1103

Cyprus.

SITE FOR [A TEMPLE OF] VENUS.

You must make steps on four sides, by which to mount to a meadow formed by nature at the top of a rock which may be hollowed out and supported in front by pilasters and open underneath in a large portico,

[Footnote: See Pl. LXXXIII. Compare also p. 33 of this Vol. The standing male figure at the side is evidently suggested by Michael Angelo’s David. On the same place a slight sketch of horses seems to have been drawn first; there is no reason for assuming that the text and this sketch, which have no connection with each other, are of the same date.

Sito di Venere. By this heading Leonardo appears to mean Cyprus, which was always considered by the ancients to be the home and birth place of Aphrodite (Kirpic in Homer).]

in which the water may fall into various vases of granite, porphyryand serpentine, within semi-circular recesses; and the water may overflow from these. And round this portico towards the North there should be a lake with a little island in the midst of which should be a thick and shady wood; the waters at the top of the pilasters should pour into vases at their base, from whence they should flow in little channels.

Starting from the shore of Cilicia towards the South you discover the beauties of the island of Cyprus.

Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.

Notebooks of Leonoardo da Vinci
XVII: Topographical Notes.
. . .
The straits of Gibraltar.
1083,
1084,
1085
Tunis.
1086
Libya.
1087
Majorca.
1088
The Tyrrhene Sea.
1089
The Levantine Sea.
1090
The Red Sea..
1091,
1092
The Nile.
1093,
1094,
1095,
1096,
1097,
1098
Customs of Asiatic Nations.
1099,
1100
Rhodes.
1101,
1102
Cyprus.
1103
The Caspian Sea.
1104,
1105,
1106
The sea of Azov.
1107
The Dardanelles.
1108
Constantinople.
1109
The Euphrates.
1110
Centrae Asia.
1111
On the natives of hot countries.
1112