Unable to resist my eager desire and wanting to see the great ... of the various and strange shapes made by formative nature, and having wandered some distance among gloomy rocks, I came to the entrance of a great cavern, in front of which I stood some time, astonished and unaware of such a thing.  Bending my back into an arch I rested my left hand on my knee and held my right hand over my down-cast and contracted eye brows:  often bending first one way and then the other, to see whether I could discover anything inside, and this being forbidden by the deep darkness within, and after having remained there some time, two contrary emotions arose in me, fear and desire—­fear of the threatening dark cavern, desire to see whether there were any marvellous thing within it ...

Drafts of Letters to Lodovico il Moro (1340-1345).

1340.

[Footnote:  The numerous corrections, the alterations in the figures (l. 18) and the absence of any signature prove that this is merely the rough draft of a letter to Lodovico il Moro.  It is one of the very few manuscripts which are written from left to right—­see the facsimile of the beginning as here reproduced.  This is probably the final sketch of a document the clean of which copy was written in the usual manner.  Leonardo no doubt very rarely wrote so, and this is probably the reason of the conspicuous dissimilarity in the handwriting, when he did. (Compare Pl.  XXXVIII.) It is noteworthy too that here the orthography and abbreviations are also exceptional.  But such superficial peculiarities are not enough to stamp the document as altogether spurious.  It is neither a forgery nor the production of any artist but Leonardo himself.  As to this point the contents leave us no doubt as to its authenticity, particularly l. 32 (see No. 719, where this passage is repeated).  But whether the fragment, as we here see it, was written from Leonardo’s dictation—­a theory favoured by the orthography, the erasures and corrections—­or whether it may be a copy made for or by Melzi or Mazenta is comparatively unimportant.  There are in the Codex Atlanticus a few other documents not written by Leonardo himself, but the notes in his own hand found on the reverse pages of these leaves amply prove that they were certainly in Leonardo’s possession.  This mark of ownership is wanting to the text in question, but the compilers of the Codex Atlanticus, at any rate, accepted it as a genuine document.

With regard to the probable date of this projected letter see Vol. 
II, p. 3.]

Most illustrious Lord, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled contrivers of instruments of war, and that the invention and operation of the said instruments are nothing different to those in common use:  I shall endeavour, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Excellency showing your Lordship my secrets, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments as well as all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.