As one of the greatest men in recent history, Leonardo da Vinci’s genius remains
unbounded by time and technology. By helping to set an ignorant and superstitious
world on a course of reason, Leonardo’s spirit lives on to influence the inventors, artists,
and art patrons of our own time. This paper is about the design to divert the Arno River to
fortify city of Pisa during war time.
It has been 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci recorded his thoughts and designs in
notebooks for us to marvel at, and within these notebooks I am interested in the “Codec
Madrid II”, which dealt with military architecture and Leonardo plans to divert the Arno
river. The Codec Madrid were rediscovered in 1965 in Madrid after being officially lost
since 1830. This is were the arguments become interesting.
Many are unsure whether or
not Leonardo da Vinci originated the design of the diversion of the Arno River to help
fortify Pisa for war. There are many arguments about whether or not Leonardo originated
idea to divert the Arno River. Scholars and experts alike have many different angles to
this design. Experts say he would have known it was a hopeless project because of the
environment, war, and lack of manpower. There are many who think the Florentines
came up with this design 100 years before Leonardo was born.
The wars and campaigns in Italy began in the 1500’s because of political conflicts
between the great powers. All involved parties had to maintain the best possible defense
as well as their means of attack. Since new firearms, explosives, and artillery were
developing all the time, they had to alter the systems of fortifications and technical
warfare became more important. It was only natural that Leonardo da Vinci with his
theory and practice of architecture throughout his life should also be included to the field
of defense architecture and strategic engineering studies.
In 1503 the Florentine Republic started a new campaign against Pisa, and here
emerged the most daring plan to divert the course of the Arno river to cut off the sea
access so the Pisan’s could not get supplies. The big question is whether Leonardo had
any part in drawing this plan up or if he was just to perfect the idea. This must be left
undecided.
Scholars doubt that the Florentine plan to divert the Arno River was originated by
Leonardo, because they said he would have know from the beginning that such a feat
would be difficult in peacetime but very impossible during war time. The plan called for
canals to be dug 60 feet wide and 21 feet deep to carry the river as much as 7 miles off
it’s normal course.
Being a man of practical knowledge of time-and-motion expert and he could figure
our how much digging men could do, how they ought to do it, and what it would cost.
This what Leonardo wrote in Codex Madrid II:
I found that the complete excavation of the moat, which is, on average, 17 braccia wide,
and 16 braccia deep, and 340 braccia long, reduced to square braccia, amounts to
174, 080 braccia. Which reduced to square canne, amounts to 2720 canne. Of which,
those at the mountain, due to the difficulty offered by the rock, deserve 5 lire the canna,
an amount paid on other occasions to the diggers. (Leonardo da Vinci, Madrid II 10 r)
With this in mind he knew he had to design a machine to help the dig process
because of inefficiency of men equipped with shovels. That is where the treadmill
powered digging machine design was born.
All of these calculations and work was erroneous. It was said that five times the
available manpower would have been necessary, according to more realistic calculations
by today’s experts. Besides, the work had plenty of difficulties. It seemed to be
impossible to get the thousands of workers required, or to keep them working, especially
since they didn’t get paid on time, and the section which was completed but could not
handle the mass of water that was fed to it and collapsed.
By this time opinions were split
amongst the commanders, so the projects came to end in October 1504. The Florentines
continued fighting another five years only to surrender there city in 1509.
As one of the greatest men in recent history, Leonardo da Vinci’s genius remains
unbounded by time and technology. His dedication to the discovery of truth and the
mysteries of nature make his insightful contributions to science and technology legendary
in the Renaissance period. By helping to set an ignorant and superstitious world on a
course of reason, Leonardo’s spirit lives on to influence the inventors, artists, and art
patrons of our own time. Whether or not Leonardo originated the design to divert the
Arno River doesn’t matter it was he vision and challenging dedication that moves me and
many others.
Some might argue that such ideas in the Renaissance time period should of
been too modern. They need to remember to whom there referring too.