which we have otherwise only very scanty information.  If Leonardo did really—­as has always been supposed,—­spend also the greater part of the preceding decade in Milan, it seems hardly likely that we should not find a single note indicative of the fact, or referring to any event of that period, on the numerous loose leaves in his writing that exist.  Leonardo’s life in Milan between 1489 and 1500 must have been comparatively uneventful.  The MSS. and memoranda of those years seem to prove that it was a tranquil period of intellectual and artistic labour rather than of bustling court life.  Whatever may have been the fate of the MSS. and note books of the foregoing years—­whether they were destroyed by Leonardo himself or have been lost—­it is certainly strange that nothing whatever exists to inform us as to his life and doings in Milan earlier than the consecutive series of manuscripts which begin in the year 1489.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that the notes regarding his pupils are few and meagre.  Excepting for the record of money transactions only very exceptional circumstances would have prompted him to make any written observations on the persons with whom he was in daily intercourse, among whom, of course, were his pupils.  Of them all none is so frequently mentioned as Salai, but the character of the notes does not—­as it seems to me—­justify us in supposing that he was any thing more than a sort of factotum of Leonardo’s (see 1519, note).

Leonardo’s quotations from books and his lists of titles supply nothing more than a hint as to his occasional literary studies or recreations.  It was evidently no part of his ambition to be deeply read (see Nrs. 10, 11, 1159) and he more than once expressly states (in various passages which will be found in the foregoing sections) that he did not recognise the authority of the Ancients, on scientific questions, which in his day was held paramount.  Archimedes is the sole exception, and Leonardo frankly owns his admiration for the illustrious Greek to whose genius his own was so much akin (see No. 1476).  All his notes on various authors, excepting those which have already been inserted in the previous section, have been arranged alphabetically for the sake of convenience (1469—­1508).

The passages next in order contain accounts and inventories principally of household property.  The publication of these—­often very trivial entries—­is only justifiable as proving that the wealth, the splendid mode of life and lavish expenditure which have been attributed to Leonardo are altogether mythical; unless we put forward the very improbable hypothesis that these notes as to money in hand, outlay and receipts, refer throughout to an exceptional state of his affairs, viz. when he was short of money.