is fuller, and more correctly given.  The Mamelook dynasty was, as is well known, of Circassian origin, and a large proportion of the Egyptian Army was recruited in Circassia even so late as in the XVth century.  That was a period of political storms in Syria and Asia Minor and it is easy to suppose that the Sultan’s minister, to whom Leonardo addresses his report as his superior, had a special interest in the welfare of those frontier provinces.  Only to mention a few historical events of Sultan Kait Bey’s reign, we find that in 1488 he assisted the Circassians to resist the encroachments of Alaeddoulet, an Asiatic prince who had allied himself with the Osmanli to threaten the province; the consequence was a war in Cilicia by sea and land, which broke out in the following year between the contending powers.  Only a few years earlier the same province had been the scene of the so-called Caramenian war in which the united Venetian, Neapolitan and Sclavonic fleets had been engaged. (See CORIALANO CIPPICO, Della guerra dei Veneziani nell’ Asia dal 1469—­1474.  Venezia 1796, p. 54) and we learn incidentally that a certain Leonardo Boldo, Governor of Scutari under Sultan Mahmoud,—­as his name would indicate, one of the numerous renegades of Italian birth—­played an important part in the negotiations for peace.

Tu mi mandasti.  The address tu to a personage so high in office is singular and suggests personal intimacy; Leonardo seems to have been a favourite with the Diodario.  Compare lines 54 and 55.

I have endeavoured to show, and I believe that I am also in a position to prove with regard to these texts, that they are draughts of letters actually written by Leonardo; at the same time I must not omit to mention that shortly after I had discovered

these texts in the Codex Atlanticus and published a paper on the subject in the Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst (Vol.  XVI), Prof.  Govi put forward this hypothesis to account for their origin: 

"Quanto alle notizie sul monte Tauro, sull’Armenia e sull’ Asia minore che si contengono negli altri frammenti, esse vennero prese da qualche geografro o viaggiatore contemporaneo.  Dall’indice imperfetto che accompagna quei frammenti, si potrebbe dedurre che Leonardo volesse farne un libro, che poi non venne compiuto.  A ogni modo, non e possibile di trovare in questi brani nessun indizio di un viaggio di Leonardo in oriente, ne della sua conversione alla religione di Maometto, come qualcuno pretenderebbe.  Leonardo amava con passione gli studi geografici, e nel suoi scritti s’incontran spesso itinerart, indicazioni, o descrizioni di luoghi, schizzi di carte e abbozzi topografici di varie regioni, non e quindi strano che egli, abile narratore com’era, si fosse proposto di scrivere una specie di Romanzo in forma epistolare svolgendone Pintreccio nell’Asia Minore, intorno alla quale i libri d’allora, e forse qualche viaggiatore amico suo, gli avevano somministrato alcuni elementi piu o meno fantastici. (See Transunti della Reale Accademia dei Lincei Voi.  V Ser. 3).