SOURCE: “The Great Bird's Flight,” in Leonardo da Vinci: The Tragic Pursuit of Perfection, translated by E. W. Dickes, Viking, 1952, pp. 310-70.

In the following essay, Vallentin surveys Leonardo's interests and studies in military engineering, painting, civil engineering, astronomy, and hydrodynamics. The critic frames her study within the context of Leonardo's “obsession” with flight.

Piglierà il primo volo il grande uccello. 

The great bird will make its first flight. 

(Mz. o’.)

Leonardo was walking through the market at Florence. Glancing over the heads of the jostling crowd, he listened intently for something in the midst of the loud shouts and laughter, the tradesmen's cries and the noisy haggling and quarrelling of buyers and sellers. Suddenly he heard a bird-seller crying his wares, to the accompaniment of desperate twittering. Thither Leonardo made his way at once. The little birds were closely packed in their small cages; they beat wildly...