[Footnote:  669.  This passage does not seem to me to be in Leonardo’s hand, though it has hitherto been generally accepted as genuine.  Not only is the writing unlike his, but the spelling also is quite different.  I would suggest that this passage is a description of the events of the battle drawn up for the Painter by order of the Signoria, perhaps by some historian commissioned by them, to serve as a scheme or programme of the work.  The whole tenor of the style seems to me to argue in favour of this theory; and besides, it would be in no way surprising that such a document should have been preserved among Leonardo’s autographs.]

Allegorical representations referring to the duke of Milan (670-673).

670.

Ermine with blood Galeazzo, between calm weather and a
representation of a tempest.

[Footnote:  670.  Only the beginning of this text is legible; the writing is much effaced and the sense is consequently obscure.  It seems to refer like the following passage to an allegorical picture.]

671.

Il Moro with spectacles, and Envy depicted with False Report and
Justice black for il Moro.

Labour as having a branch of vine [or a screw] in her hand.

672.

Il Moro as representing Good Fortune, with hair, and robes, and his hands in front, and Messer Gualtieri taking him by the robes with a respectful air from below, having come in from the front [5].

Again, Poverty in a hideous form running behind a youth.  Il Moro covers him with the skirt of his robe, and with his gilt sceptre he threatens the monster.

A plant with its roots in the air to represent one who is at his last;—­a robe and Favour.

Of tricks [or of magpies] and of burlesque poems [or of starlings].

Those who trust themselves to live near him, and who will be a large crowd, these shall all die cruel deaths; and fathers and mothers together with their families will be devoured and killed by cruel creatures.

[Footnote:  1—­10 have already been published by Amoretti in Memorie Storiche cap.  XII.  He adds this note with regard to Gualtieri:  “A questo M. Gualtieri come ad uomo generoso e benefico scrive il Bellincioni un Sonetto (pag, 174) per chiedergli un piacere; e ’l Tantio rendendo ragione a Lodovico il Moro, perche pubblicasse le Rime del Bellincioni; cio hammi imposto, gli dice:  l’humano fidele, prudente e sollicito executore delli tuoi comandamenti Gualtero, che fa in tutte le cose ove tu possi far utile, ogni studio vi metti.” A somewhat mysterious and evidently allegorical composition—­a pen and ink drawing—­at Windsor, see PL LVIII, contains a group of figures in which perhaps the idea is worked out which is spoken of in the text, lines 1-5.]

673.

He was blacker than a hornet, his eyes were as red as a burning fire and he rode on a tall horse six spans across and more than 20 long with six giants tied up to his saddle-bow and one in his hand which he gnawed with his teeth.  And behind him came boars with tusks sticking out of their mouths, perhaps ten spans.