A Collection Without Order

"And this is to be a collection without order, taken from many papers which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later each in its place, according to the subjects of which they may treat."

A preface by Leonardo da Vinci, in what is known as the Codex Arundel.

In the original Italian, as transcribed by Jean Paul Richter:

Comiciato in Firenze in casa Piero di Braccio Martelli addi 22 di marzo 1508: e questo fia vn racolto sanza ordine, tratto di molte carte le quali io ho qui copiate sperando poi metterle per ordine alle lochi loro, secondo le materie de qui esse tratterano, e credo che auanti ch‘io sia al fine di questo, io ci avrò a riplicare vna medesima cosa più volte, si chè lettore nõ mi biasimare, perque le cose son molte e la memoria nõ le può riseruare e dire, questa non voglio scriuere perche dinanzi la scrissi; ese io nô uolesse cadere in tale errore, sarebbe necessario que per ogni caso ch‘io uolesse copiare, sicchè per nõ replicarlo, io auessi senpre a rilegere tutto il passato, e massime stante co‘ lunghi interualli di tenpo allo scriuere da una volta a un altra.

Translated by Jean Paul Richter:

Begun at Florence, in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli, on the 22nd day of March 1508. And this is to be a collection without order, taken from many papers which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later each in its place, according to the subjects of which they may treat. But I believe that before I am at the end of this [task] I shall have to repeat the same things several times; for which, O reader! do not blame me, for the subjects are many and memory cannot retain them [all] and say: ‘I will not write this because I wrote it before.’ And if I wished to avoid falling into this fault, it would be necessary in every case when I wanted to copy [a passage] that, not to repeat myself, I should read over all that had gone before; and all the more since the intervals are long between one time of writing and the next.

Note regarding: in the original wording, it's "22 di marzo 1508", but there's a small calendar adjustment needed from da Vinci's to our modern calendar. Look up the adjustment as needed.

References