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[Footnote: Leonardo inserted this passage on the margin of the
circular plan, in water colour, of Imola--see Pl. CXI No. 1.--In the
original the fields surrounding the town are light green; the moat,
which surrounds the fortifications and the windings of the river
Santerno, are light blue. The parts, which have come out blackish
close to the river are yellow ochre in the original. The dark groups
of houses inside the town are red. At the four points of the compass
drawn in the middle of the town Leonardo has written (from right to
left): Mezzodi (South) at the top; to the left Scirocho (South
east), levante (East), Greco (North East), Septantrione
(
North), Maesstro (North West), ponente (West) Libecco (South
West). The arch in which the plan is drawn is, in the original, 42
centimetres across.
At the beginning of October 1502 Cesare Borgia was shut up in Imola
by a sudden revolt of the Condottieri, and it was some weeks before
he could release himself from this state of siege (see Gregorovius,
Geschichte der Stadt Rom im Mittelalter, Vol. VII, Book XIII, 5,
5).
Besides this incident Imola plays no important part in the history
of the time. I therefore think myself fully justified in connecting
this map, which is at Windsor, with the siege of 1502 and with
Leonardo's engagements in the service of Cesare Borgia, because a
comparison of these texts, Nos. 1050 and 1051, raise, I believe, the
852
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