Leonardo da Vinci’s Handwritten Resume (1482)
We know that Michelangelo wrote grocery lists;
now we have evidence that Leonardo wrote resumes. “Before he was
famous, before he painted the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper, before he
invented the helicopter, before he drew the most famous image of man,
before he was all of these things, Leonardo da Vinci was an artificer,
an armorer, a maker of things that go ‘boom,’” writes Marc Cendella
on his blog about job-searching and recruitment advice. “Like you, he
had to put together a resume to get his next gig. So in 1482, at the age
of 30, he wrote out a letter and a list of his capabilities and sent it
off to Ludovico il Moro, Duke of Milan.” Having yet to establish his
reputation as perhaps the Italian Renaissance’s most respected polymath,
Leonardo spelled himself out, in translation, as follows:
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 from those in common use: I shall
endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your
Excellency, showing your Lordship my secret, and then offering them to
your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune
moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted
below.
1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong bridges, adapted to be
most easily carried, and with them you may pursue, and at any time flee
from the enemy; and others, secure and indestructible by fire and
battle, easy and convenient to lift and place. Also methods of burning
and destroying those of the enemy.
2. I know how, when a place is besieged, to take the water out of the
trenches, and make endless variety of bridges, and covered ways and
ladders, and other machines pertaining to such expeditions.
3. If, by reason of the height of the banks, or the strength of the
place and its position, it is impossible, when besieging a place, to
avail oneself of the plan of bombardment, I have methods for destroying
every rock or other fortress, even if it were founded on a rock, etc.
4. Again, I have kinds of mortars; most convenient and easy to carry;
and with these I can fling small stones almost resembling a storm; and
with the smoke of these cause great terror to the enemy, to his great
detriment and confusion.
5. And if the fight should be at sea I have kinds of many machines
most efficient for offense and defense; and vessels which will resist
the attack of the largest guns and powder and fumes.
6. I have means by secret and tortuous mines and ways, made without
noise, to reach a designated spot, even if it were needed to pass under a
trench or a river.
7. I will make covered chariots, safe and unattackable, which,
entering among the enemy with their artillery, there is no body of men
so great but they would break them. And behind these, infantry could
follow quite unhurt and without any hindrance.
8. In case of need I will make big guns, mortars, and light ordnance of fine and useful forms, out of the common type.
9. Where the operation of bombardment might fail, I would contrive
catapults, mangonels, trabocchi, and other machines of marvellous
efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety
of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of offense and
defense.
10. In times of peace I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and
to the equal of any other in architecture and the composition of
buildings public and private; and in guiding water from one place to
another.
11. I can carry out sculpture in marble, bronze, or clay, and also I
can do in painting whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who
he may.
Again, the bronze horse may be taken in hand, which is to be to the
immortal glory and eternal honor of the prince your father of happy
memory, and of the illustrious house of Sforza.
And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible
or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your park, or
in whatever place may please your Excellency – to whom I comment myself
with the utmost humility, etc.
Even the densest fifteenth-century Duke, I wager, could see the use
in a man able to make portable bridges, get water out of trenches,
destroy rock built upon rock, fling a storm of stones, fortify vessels,
pass under rivers, and make everything from “big guns,” catapults, mangonels, and trabocchi
to unattackable covered chariots. Though Leonardo understandably
concentrates on his wartime engineering skills, he also touches on the
range of other disciplines — Renaissance man, remember — he has
mastered, like architecture, sculpture, and painting. Perhaps most
impressively of all, he rattles off all these points without seeming
particularly boastful, a feat seemingly out of the reach of many college
graduates today. “You’ll notice he doesn’t recite past achievements,”
Cendella adds, “because those are about his achievements, and not about the Duke’s needs.” Still, he might have added that, given just a few more years, he could design a pretty captivating organ.
via Cendella
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Colin Marshall hosts and produces Notebook on Cities and Culture and writes essays on cities, Asia, film, literature, and aesthetics. He’s at work on a book about Los Angeles, A Los Angeles Primer. Follow him on Twitter at @colinmarshall or on his brand new Facebook page.
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