Eventually, Leonardo was blackmailed by Cesare Borgia into designing Templar war machines.
Cesare Borgia briefly employed Leonardo da Vinci as military architect and engineer between 1502 and 1503. Cesare Borgia, detto il Valentino. The small Codex in which Leonardo entered his various notes does not contain any further items concerning him personally from September 1502 to March 1503, at which time the artist had returned to Florence to undertake the painting of The Battle of Anghiari for the Hall of the Grand Council.Father Guglielmo della Valle in the edition of Vasari’s Vite, published in Siena in 1793, produced an inedited document to prove that this journey of Leonardo to Romagna was in connection with a mission with which he had been entrusted by Duke Valentino to inspect the fortresses of the latter’s dominions. Alexander sent him to capture In June 1502 he set out for Marche, where he was able to capture Although he was an immensely capable general and statesman, Cesare had trouble maintaining his domain without continued Papal patronage. Some scholars see in Machiavelli's Borgia the precursor of state crimes in the 20th century.Cesare was also father to at least 11 illegitimate children, among them Girolamo Borgia, who married Isabella Contessa di Carpi, and Lucrezia Borgia (the younger), who, after Cesare's death, was moved to Ferrara to the court of her aunt, the elder There are accounts recorded by Machiavelli during his time spent with Cesare Borgia that provide insight into the man. The fact that Father della Valle’s copy had come to him from De Pagaye, to whom are due several papers on art concerning Lombardy, which still lie unpublished in the Archives of the Counts Melzi, fostered the belief that the original of the Letter Patent was preserved in those Archives.
He had hired Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) as his chief military engineer whose brief was to reinforce the castles and defences in the region as well as to construct a number of revolutionary new military machines, which he had designed in his notebooks. So, between 1502 and the 1503 Leonardo would work for Borgia as a military planner under the command of Caesar, his friend. Twenty years before that date the artist had already offered his services to the Duke of Milan, asserting his experience in military science with words which might be deemed presuming, were they not justified by hundreds of drawings and sketches contained in the Codici Vinciani, and bearing upon the art of war.Indeed, Leonardo studied not only the arms of antiquity described by Volturio and those of the Middle Ages, which he improved and brought to perfection, but, being faced by the quite recent and radical innovation caused by fire-arms, he made notes of his inventions and improvements, both for offence and defence, which anticipated the advance in military science for some centuries to come. Cesare Borgia (1475-1507), backed by his father Pope Alexander VI (1431-1503), was leading a military campaign whose aim was to carve out his own personal princedom.
The Borgias. Data di nascita: Subiaco, 13 settembre 1475 ; Data di morte: Viana, 12 marzo 1507; E' stato un nobile che ha vissuto sempre nel lusso sfrenato, diventò cardinale e fu anche un grande condottiero d'arme. Not much details about their correspondence have been survived. That meeting took place on the 6th of August, and on the 18th of the same month I1 Valentino, proceeding in the company of Louis XII, who was on his way to Genoa, forwarded from Pavia the Letter Patent to his General Engineer.In those days Leonardo was at Cesena, and the ” Saturday evening the Duke Valentino arrived here, having come by estafette; His gracious majesty very cheerfully greeted and embraced him and conducted him to the Castle, where he gave him the room nearest to his own, he himself speeding supper and ordering several courses, and that evening three or four times he went to the room even in his nightshirt when he was going to bed. Nel 1502 Leonardo venne assoldato da Cesare Borgia in veste di architetto e ingegnere militare. In summa più non si potria fare a fiolo, nè a fratello.”All these special marks of deference prove the importance that Louis XII attached to the friend-ship of I1 Valentino, whom he considered a blind tool for his object of strengthening French rule, and as a sort of vedette placed between the Pope and the Venetian Republic. He was born in Alexander VI staked the hopes of the Borgia family on Cesare's brother On 17 August 1498, Cesare became the first person in history to resign the cardinalate, which he did in order to pursue a military career.Cesare's career was founded upon his father's ability to distribute patronage, along with his alliance with France (reinforced by his marriage with At this point Alexander decided to profit from the favourable situation and carve out for Cesare a state of his own in northern Italy. The document in question was a Letter Patent by which Cesare Borgia conferred on Leonardo, in his capacity of General Engineer, the most unlimited powers for the fulfilment of his task. Gustavo Uzielli (1911), who ardently devoted himself to the study of Leonardo, and brought to light a large quantity of inedited documents now preserved in the Raccolta Vinciana in the Castello Sforzesco, could not account for the disappearance of the precious vellum so soon after its importance for Vincian studies had been made known.It will therefore afford special satisfaction to hear that the original document, after more than a hundred years, has been found. Together with the technical notes of this apparatus, studied in its minutest details,’ are intermingled not only cautions for the strictest secrecy to be observed during its construction, but even the transactions to ensure due compensation for the enterprise ” senza alcuna eccezione.”We may discern a consideration of an elevated moral character, truly worthy of that powerful mind, in the very determination of secrecy, not limited only to an obvious reason of tactics against the enemy, but inspired by a feeling of humanity. Il Valentino’s Letter Patent seems to be more than anything the out-come of his endeavour to secure prestige for him-self by making use of Leonardo’s name. Probabilmente si tratta di un ritratto di Cesare Borgia. Cesare even gazes serenely off canvas in his most famous depiction. Nel 1502 Leonardo venne assoldato da Cesare Borgia in veste di architetto e ingegnere militare.