# High Tech in 1504 A.D.



## rtroxel (Nov 22, 2004)

It was five hundred years ago that Leonardo da Vinci began drawing plans to divert the flow of the Arno River, which runs through Florence, Italy. 

  During the years 1503 to 1506, the city of Florence was under siege by Spain and on guard for a possible attack from the Republic of Milan. Military fortifications were being built around the city as well as along the Arno itself. And if that wasn't enough trouble, the Arno's passage to the Mediterranean Sea had been blocked by the nearby city of Pisa. 

  Leonardo was sponsored by Niccolo Machiavelli, a city official and diplomat who also had written numerous plays, poems and histories. He had read the recently-published accounts of the explorer Amerigo Vespucci, who had returned from the New World, just a few years after Columbus had discovered it. The Machiavelli family had known the Vespuccis for many generations, as well as the da Vincis. Niccolo the opportunist began to put a plan together that would involve the two famous men. (In fact, he reasoned, the plan might make him famous as well.) 

  The plan was to make Florence a world-class port for goods from "America" - the continent named after the Florentine explorer. That certainly made good civic sense. The river would link the city with the Mediterranean Sea and enable Spanish ships from America to bring their goods into Florence's ports. Although Pisa now had the Arno blockaded, if the river itself could be diverted around Pisa, that city's army could no longer hold it. The city of Florence, reasoned Machiavelli, had two choices: Attack Pisa or divert the flow of the Arno. 

*Renaissance Faire?* 

  Renaissance Italy was a hodge-podge of separate republics and city-states, a bit like the contemporary U.S., but without the central government. 

  The tangled web of Italian politics of 1504 was something like this: 

  Pope Alexander VI and his son, Caesar Borgia, had assisted France in seizing the Republic of Milan, and were now threatening Florence. Leonardo da Vinci had briefly worked for Borgia as a miltary engineer, but had left the man's service after suspecting his own life was in danger. Borgia was known as a brilliant military commander and ruler, but also had some nasty habits, which included torturing and dismembering his enemies. He was often accompanied by his sister, Lucretia, who was known for her beauty and her social skills, which included hosting lavish dinner parties. She was also known for occasionally slipping poison into the wine glasses of Caesar's enemies. 

  The Borgias also had a taste for art and new ideas, so it isn't surprising that they enlisted the services of Leonardo. It's also not surprising that a savvy statesman and diplomat like Machiavelli would petition Borgia not to attack Florence, but instead attack the rival city of Pisa. Borgia replied, however, that he would attack Pisa only if he were afterward granted some control over Florence. 

  No way, said Machiavelli, and Florence instead hired French and Swiss mercenaries to defend the city. 

  There was nothing unusual about this. The blur of wars and political treacheries, of bribery and blackmail, of dungeons and duels all belies the notion of the Renaissance being a Golden Age. Trying to keep track of the players, with their shifting allegiances, is beyond the scope of all but the most dedicated historians. Machiavelli and his fellow diplomats would pit the Spanish against the French, the Milanese against the Pope, and Florence against Pisa, all against a background of architectural grandeur and lush chamber music. 

*How to alter the river and history...* 

  And so the Florentine city fathers contacted two of its most formidable citizens, Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli, to plan the fortifications of Florence. This wedding of technology, politics and war anticipated the modern era. 

*Leonardo's Notebooks* 

  Leonardo kept a series of notebooks all his life, and his notes from 1504 included detailed studies of the movements of water and light, as well as a detailed plan for rebuilding Florence as a "scientific and modern" city. Leonardo conceived a city built on multiple levels, with elaborate aqueducts running through it. The running water would provide a sanitation system, by flushing waste into the Arno. 

  His drawings of water movements look almost like photographs taken at a fraction of a second. There is also a map of the nearby town of Imola, which resembles an aerial photograph. Leonardo's assistants had paced the city streets to make sure the distances and proportions were accurate. 

  His notes also include time-motion studies of men working, and calculations of estimates of manpower. 

  At the root of all these activities was Leonardo's belief that the world could be understood "through the eye", that is, through observation and experimentation. 

*"The Great Bird Shall Take Flight"* 

  During his occasional moments of leisure in 1504, Leonardo began painting the portrait of Mona Lisa Giacondo, wife of a Florentine banker. The cascading rivers in the background of this portrait suggest that the Arno project was never far from his mind. He hired musicians to play as he worked on the portrait, partly for the enjoyment of Mona Lisa, and partly for the enjoyment of his fans, who would gather daily at his studio to see what he was creating. 

  Considered by some Florentines to be a magician, Leonardo would oblige their tastes by donning the robes of a medieval wizard, and having his assistants explode colored smoke bombs as the public entered his studio. But instead of magic tricks, they saw models of proposed machines, along with beautiful drawings of flowing water and soaring birds. There was also a strange-looking device with a series of canvas wings and bicycle pedals, which Leonardo thought would facilitate human flight. "Soon," he wrote in his notebook, "the great bird shall take flight." As with many of his plans, however, there is no record of the machine's success.

*
 But the Arno Rolls On...* 

  Leonardo's concept for diverting the Arno was essentially simple: Create a long ditch parallel to the river. Upon the ditch's completion, the banks of the Arno would be destroyed and all the water would flow into the new waterbed, bypassing the city of Pisa and heading straight for the Mediterranean. 

  The ditch for diverting the Arno would be 80 feet wide at its mouth, 64 feet wide at the end, 30 feet deep and one mile long. One million tons of earth would have to be dug. Leonardo drew designs for numerous machines that could assist in the digging of this ditch. 

  One might wonder what Leonardo would have accomplished with a camera, a laptop and a good CAD program. 

  To make the long story short, the army's engineers found Leonardo's designs too difficult (or advanced) and decided instead to dig not one, but two separate narrow and shallow ditches. They reasoned that the water would flow faster through the narrower ditches. The force of the river could do part of the work of the laborers, right? Wrong. A violent thunderstorm broke out and the Arno overflowed its banks, sending torrents of water over the machines, the laborers and soldiers. It was a disaster in which 85 people died. 

  It was one of the numerous failures that Leonardo suffered during his varied career and he was now in search of a new position. His considerable fame carried him to Rome and Milan and he continued to use science to solve human problems, including the design of a parabolic mirror to provide energy from the sun. Like most of his designs, however, the device was never built. By 1507, he had left Italy altogether and was employed in Paris as a respected advisor to the French king. (Talk about a brain-drain!) 

*"Human selfishness and the means of controlling it..."* 

  By this time, fifteen centuries of Italian dominance in European affairs was coming to an end. Much of the Italian penninsula was now controlled by Spain, with France in control of Milan and Florence. 

  Machiavelli fell out of favor with the Florentine government. Then, captured and tortured by Spanish soldiers, on a false charge of conspiracy, he spent much of his later years in virtual exile, forbidden to indulge in governmental or diplomatic affairs - even after the Spanish returned control of Florence to his old patrons, the Medici family. Although he continued to write, he was paid very little for his work, and he longed to return to politics. 

  But he was never the kind of person who would stop thinking, planning and scheming. (What sort of "Renaissance man" would do that?) He began thinking about the powerful figures he had met on his diplomatic missions: the Borgias, the Popes, the Spanish conquerors. He re-read the Roman classics, and then it occurred to him that, yes, Italy again could produce such geniuses. 

  He combined his notes into a small book, _The Prince_. It was to become one of the most original and notorious works on politics ever written. 

  Many of _The Prince's_ observations on leadership are descriptions of the practices in Italian and European courts which Machiavelli had observed during his career as a diplomat. The book is not based on ideology,therefore, but on the way leaders actually behave when in power. 

  Among his nuggets of advice to princes include methods for dealing with subjects and friends:  

It is necessary for a prince who wishes to maintain his position to learn how not to be good...To be feared and not be hated can very well be combined.
Keep your hands off the property and women of your subjects.
It is necessary for a prince wishing to hold his own to know how to do wrong, and to make use of it or not according to necessity...Generosity used in such a manner as to give you a reputation for it will harm you.
A wise prince must, whenever he has the occasion, foster with cunning some hostility, so that in stamping it out, his greatness will increase as a result...Keep the minds of your subjects in suspense...Keep the action coming and going so that no one has the time to work against you.
Neutrality is bad. Always choose sides because without respect, without dignity, you will be the prey of the victors. Only he who is not your friend will request your neutrality.
Give your advisors free reign to tell you the truth and become angry with them if they do not. However,a prince who is not wise in his own right cannot be well-advised.
To avoid being despised and hated, "The prince must delegate distasteful tasks to others...If necessary, encourage factional strife," but "avoid the hatred of the most powerful group..." 
 If such a leader could emerge from Italy, reasoned Machiavelli, enemies such as France and Spain could be banished and the social order would be restored. (And, of course, Niccolo would have a high position in such a government.) 

 Upon finishing his pamphlet, he eagerly presented it to Lorenzo de Medici, heir to the Medici fortune and now ruler of the Florentine Republic. Lorenzo, however, calmly put it aside and proceeded to barter with a dog breeder over the purchase of two hunting dogs. 

*Conclusion?* 

 Of course, such things don't happen any more, or at least not in that manner. What Leonardo and Machiavelli lacked at that time were modern technology, democratically elected officials, free-enterprise capitalism, and a legal system in which all disputes could be settled in courts. 

 Leonardo's fame as one of the first modern scientific thinkers remains to the present day. And manipulative politicians are still called "Machiavellian." In 1995, Bill Gates purchased Leonardo's notebooks of 1504 for $30 million.


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## Alexa (Nov 22, 2004)

Da Vinci was without any doubt a man of vision and a genius. Too bad he didn't get rewards for all his works as he deserved it. Nowadys, with all his skills he could be one of the richest people in the world.

As per Lucretia she was especially known for her poisonous skills. My book club, just got her biography and I'm eager to read it.


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## Brian G Turner (Nov 22, 2004)

Thanks for that, Roy.


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