Manuscript

m3IMG

LDE M3

Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana
H 228 inf., Datable to 1640

375 numbered chapters with headings,  56 illustrations
Table of Contents

Opinione di Lionardo da Vinci circa il modo di dipignere prospettive, ombre, lontananze, altezze, bassezze, dapresso, & da discosto, & altro &

Rome, Cassiano dal Pozzo's Library; Albani Library

This manuscript was assembled in the workshop of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) in Rome around 1640. Its source for the main text of Leonardo's Treatise on Painting was F2, one of the early Florentine copies, while corrections were based either M1 or F6.

See detailed description and analysis GO

Analysis
Assembled in the library of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) in Rome around 1640, this volume served as the main manuscript for the printed edition of Leonardo’s Treatise on Painting that dal Pozzo planned but never realized. In Cassiano’s library M3 went through at least four distinct phases of redaction and corrections (Barone 2011). First, a scribe (hand 1) copied the main text from one of the early Florentine copies. The textual and visual comparison with early Florentine copies shows that the main source of M3 was F2: the two manuscripts share text and images as well as some peculiarities. For instance, in both manuscripts T0540 was added at the end of the text as the scribe had forgotten it in the normal sequence. In addition, F2 includes some of the corrections that appear also in M3 (see T1038), although it is unclear when these corrections have been added. Second, another editor (hand 2) added corrections to the Table of Contents and to some chapter headings, labeling his corrections with the letters “T.M.”, an acronym that has been traditionally interpreted as “testo Milanese” (Milanese text). These “T.M.” corrections were based on the list of chapters contained in MM. Thirdly, another editor (hand 3) added page numbers to the entire manuscript. Finally, the main text was revised with the insertion of marginal additions. The textual and visual comparison between M3 and other manuscripts suggests that these marginal additions were based on more than one manuscript as no single source can account for all of them. Among the possible sources of the marginal additions of M3 are: FL2, the manuscript that belonged to Antonio d'Orazio d'Antonio da Sangallo (1551-1636); M1, the Milanese manuscript that belonged to Vincenzo Pinelli (1535-1601); or a derivative of M1 such as VB. For instance, the marginal additions of M3 for T0471 are included in the body of that chapter in FL2 and M1, while the marginal additions of T1038 in F2 correspond exactly to the marginal additions of M3 for the same chapter. The illustrations of M3 were based on the drawings made by Nicolas Poussin and Pier Francesco degli Alberti before 1638. Originally, the illustrations were drawn on loose sheets that were later cut and pasted into the volume, next to their pertinent chapter. M3 has two titles: one, "Regole e precetti della pittura di Leonardo da Vinci", is documented in early 16th century copies and sources, the other, "Opinione di Lionardo da Vinci circa il modo di dipingere prospettive, ombre, lontanze, altezze, bassezze, d’appresso et da discosto et altro" is instead a 17th century title documented for the first time in FL2.
History
M3 was made in the library of Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588-1657) in Rome between 1634 and 1640; from 1714 to 1721 it was in the Albani library in Rome, and in 1721 it entered the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Taken by Napoleaon to France in 1798, it was returned to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in 1815.
Physical Description
Fols. 1-17 + [2] + fols. 19-124 + [V], ancient pagination; , 29.5 x 21 cm , in folio, fol. 1 "Opinione di Lionardo da Vinci circa il modo di dipignere prospettiue, ombre, lontananze, altezze, bassezze, dapresso, & da discosto, & altro & fol. 3 "Regole e precetti della pittura di Leonardo da Vinci"; fols. 4-13v "Vita di Lionardo da Vinci descritta da Giorgio Vasari Aretino ne' libri delle vite de' pittori (Giorgio Vasari's life of Leonardo); fols. 19-28v "Indice de capitoli dell'opera" (Table of Contents); fols. 31-fols. 126r-128v: "Alcune Memorie dei fatti di Leonardo da Vinci a Milano e dei suoi libri"
Watermark
Bibliography
Mauro Pavesi, "Copista di casa Dal Pozzo e Nicolas Poussin," I segreti di un collezionista. Le straordinarie raccolte di cassiano dal Pozzo 1588-1657..., p. 204-205; Louis-Antoine Prat, Pierre Rosenberg, Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), catalogue raisonné des dessins, Milano, Leonardo éd., 1994, p. 240-251);  Jan Bialostocki, "Poussin et le Traité de la Peinture de Lonard de Vinci. Une ideé de Lonard réalisé par Poussin," Nicolas Poussin, Actes du Colloque de Caen, 1995; Jan Bialostocki, "Poussin et le Traité de la peinture de Léonard. Notes sur l'état de la question," Nicolas Poussin (Collectif), Actes du colloque organize l'Institut d'art et d'archologie, Université de Paris, Paris, 19-21 septembre 1958, Paris, CNRS, 1960; Steinitz, Treatise on Painting, p. 75- 79 (C, 1); Steinitz, "Poussin, illustrator of Leonardo da Vinci and the Problem of Replicas in Poussin's Studio," The Art Quarterly, XVI, I, 1953; J.P. Richter, The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci..., p. 9 note; Gault de Saint-Germain (d.), Traité de la peinture de Léonard de Vinci, prcd de la Vie de l'auteur et du catalogue des ses ouvrages, avec des notes et observations. Nouvelle édition orné de figures, d'après les originaux du Poussin et d'autres grands Maîtres, Paris, Perlet, An XI [1803]; Barone, “Cassiano dal Pozzo's manuscript copy of the Trattato: new evidence of editorial procedures and responses to Leonardo in the seventeenth century” Raccolta Vinciana, 35 (2011), pp. 223-286; Sparti, “Cassiano dal Pozzo, Poussin, and the Making and Publication of Leonardo’s Trattato,” Journal of the Courtauld and the Warburg Institutes 66 (2003): pp. 143-188; Farago, "Introduction," Re-Reading Leonardo, 2009, 1-36.
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