Note 1. This sonnet was attributed to Leonardo da Vinci in 1584 by Lomazzo, but it has since been attributed to various other authors, and Sig. G. Uzielli, in the journal Il Buonarroti, published in Rome, has recently affirmed that it must have been written some fifty years before the date of Leonardo. If such be really the case, it would be interesting to know how the sonnet came to be attributed to the great painter. If Leonardo had been a poet it would not have been surprising that he should have been accredited with a composition that did not belong to him, but as he was not, Lomazzo must, one would imagine, have had some reason for believing that the sonnet was his work. But whether it was written by Leonardo or not, it is, we think, a very remarkable composition, and in this respect very different to the following mediocre sonnet by Raphael, which the latter has inscribed on one of his drawings now exhibited at the British Museum—
Sonnet by Raphael
UN pensier dolce erimembrare e godo
Di quello assalto, ma più gravo el danno
Del partir, ch’ io restai como quei c’ anno
In mar perso la stella, s’ el ver odo.
Or lingua di parlar disogli el nodo
A dir di questo inusitato inganno
Ch’ amor mi fece per mio grave afanno,
Ma lui più ne ringratio, e lei ne lodo.
L’ora sesta era, che l’ ocaso un sole
Aveva fatto, e l’ altro sur se in locho
Ati più da far fati, che parole.
Ma io restai pur vinto al mio gran focho
Che mi tormenta, che dove lon sole
Desiar di parlar, più riman fiocho.
There are also two other sonnets attributed to Raphael, but they can hardly be considered worthy of his illustrious name. [back]
