Review, The Fabrication of Leonardo da Vinci's "Trattato della pittura": With a Scholarly Edition of the Italian Editio Princeps (1651) and an Annotated English Translation (original) (raw)
Related papers
2019
Divided in two volumes also available in a manageable e-book format, this monumental editorial enterprise – exquisitely illustrated with high quality images – is the result of many years of research and the extensive collaboration among well-known scholars who have already explored, in previous individual publications, the intricate net of Leonardo’s writings and their complex, fascinating channels of circulation, transformation and reinterpretation since the sixteenth century. Published within the series Brill’s Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, this edition presents a remarkably well-conducted scholarly analysis of Leonardo da Vinci’s Trattato della pittura,1 examined in its polyhedral aspects, as well as a philologically accurate translation of the original text into English, prepared by Claire Farago and Janis Bell.2 Accompanied by an almost labyrinthine, yet clearly arranged, critical apparatus to the text, the present edition is further enriched by capacio...
Under the High Patronage of the President of the Italian Republic Conception and Scientific Responsibility Francesco Moschini, Vita Segreto Scientific Committee Janis Bell, Francesco Cellini, Francesco Moschini Vita Segreto, Carlo Vecce The aim of the Study Days is to focus the attention of international scholars working in a variety of fields, and of Leonardo experts and enthusiasts, on studies and research regarding the transmission of da Vinci’s ideas and writings and their circulation and reception in Italy and across Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the abridged version known as the Treatise on Painting, the Libro di Pittura compiled by Francesco Melzi was widely circulated in the decades following Leonardo’s death. Avidly read by artists and collectors closely associated with the accademie del disegno, it profoundly influenced the theory, practice and teaching of the time. The speakers will examine previously unexplored or little-known aspects (biographical, linguistic, theoretical, graphic and collection-related) of the complex historical process via which Melzi’s re-elaboration of a group of Leonardo’s original manuscripts, and his subsequent compilation of the Codex Vaticanus Urbinas 1270, eventually led to the production of numerous manuscript copies and to the Italian editio princeps: the Trattato della Pittura di Lionardo da Vinci.
The abridged text of the Libro di pittura, c. 1570, Appendix D
The Fabrication of Leonardo da Vinci's Tratttato della Pittura, 2018
(All versions derive from one lost original manuscript) Key: McM = system of numbering chapters established by Leonardo da Vinci, Treatise on Painting (Codex Urbinas Latinus 1270), ed. and trans. A. P. McMahon, intro. Ludwig Heydenreich, 2 vols. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1956. Eliminated 1. Book 1: paragone Books 5-8: De Ombre e' Lume; De li alberi et verdure; Deli nuvvoli; Del orizonte (except one passage) 2. Most, though not all, discussions of ingegno: 32r-33r (McM 71 ff) on ingegno of painter judgment of painter 62r (McM 260) stains on walls painter judging his own work: eliminated negative comments 131v-132r (part of Chapter 244; McM 440) 3. Redundancies: 33v (McM 89) 110r (McM 305, 40, 388) 4. Negative comments: 62r (McM 260) 153r (McM 553) 117v-118r (McM 372) 35v (McM 76) 37r-v (McM 73, last sentence) 45r (McM 87 eliminated one line about ugly women)
On the Origins of the Trattato and the Earliest Reception of the Libro di pittura
The Fabrication of Leonardo da Vinci's Trattato della Pittura, 1651, 2018
Examines the editorial procedures of anonymous editor, c. 1570, who created the abridged version of Libro di Pittura, arguing that the editor was closely associated with Church reforms associated with Council of Trent, 1563, through close reading of the text.