufferable crowds; and travellers have affured us, that they have often witneffed from ten to twelve hundred perfons fuffocating each other within a space which would fcarcely have afforded convenient accommodation for a dozen families. Certain it is, that no people upon earth have lefs benefit from the light of the fun than the people of Fashion; fo that if it were not for torches, candles, and Argand lamps, they would scarcely ever fee each others' faces." P. 6.