Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . le that Leonardo ex-plored the Piedmontese slopes of the Alps,and especially the Marquisate of Saluzzo ;but his favourite regions were those aboutthe Lake of Como. Starting from Lecco,he used to make his way into the Brienzamountains. It has, however, been ascer-tained that his geographical informationabout these neighbourhoods is not alwaysquite exact. Thus he asserts that the fourchief rivers which irrigate Europe—theRhine, the Rhone, the Danube, and the Po—all have their origin atthe foot of Monte Boso (Monte Rosa).^ Any modern school
Leonardo da Vinci, artist, thinker and man of science; . le that Leonardo ex-plored the Piedmontese slopes of the Alps,and especially the Marquisate of Saluzzo ;but his favourite regions were those aboutthe Lake of Como. Starting from Lecco,he used to make his way into the Brienzamountains. It has, however, been ascer-tained that his geographical informationabout these neighbourhoods is not alwaysquite exact. Thus he asserts that the fourchief rivers which irrigate Europe—theRhine, the Rhone, the Danube, and the Po—all have their origin atthe foot of Monte Boso (Monte Rosa).^ Any modern schoolboy coulddemonstrate the absurdity of this assertion. The low land behind the Atlas, the bed of the famous mareinternum, did not escape Leonardos attention. It is not deniedthat the Nile is constantly muddy in entering the Egyptian Sea, andthat its turbidity is caused by soil that this river is continually bringingfrom the places it passes ; which soil never returns in the sea whichreceives it, unless it throws it on its shores. Take, for instance,. STLDV OF FLOWERS. (Windsor Library.) Richter, vol. ii. p. 205-206. - Richter, no. 1092.—Nowadays it is generally admitted that the formation ofmountains is due to inequalities in the contraction of the earths crust as it cooled,modified also by the pressure of the seas and by the flattening at the poles. I owe theseexplanations to the courtesy and erudition of Prince Roland Bonaparte. • Uzielli, Leonardo da Vinci e le Alpi, p. iS. STUDIES IN GEOGRAPHY 93 the sandy desert beyond Mount Atlas, formerly covered with saltwater. ^ Leonardos geographical studies come properly under the head ofgeology, for his interest was entirely given to physical enough, the other branches of the science were profoundlyindifferent to him, likeeverything else thatconcerned history andpolitics. Cartography musthave reached a highpoint in Italy if we may J udo-e from the m; ips
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