Leonardo da Vinci was born 15 April 1452 in Vinci, Italy, learning mastery of painting and sculpture, as an apprentice. whilst acquiring the technical skills which led to his famous inventions. Working from Florence at the beginning of his career, da Vinci became interested in architecture and geometry and has remained one of the greatest inventors and painters of all time.
When one thinks of Leonardo da Vinci, his beautiful paintings, such as the Mona Lisa instantly come to mind, as well as, perhaps, his magnificent inventions, yet, we rarely see da Vinci as a writer. It is in his literary creations that we see the true depth of his thinking and genius; providing flair for the unimaginable.
Prophecies is a collection of mixed length 'prophecies', detailing da Vinci's mental life. The reason for my inclusion of prophecies within the encircling apostrophes marks my notable disappointment in a lack of real predictions but more of a determination to explain the often unexplainable. One must not forget that the prognostications contained within this book would have been surrounded by the very beginning of man’s desire to reveal the workings of the world, coupled with religious barriers that would have hindered the formation of realistic rationales.
Leonardo da Vinci was renowned for rarely finishing what he started. His writing is indicative of this, as only fragments of what he might otherwise have penned are available for our delectation. Prophecies is no stranger to fragmentation, for it reveals much, yet only part of the great man’s thinking. For the publishers to have crammed these predictions into 91 pages proves that a lot of intellectual thinking either never made to into this book or has subsequently been lost.
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a distance I hear you cry...... what about these prophecies..... please.... tell us.... stop your time-consuming waffling.... hit us with the hard stuff. Well, my readers, be not afraid to ask, for the time has come to reveal my fragmentation of da Vinci’s Prophecies...
1. Da Vinci’s prophecies, as with those of Nostradamus, are often hidden within the riddles he expresses. It is thus difficult to construe the exact meaning intended, yet all prophets have an uncanny ability to leave their premonitions as vague as possible, so it is up to us, the reader, to determine what we choose to extract from the text. I find it difficult, in this respect, to perceive Leonardo Da Vinci’s Prophecies as any more than intelligent riddles; riddles nonetheless that can add meaning to past and future events solely to continue our human beliefs that fate and mystical force exist. This book should ideally be named Riddles, however, this would never carry weight with potential readers.
I draw to your attention a couple of the riddles contained within:
There will be many hunters of creatures which, the more they catch, the fewer they will have. Conversely, the more they have, the fewer they will catch. <Of Catching Lice>
Very large figures in human shape will appear which, the closer they come to you, the more their great size will diminish. <Of the shadow which a man makes at night with a lamp>
You may see that these riddles are complex. Who would ever guess their true meaning without having studied da Vinci’s work more closely. But I hope that you too will see the beauty and intelligence of a man famed more for his art than his writings.
At times, however, these riddles appear to me too be nothing more than pure rubbish. Perhaps my intellect does not extend far enough to capture da Vinci’s realisations, but, I am sure, this is far from the reason. The following riddle is indicative of this:
All men will flee to Africa. <Of Barbers>
2. Pleasantries is the chapter where Leonardo writes a small number ‘jokes’ one might say, many of which are simple and unintelligently thought but do have some charm. I have picked one out which I thought was probably the best, although do not expect to fall on the ground laughing as it was only designed to raise a chuckle:
A painter was asked why, when he produced such beautiful figures, which were, after all, dead things, he produced such ugly sons. Then the painter replied that he made the paintings by day and the sons by night.
3. The chapter on Thoughts & Aphorisms let me down further by the fact that many of Leonardo’s thoughts seemed contrived or ordinary. Some do stand out but are overshadowed by the rest:
Just as eating without wanting to is injurious to health, so study without the desire for it ruins the memory and it remains nothing it has grasped.
One can see there is an element of truth in Da Vinci’s words, especially given that they were written so long ago.
4-7. The other chapters detail mystifying images of people, nature and the general world in the same form as before; more imagery than foreseeing man’s eventual path. The fables are interesting but repeat themselves fairly frequently in their meaning. They appear to be mostly about trees wanting more fruit and then being weighed down when their wish is granted until the branches break etc. Bestiary depicts animals and their qualities. For example, a unicorn may be extroverted. This chapter signals Da Vinci as a great believer in the natural world, more so than before, but it has been criticised that he may have never seen some of these creatures and was writing through pure hearsay rather than first hand experience.
I found his fantastic descriptions to be less than fantastic, yet appealing in his choice of subject matter. Continuing his nature theme, Da Vinci picks up on some beautiful aspects of the world we live in, however, he does not write for long enough within each segment to really give us a flavour of what he was looking at. His Fragments of a Spiritual Autobiography is one of those chapters that authors often slip into their books to tell us why they wrote what they did and what they think of themselves, without losing the context within which the book has been set. Although Leonardo didn’t actually plan for a book, and this collection is rather a modern creation of his works, one has to accept that Da Vinci was writing more for himself than for any targeted audience. He gives reasons why he believes his writings to be intelligent; the fact that, as an uneducated man, many might think of him as less of a writer and more of a craftsmen, but that his experience of the world and of life gives him a better understanding of what surrounds us than any educated man before. This chapter could be taken as a little egocentric but I believe that it was not intended as such.
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Conclusion
Overall I wasn’t entirely impressed with the offerings contained within this book. I didn’t particularly find the riddles in any part close to prophecies, merely Leonardo da Vinci visualising the world. It is difficult to say with great certitude that da Vinci had actually seen much of what he wrote about, thus perhaps enhancing the standing of his book amongst literary works, yet, reading this book in modern times, one is compelled to find Prophecies over exaggerated and over-hyped. The main point to draw from this book, is the somewhat confusing way in which the riddles are conveyed. As I depicted earlier, it is often impossible to guess their true meaning without the aid of the handily under noted explanation. I felt partly cheated but partly enlightened by da Vinci’s work. It allows for a freer image of the world around us, adding clarity to those things we regularly take for granted. I do recommend this book but not as wholeheartedly as others I have recommended before. My suggestions would be to try and find a copy in a library, rather than spend the £7 purchasing it, although this item is likely to be quite rare in our book holding institutions.
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And just for a bit of fun... I leave with you with two of da Vinci’s ‘riddles’ which you may leave suggestions as to their meaning in my guestbook:
1. Everything which in the winter is snowed under and hidden will be revealed and manifest in the summer.
2. What is it that is so much desired by men and, when it is possessed, cannot be known?
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