Francesco del Melzo, gentleman, of Milan, as a reward for the gracious service he has rendered him in the past, all and each of the books now owned by the said testator, and the other instruments and portraits connected with his art and painter's craft.

Item, the said testator gives and grants in perpetuity and for ever, to Battista di Villanis, his servant, one half of a garden outside the walls of Milan, and the other half of the said garden to Salay, his servant; within this garden the said Salai has built a house, which shall be and remain for ever the property of the said Salay, his heirs and successors. And this is to reward the faithful (and kindly) service rendered him by his said servants, Villanis and Salay.

Item, the said testator gives and grants to Mathurine, his woman servant, a gown of good black cloth, lined with fur, a cloth cloak, and two ducats, to be paid to her once only, and this in gratitude for the good service rendered him by the said Mathurine.

Item, he desires that at his funeral there may be sixty tapers borne by sixty poor persons, who shall be given money for carrying them, which money the said Melzo shall distribute to them according to his will. These tapers shall be divided between the four churches named.

Item, the said testator gives and grants to each of the abovementioned churches ten pounds weight of thick wax tapers, which shall be placed in the said churches, to be used on the days of the celebration of the above-mentioned services.

Item, that alms be given to the poor at the Hôtel-Dieu and at S. Lazare d'Amboise, and that for this purpose the number and sum of seventy pence of Tours be paid to the treasurers of these confraternities.

Item, the above-mentioned testator gives and grants to the said Messire Francesco del Melzo, here present and consenting, the remainder of his pension, and of the sums of money owing to him up till the day of his death, by the receiver or treasurer-general, M. Jehan Sapin, and also of all and every one of the sums received by him from the said Sapin, in payment of his pension, in case the testator should die before the said Melzi, which last are at present in the keeping of the said testator, in the said house of Cloux, as he

asserts.

Likewise he gives to the said del Melzo all his wearing apparel which he has here in the said place (at Cloux), as much to reward his good service up to the present as in return for the weariness and trouble this present will may cause him, all of which, be it clearly understood, shall be at the testator's cost.

He orders and desires that the sum of four hundred crowns, deposited by him in the care of the treasurer of Santa Maria Novella, in the town of Florence, be given to his natural brothers, residing at Florence, (together with) the interest on the four hundred crowns which may be due by the said treasurer to the said testator since the day on which the said testator gave and made them over to the said treasurer of Santa Maria Novella.

Item, the said testator desires and commands that the said Francesco del Melzo shall be and remain the sole executor of his will; and that the will may take its full and complete effect, the said Messire Leonardo, legal testator, has bound and does bind his heirs and successors, with all his goods, furniture and real estate, present and to come, to follow, hold, obey, and observe all that is therein set forth and set down, and has by this present deed renounced all other and contrary disposal of his property.

Given here at Cloux, in the presence of Master Esprit Fleri, curate of the church of S. Denis at Amboise, Master Guillaume Croyant, priest, and the knight Master Cyprien Fulchin, Brothers Francesco of Cortona, and Francesco of Milan, of the Minorite Friars at Amboise, called and summoned as witnesses thereof, by order of the said Court, in the presence of the said Messire Francesco del Melzo, agreeing and consenting, who has promised on his honour, and sworn an oath which he has delivered in his own person unto us, that he will never do, go, speak or act against it, and sealed, at his prayer, and as a sign of truth, with the seal-royal set upon the legal acts of the town of Amboise. Given this xxiii. day of April mdxviii. before Easter.

And on the xxiii. of the said month of April, 1518, in presence of Maître Guillaume Boreau, notary royal at the Court of the Bailiwick of Amboise, Messire Leonardo da Vinci has given and made over, by his last will and testament, above recited, the rights over the watercourse of the Canal of S. Christopher in the Duchy of Milan,

formerly bestowed by the late King Louis XII. of happy memory upon the said Leonardo da Vinci, to the above-mentioned Master Battista di Villanis, to use in the manner and fashion permitted by the said King's gift. Before Francesco del Melzo, gentleman,

of Milan, and myself.

And on the above mentioned day of the said month of April, in the said year 1518, the said Messire Leonardo da Vinci did, by his last will and testament, give to the above-mentioned Battista di Villanis (he being present and agreeing) each and every piece of furniture and utensil in his said house at Cloux, and this always in case the said di Villanis survives the above-mentioned Messire Leonardo da Vinci.

In the presence of the above-mentioned Messire Francesco del Melzo and of myself, notary, etc., BOREAU.

This document shows us that Leonardo's fortune consisted, at the time of his death, of the vineyard at Milan, the 400 florins deposited at Santa Maria Novella, his rights in the Canal of S. Christopher at Milan, and his yearly pension.

A codicil to the document is supposed to have existed, and Melzi's letter does certainly affirm that Leonardo bequeathed his little property at Fiesole to his brothers, a legacy which does not appear in the will itself. Melzi adds that he does not know whether or not there was another will (evidently of previous date).

The last surviving member of the Boreau family assured Arsène Houssaye that the will had been drawn up in French. This assertion is anything but improbable. Leonardo probably dictated it in Italian, for we have no reason to believe he acquired the French language during the few years he spent at Amboise. His two fellow-countrymen, who, with Melzi, were present at the drawing up of the instrument, Brother Francesco of Cortona, and Brother Francesco of Milan, doubtless translated his directions, as he gave them.

The will confirms Vasari's story in one essential point. "At last," writes the biographer, "Leonardo, growing old, fell sick for many months, and seeing death draw near, he desired to be carefully instructed concerning the things of our good and holy Christian and Catholic religion, and having made his confession and repented with many tears, he insisted, though he could not stand upright,

and had to be supported in the arms of his friends and servants, on leaving his bed to receive the most blessed Sacrament."

I may point out, parenthetically, that certain formulæ in the will, such as the commendation of the testator's soul to "Monseigneur S. Michel," a saint who was far more popular with Frenchmen than Italians, may very well have been the work of the notary, rather than of Leonardo

himself. And further we may ask whether the arrangements made to ensure as much pomp as possible in the funeral ceremonies may not have been more a last flicker of worldly vanity than a sudden reawakening of religious sentiment.

"The King," Vasari

goes on,
who often
went to see him in the
most friendly fashion,
arrived at this moment;
Leonardo, out of respect,
raised himself up in his
bed, explained the nature
and changes of his illness
to him, and told him,
further, how much he
had offended God and
men by not using his
talent as he should have

done ("non avendo operato nell'

(Windsor Library.)

arte come si conveniva.") Just at this moment he was seized with a spasm, the forerunner of death; the King rose from his seat and took hold of his head to help him, and prove his favour to him, so as to comfort him in his suffering; but this divine spirit, recognising that he could never attain a greater honour, expired in the King's arms,

at the age of seventy-five (sixty-seven) years, on May 2, 1519."

Modern critics agree in casting doubt on this anecdote, which sheds even more honour on Francis I. than on Leonardo, and which has been the subject of endless pictures, besides those of Ingres, Jean Gigoux, and Robert Fleury.1

In the first place, it is objected, Melzi makes no reference to the circumstance in his letter informing Leonardo's brothers of his master's death; in the second, Lomazzo asserts that it was Melzi who announced the death to Francis I., a proof that the monarch was not present; and further, the King was not at Amboise, but at S. Germain-en-Laye, as appears from a decree given in that place May 1, 1519. This last fact is the most convincing to me. Aimé Champollion, the Marquis de Laborde, and Arsène Houssaye maintain, however, that the decree in question may very well have been sealed by the Chancellor in the King's absence; and the fact of his absence on May 3, the day after that of Leonardo's death, is apparently established.

The real moral of Vasari's story has been brought out by Anatole de Montaiglon. The King, he says, was in the habit of visiting Leonardo when he was at Amboise. Why should not this kindness to a sick man, so eminently human in its character, be a fact? It may not have been Vasari who embroidered the story and touched up the dramatic effect. That may have been the work of those through whom it reached him.2

Thus died, full of years and glory, but far from his own land, the mighty genius who had carried the art of painting to its highest perfection, and had penetrated farther into the mysteries of Nature than any mortal since the days of Epicurus and Aristotle.

The burial took place at Amboise, in the cloister of the church of the Royal Chapter of St. Florentin, as we learn from the following document, discovered by M. Harduin :-"Fut inhumé dans le cloistre de cette église, Messire Lionard de Vincy, nosble millanais,

1 Several sixteenth century authors (Dolce in-L'Aretino, Lomazzo in L'Idea del Tempio della Pittura) report this anecdote. But they evidently only quote from Vasari, whose Vite appeared for the first time in 1550, and then again in 1568.

2 Réunion des Sociétés des Beaux Arts des Départements, 1893, p. 787-788.