Leonardo's Swans Read Online Free PDF

is of no use to him politically, and therefore he cannot marry her. My poor sister! Do you think I would trade places with her?”
    Francesco does not seem at all surprised by this news, gossip in Italy being impossible to suppress. Perhaps the entire country knows of Ludovico’s slight to Beatrice and to the Este family. Francesco does, however, take advantage of being this close to his beloved with no eyes upon them. He moves his lips to her neck. He doesn’t kiss her exactly, but takes in a deep breath, as if he wishes to carry her scent with him back to Mantua. He runs his nose the length of her neck from the bottom of her ear to the nape, breathing her in. Then, he pulls away, whispering, “That will have to linger in our memories until our wedding day.”
    While she is still recovering, she realizes that he and his valet and her portrait are gone, and she will not see him again for three months.
To: Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Bari, Regent of Milan
From: Leonardo the Florentine, Master of Engineering, Weaponry, and Painting
Most Illustrious Lord,
Having now seen the creations of all those who call themselves masters and inventors of the instruments of war, and finding that these inventions are no greater in any respect than those in common use, I am emboldened to write to you to acquaint you with my secrets, and offer to demonstrate at any convenient time all those assertions which are recorded below:
1. I have designs for bridges that are light, strong, and easily carried to pursue and defeat the enemy. I also have plans for destroying the enemy’s bridges and siege equipment.
2. I know how to cut off water from trenches, and how to construct an infinite number of movable shelters, scaling ladders, and other instruments crucial to the enterprise of a siege.
3. I have plans for destroying every fortress or other stronghold unless it has been founded upon rock.
4. I have designs for making cannon, very convenient and easy to transport, with which to hurl small stones like a rain of hail, causing great terror, loss, and confusion to the enemy.
5. I can make armored vehicles, safe and unassailable, which will infiltrate the ranks of the enemy.
6. I can make cannon, mortars, and light ordnance of very beautiful and useful shapes, quite different from those already in use.
7. I can supply catapults and other engines of wonderful efficacy for slinging great stones and other instruments of destruction.
8. Also, in times of peace, I will prove myself as adept as anyone else in architecture and in the construction of buildings, and in conducting water from one place to another.
9. I can execute sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also painting, in which my work will stand comparison with anyone else, whoever he may be.
10. Finally, I would undertake the work of making the bronze horse, which shall honor the memory of your father and the illustrious House of Sforza.
If any of the aforesaid claims seem impossible, I offer myself as ready to demonstrate them in whatever place shall please Your Excellency, to whom I humbly commend myself.
—Leonardo the Florentine, 1483
    THE NEW YEAR, 1490; IN THE CITY OF FERRARA
    B EATRICE ’ S portrait sits alone for weeks in Leonora’s studiolo, and the family practically goes mad trying not to mention it. Isabella takes pity on Beatrice and asks Niccolò da Correggio to set some of his sonnets to song so that she might sing them for her sister and cheer her up. That the poet Niccolò is hopelessly in love with Isabella and carries out her every wish as if she were doing him the favor by asking is common knowledge. He has now set fifteen sonnets to the lute. Every evening after dinner, Isabella plays one or two for her sister, followed by a game of cards, at which Beatrice excels. Isabella either lets Beatrice win, or Beatrice wins fairly, and then Isabella rushes to her room, where she can enjoy in privacy the memory of Francesco’s breath on her neck.
    When she becomes bored with