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Il volume Rinascimenti in transito a Milano (1450-1525), che inaugura la serie "Fuori Collana" dei "Quaderni di Gargnano", raccoglie gli atti dell'omonimo convegno tenutosi presso l'Università degli Studi di Milano il 21-22 ottobre 2019. I contributi offrono un panorama articolato della Milano di fine Quattrocento-inizio Cinquecento, quale luogo di fervido scambio e incontro culturale, ancora in gran parte da riscoprire e rivalutare., Quaderni di Gargnano, 2021: Rinascimenti in transito a Milano (1450-1525)

This contribution is aimed at summarizing the historical circumstances of Leonardo’s trip from Florence to Milan in 1482, by examining, in particular, their political implications and consequences. In the context of a network of personal relations – still Florentine in their origin and Medicean as for their social background – his arrival at the Sforza court seems the result of the subtle direction of Lorenzo the Magnificent, in the broader frame of the latter’s diplomatic and cultural exchanges with Ludovico the Moor, at the time of their mutual involvement in the war of Ferrara (1481-1484). Il contributo si propone di ricapitolare le circostanze storiche del “transito” di Leonardo da Firenze a Milano nel 1482, esaminandone in particolare le implicazioni e ripercussioni politiche. In una rete di relazioni ancora fiorentine e di estrazione medicea, il suo arrivo alla corte sforzesca appare il risultato della sottile regia di Lorenzo il Magnifico, nella più ampia cornice degli scambi diplomatici e culturali di quest’ultimo con Ludovico il Moro, nel frangente del loro comune coinvolgimento nella guerra di Ferrara (1481-1484)., Quaderni di Gargnano, 2021: Rinascimenti in transito a Milano (1450-1525)

International audience; Volume pubblicato con il contributo del Ministero dell’Istruzione, dell’Università e della Ricerca, della Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa e del Dipartimento di Scienze del Patrimonio Culturale dell’Università di Salerno.

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International audience; In 1584, Lomazzo mentioned a sketchbook Leonardo had compiled for the "condottiere" Gentile de' Borri, a fencing master in Milan at the time of his long stay at the Sforza court (1482-1499): this lost manuscript, whose unique surviving pages have been tentatively identified in a couple of sheets preserved in Venice, was focused on the theme of the most reliable military techniques, to be followed by both infantry and cavalry in battle. In Lomazzo's description (fitting also with other comparable sheets), such draft would have featured consistent references to the political context (mainly, Sforza's military alliance with the German Emperor), together with a peculiar comparison between the human and animal identities, almost as a prelude to Machiavelli's Art of War.

International audience; the text of a conference given on the occasion of the International Symposium "Leonardo da Vinci: arte della pace, arte della guerra" (Florence, Palagio di Parte Guelfa, December 5th, 2013).

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International audience; Guida alla mostra (Milano, Biblioteca Trivulziana, ottobre-novembre 2015).Il tema della ricostruzione della biblioteca di Leonardo ha affascinato generazioni di studiosi: cercare di ricomporre in sequenza i suoi libri significa capire quali siano state le sue letture e le sue fonti e meglio comprendere le sue ricerche e i suoi studi, sia negli eventuali apporti esterni sia nella loro originalità. Dai tre più significativi elenchi di libri da lui stesso redatti (codice Trivulziano 2162, p. 3; codice Atlantico, f. 559r; codice di Madrid 8936, ff. 2v-3r) prende avvio anche il tentativo presente, volutamente circoscritto nelle intenzioni, nelle scelte per pochi temi essenziali e nei materiali esposti (esclusivamente provenienti dai fondi della Biblioteca Trivulziana), teso a fornire una prima idea dei testi che Leonardo poteva aver consultato.

International audience; This essay is devoted to the rediscovery of an important edition of Cicero’s Familiar Letters (Bologna, 1477), currently preserved in the Heidelberg University’s Library, which presents a consistent corpus of both interlinear and marginal annotations inscribed by several hands, among whom one, at least, is recognizable in Agostino Vespucci’s, once a student in Poliziano’s school, later known to have served as an assistant to Machiavelli in the Second Chancery of Florence. The book is annotated in three chronological periods: before 1493, under Poliziano’s direct mastery; between 1497 and 1508, with particular intensity in the years 1503-4, at the time of Vespucci’s association with Machiavelli; and in the decade 1520-30, by the hand of its last known possessor, Agostino Nettucci. Such precious incunable, therefore, reveals to be a peculiar witness of the cultural and political scenario of Florence in those years and offers some interesting hints about Leonardo’s life and work at the time of his return to Florence in the first five years of the 16th Century.

International audience; On the specific expertises provided by the two authors, this essay intends to propose an account of conceptual and figurative issues bearing witness to the interest of Leonardo da Vinci in the areas of the tragic and the comic. In fact, both some of the dramatic genres in his writings – mainly his compositions revealing literary ambitions (fairy tales, jokes, riddles as 'prophecies', witty sayings) – and a substantial part of his graphic production – particularly that focused on the representation of the abnormal and monstrous (as existing either in nature, or in the artist's mind, in the form of 'fantastic' inventions) and the physiognomic types or grotesque caricatures – reveal Leonardo's subtle criticism of contemporary times. The aporetic yet indispensable opposition and ambivalence of beauty and ugliness, youth and old age, smile and tears, permeates his figurative language, both in his writings and drawings, giving his reflections on the ethical and political problems and contradictions of Renaissance society a mocking and bitter outcome.

International audience; The tale of a meeting between Leonardo and Savonarola in the summer of 1495, later reported by Vasari (1550 and 1568) but confirmed by a memorandum remained in Leonardo's possession (Codex Atlanticus, f. 628 r), which refers explicitly to a "mission" assigned to him (presumably by Ludovico Sforza) to go to Florence, in order to get (through a competent mediator, probably Bernardo Rucellai) a detailed report about the new political rules promoted by the friar, lends credibility to a hypothesis of comparison between their anthropological conceptions, especially as they emerge from their "transfigured" use of the prophetic semantics, despite their shared repudiation of astrological quackery. If, on the one hand, Savonarola's preaching does not have any properly predictive character, in terms of intentional "divination", standing rather as a projection or representation of the contingency of the current days, in purely political terms, Leonardo's riddles, which he literally called "prophecies", on the other hand - and similarly - transform the genre of presages or predictions into entertainment tools for courtly audiences, that, however, in some cases, become a vehicle for a critical evaluation of the troubles of contemporary society. The likelihood that, on the occasion of his convocation in Florence in 1495, Leonardo was able to listen to Savonarola's sermons, so steeped in apocalyptic prophecy, may provide an explanation to the appearance of writings called "prophecies", among his notes, just in the last five years of the century. Their underlying vision of man, clearly pessimistic, offers significant points of contact with the negative anthropology advocated by Savonarola's preaching, which also makes use of animal apology, especially in the conceptual and ideological interpretation of the "anti-human" conflictuality among men, that makes them "beasts" towards themselves, in a sort of anticipation of Hobbes' famous motto homo homini lupus.

International audience; This paper focuses on Leonardo's and Machiavelli's common interest in the conceptual exchange between human and animal identities, as testified by writings of both authors and particularly by the famous chapter XXV of "The Prince", whose metaphor of the "centaur-like" ruler seems to have been preceded by a singular drawing produced in Leonardo's workshop (possibly reproducing an autograph sketch by the master), only recently rediscovered in the Codex Atlanticus, apparently representing a centaur. The discussion is then brought on Leonardo's and Machiavelli's involvement in the enterprise of the mural pictorial decoration of the Great Council Hall in Palazzo Vecchio at Florence (c. 1503-06), with the allegorical episode of the "Battle of Anghiari" (left unfinished by Leonardo and now lost), whose copies show the presence of a "centaur-like" warrior possibly inspired by (and/or inspiring) Machiavelli's imagery.

International audience; The book contains the proceedings of the 29th Irish Conference of Historians, held in Limerick (UL) at Mary Immaculate College on June 12-14, 2009. Versiero's chapter is an updated version of the paper presented at the Conference, summarising for the very first time in English language the core-subjects of the research program on Leonardo da Vinci as a political thinker.

International audience; The personality of Leonardo da Vinci and the multifaceted character of his experimental career – as an artist, scientist, technician and writer – offer the perfect example of how some patterns and paradigms, usually intended as the highest representation of the Western tradition and the best result it was able to reach, actually turn out to be the witnesses of a cultural crossroads. Although being often considered the major champion of European culture, in fact, Leonardo shows a remarkable interest in foreign (non-Western) habits and customs in many aspects of his life and professional training. Moreover, he directly experienced a mixture of suggestions from different cultural and intellectual provenances. Finally, he tried to be employed as a civic engineer by the Turkish Sultan, for whom he imagined an epic bridge to be built in order to unite Europe and Asia, from Pera to Costantinople. Such dream-like enterprise – never concretely realized – may be assumed as the symbolic synthesis of a route through the Mediterranean in the Renaissance.

International audience; An abridged version of a paper presented at the Conference "Marx e Gramsci. Filologia, Filosofia e Politica allo Specchio", held in Naples on December 4-5, 2008. A critical approach to Gramsci's category of cosmopolitanism against Croce's idea of intellectual apoliticality, through their own interpretation of Leonardo's personality as a thinker, to explain the cultural and political failure of the Italian Renaissance. With excerpts of unpublished letters of Gramsci's wife on the subject.

International audience; Vers la fin du XVe siècle Léonard est à Milan, à la cour des Sforza, Ludovic le More étant son commanditaire: pour lui, l’artiste réalise de nombreuses représentations à caractère politique, destinées souvent à corroborer la propagande liée à la position difficile et ambivalente du More, avant la mort de son neveu Gian Galeazzo (1494), qui était le Duc légitime. Les principaux entre ces allégories sont celles aujourd’hui conservées au Musée Bonnat de Bayonne (inv. 656), à la Christ Church d’Oxford (inv. JBS 18 [0037]) et sur une page du Codex Arundel au Musée Britannique de Londres (f. P 8 [autrefois 250] recto). L’imagination géniale de Léonard crée une interprétation dynamique des symboles héraldiques (ceux du milieu familial comme ceux concernants spécifiquement la personne et les vicissitudes de Ludovic), grâce à une relecture conceptuelle d’eux, à la lumière de la sémantique de la prudence comme vertu de la conduite politique. On sait que l’appellatif de «More» avait été mis en rapport avec le mûrier, qui, selon une tradition ancienne, symbolisait une attitude prudente en poussant ses bourgeons. Léonard, qui employera les mûriers dans sa décoration picturale d’une grande salle du Chateau Sforza, met une branche de cette plante dans la fouet symbolique (comprenant un «petit balai» ou brosse pour les habits, en référence à l’intention du More de «nettoyer» l’Italie des envahisseurs), que la Prudence à deux visages, escortée par la Justice, agite en défendant un coq («gallazzo» selon le dialecte Lombarde, c’est-à-dire une allusion au nom de Galeazzo) contre les ennemies (dessin d’Oxford, 1485-88, probablement un projét pour un cortège publique). À cette fonction tutélaire du More vers le neveu (et l’État de Milan) succède, après la mort de Galeazzo et l’acquisition officielle du titre de Duc par Ludovic, l’essai de disculper ce dernier de l’accusation de meurtre et usurpation politique: dans le dessin de Bayonne, conçu comme preparatoire à une médaille commémorative, Ludovic est transfiguré dans les traits e le costume d’un «souverain more» (une sorte de pharaon), dont l’attitude prudente est métaphorisée par les lunettes (emblème de vue dirigée en distance, donc de prudence comme capacité de prévision), au moyen desquelles il démasque la calomnie (l’étendard avec un coq transpercé par une flèche, exhibé par une personnification de l’Envie). La série de croquis et annotations du Codex Arundel se réfère à une fête organisée par le beau-fils de Ludovic, Galeazzo Sanseverino, à l’occasion du mariage politique avec Beatrice d’Este (1491): les ornements allégoriques d’un des chevaliers de la joute comprennent un bouclier avec la Prudence assise en «chaire brûlante», une devise qui fait allusion à l’intronisation en un gouvernement périlleux.

A meta-analysis was performed of the effect of 3hydroxy3methylglutaryl-coenzyme A reductase inhibitors (statins) on blood pressure in humans including the randomized, controlled trials of statin therapy (20 trials and 828 patients) in which concomitant antihypertensive treatment (if any) remained unchanged throughout the study. A total of 291 and 272 patients were given a statin or placebo, respectively, in parallel group trials, whereas 265 took part in crossover trials receiving a statin and placebo (or probucol, in 1 trial). Systolic blood pressure was significantly lower in patients on statin than in those on placebo or control hypolipidemic drug (mean difference: -1.9 mm Hg; 95% CI: -3.8 to -0.1). The effect was greater when the analysis was restricted to studies with a baseline systolic blood pressure >130 mm Hg (Delta systolic blood pressure: -4.0; 95% CI: -5.8 to -2.2 mm Hg). There was a trend for lower diastolic blood pressure in patients receiving statin therapy compared with control: -0.9 mm Hg (95% CI: -2.0 to 0.2) overall and -1.2 mm Hg (95% CI: -2.6 to 0.1) in studies with a baseline diastolic blood pressure >80 mm Hg. In general, the higher the baseline blood pressure, the greater the effect of statins on blood pressure (P=0.066 for systolic blood pressure and P=0.023 for diastolic blood pressure). The blood pressure response to statins was unrelated to age, changes in serum cholesterol, or length of the trial. In conclusion, statin therapy has a relatively small but statistically significant and clinically meaningful effect on blood pressure.

International audience; Catalogo della mostra (Milano, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, dicembre 2012 - marzo 2013)

International audience; Leonardo da Vinci non ha scritto trattati politici, non ha elaborato astratte teorie sul governo, non ha dato vita a complesse speculazioni sui poteri. Eppure lo straordinario interesse per la natura, che Leonardo condivide con la sua epoca, la necessità di comprendere le relazioni tra i fenomeni, tra il macrocosmo che è l'ambiente e il mondo e il microcosmo che è l'uomo, implicano un'antropologia che produce anche lessici e idee politiche. Peraltro Leonardo conosce molto bene la politica, ne ha compresi i ritmi, le dinamiche costruttive e distruttive, le tecniche, che sono vere e proprie arti. L'ha osservata nei due più importanti laboratori politici della sua generazione: la repubblica di Firenze, per la quale ha lavorato intensamente, che in quegli anni è il polo ideologico dell'autogoverno democratico, e la corte della Milano signorile e principesca di quel Ludovico il Moro del quale Leonardo ricorderà il fallimento finale: «Il duca perso lo stato e la roba e la libertà e nessuna sua opera si finì per lui». Seguendo questa pista metodologica molto interessante, Marco Versiero, ricercatore all'Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane di Napoli e all'Università L'Orientale, ha condotto una ricerca importante sulla sostanza politica dell'antropologia di Leonardo, basandosi sui vari testi scritti, i cui frammenti sono riportati in antologia alla fine di ogni capitolo, ma presentando anche un inedito catalogo ragionato delle allegorie politiche di Leonardo.

International audience; Catalogue of the exhibition (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, june-september 2010)

International audience; This paper illustrates a specific episode of intersection between Renaissance politics and the arts: Leonardo da Vinci’s engagement with Ludovico the Moor and the Sforza court in Milan, at the end of the 15th century. The artist created for his patron a lot of emblems and allegories, intended to support his controversial political conduct, especially before the formal acquisition of the ducal title. In fact, until his nephew’s death (1494), Ludovico officially acted as a factual governor in Gian Galeazzo Sforza’s name, even if his actual authority resulted undisputable to everyone. Consequently, an attentive texture of political dissimulation was predisposed by him, while arranging his own succeeding to the nephew. A propagandistic recourse to the conceptual category of prudence was therefore fundamental: in its double significance (both of prevision capability and of preservation/maintenance), this virtue was perfectly suitable to mark Ludovico’s actions as a tutor of Galeazzo (and of his state, too), especially on the basis of a symbolic association between his nickname (the Moor) and the mulberry tree, whose prudential attitude in budding had been recognized since Pliny the Elder. In his several projects for emblematic representations (as documented by drawings and writings), Leonardo used, together with the mulberry branches, Ludovico’s other heraldic attributes (as the little brush for dresses, a metaphor of his aim to clean Italy from the foreigners), in combination with specific images of prudence: so, the spectacles in a drawing at Bayonne, where Ludovico is presented as an Egyptian Pharaoh, appear as a foresight amplification.

International audience; Catalogue of the exhibition (Milan, Biblioteca Ambrosiana, june-september 2010)

International audience; Leonardo's political allegories for his patron Ludovico Sforza are discussed considering their dealings with the semantics of the virtue of prudence.

International audience; Political implications in Leonardo's town planning studies - anticipating some invaluable aspects of Machiavellian philosophy - are examined in the light of a possible influence of Alberti's architectural theory.

International audience; An extended version of the article published in "Critica Marxista" (2010), with full updated bibliography. The conference was held at University of Napoli "L'Orientale" (December 4-5, 2008), under the patronage of Fondazione Istituto Gramsci (Roma) and AISDP - Associazione Italiana degli Storici delle Dottrine Politiche (Torino).

International audience; A short summary of late 19th and early 20th century interpretations of Leonardo's involvement in the sphere of political ideas, followed by a critical commentary to some of his literary fragments endowed with a political value.

International audience; St. Augustine's "De Civitate Dei" and Matteo Palmieri's "Vita Civile" as sources of Leonardo's political vision. Leonardo and Machiavelli on the archeological discovery of Castellina in Chianti (1507) and the question of the "aeternitas mundi", in the context of the intellectual milieu of Bernardo Rucellai's "Orti" in Florence.

International audience; Attraverso una ricognizione dei principali significati della parola stato rilevabili ne Il Principe di Machiavelli, questo contributo si propone di evidenziarne la similarità semantica e concettuale con tre frammenti letterari di Leonardo da Vinci, attinti a un corpus di riflessioni a carattere politico, la cui ricomposizione (così come la ricostruzione di un interscambio intellettuale tra il vinciano e il fiorentino) è stata oggetto di precedenti pubblicazioni dell’autore. L’intento è dimostrare che la compatibilità degli scritti occasionalmente politici di Leonardo con la nuova lingua della politica di fine XV – inizio XVI secolo può essere considerata un sintomo della sempre più frequente diffusione, a questa fase, dell’idea proto-moderna (ossia machiavelliana) di stato.

International audience; The text of a conference given in Naples on November 30, 2006. A discussion of all historical data at disposal on the matter of a possible meeting and acquaintance between Leonardo and Machiavelli, followed by an analysis of some conceptual consonances on the theme of the city government.

International audience; In the section "Vocabolario politico" of the journal. An analysis of the meaning of the words referring to state and freedom in Leonardo's literary writings.

International audience; A first draft of a research later accomplished with the doctoral dissertation: an inquiry of Leonardo's writings, in order to highlight the presence of a political vocabulary.; [début du texte] Superando un diffuso luogo comune circa l'indifferenza di Leonardo verso la politica (pregiudizio alimentato sia dal profilo psicoanalitico di Freud sulla personalita del vinciano, sia dalla disamina di Jaspers del suo pensiero filosofico), e possible risalire a un autonoma e originale concezione socio-politica di Leonardo, attraverso un lavoro di ricomposizione di un suo corpus di riflessioni, che si rivelano essere tematicamente omogenee.

International audience; Sulla base della frequentazione tra Machiavelli e Leonardo, indirettamente ma inequivocabilmente documentata al principio del XVI sec., questo contributo si propone una inedita analisi comparata del loro pensiero. Tale raffronto parte da una duplice premessa: da un lato il superamento del pregiudizio sull’indifferenza di Leonardo al mondo politico e, dall’altro, l’evidenziazione, attraverso un calibrato confronto tra i rispettivi testi, dello stimolante intreccio di ingegno e fantasia (Machiavelli, Ghiribizzi al Soderini, 1507 ca.), sinora trascurato ai fini di una ricostruzione dell’interscambio intellettuale tra i due grandi. Sin dalla celebre analogia posta da Machiavelli tra coloro che disegnano e’ paesi e chi deve conoscere bene la natura de’ popoli così come quella de’ principi (Il Principe, dedica, § 5), emerge la peculiarità di un naturalismo proto-scientifico, che si avvale proficuamente anche di una dimensione immaginifica e figurativa, quale veicolo di riflessione sui principali temi della politica (la condizione pre-statuale dell’uomo, la nascita dello spazio politico, il dilemma della conservazione del potere, il momento di rottura della guerra). Si tratta del ricorso a immagini metaforiche, che, attinte spesso a un mondo di “creature politiche” sospese tra allusioni “meta-ferine” ed elevatezza di acume intellettivo (si pensi al tema degli homines bestiales, declinato secondo i congiunti apporti delle suggestioni scientizzanti di matrice medico-anatomica - la dottrina "umorale" e le sue implicazioni fisiognomiche e zoomorfe - e del retaggio mitografico - l'immagine centaurina del principe), consentono sia a Machiavelli che a Leonardo di ribaltare la tradizionale prospettiva antropocentrica nella differenziazione filosofica tra uomo e bestia, individuando una compenetrazione fluida e “sfumata” tra le due condizioni, grazie alla quale si precisa anche l’importanza dello strumento della dissimulazione nel “gran teatro” della politica. La ricomposizione di una concezione della politica in Leonardo, a partire dalla frammentarietà sia logica che materiale dei suoi scritti (facezie, favole, imprese, bestiario, proemi), arricchita dell’esegesi iconologica in chiave politica di importanti documenti grafici e pittorici (dalla Dama con l’ermellino alla perduta Battaglia di Anghiari), consente infine di recuperare la stessa “pittoricità” di Machiavelli come “artista-scienziato” della politica.