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Arts & Communication Leonardo from Caffa in Crimea

Golden Horn found in the Notebooks. It is claimed that
the original letter was written in Italian and translated by a
Turkish scribe. This is based on the assumption that Tuscan
painter Leonardo da Vinci would not have been able to
write Turkish. Nicholl 33,p.353 claims the translation should
read “Leonardo the infidel sent [the letter] from Genoa,”
supporting the widely held notion that this explains why
the scribe thought Leonardo was “Genoese.” However, I
promote the idea that the Turkish scribe was not confused
about this Leonardo being Genoese. Alternatively, the
scribe was confused about the word “kâfir.” In earlier
research, I draw attention to the phonetic similarity of
“kâfir (infidel),” which is Arabic, and “Kefe,” the name of a
Figure 12. Attributed to Leonardo da Vinci: A Small Landscape Drawing, place, which is Turkish, and how easy it would have been
verso (c.1493). Brown ink, quill pen, and other media on paper, 19 for an inattentive scribe to slip from “A Genovese Caffan
cm×28.5 cm. Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe, 8P. Uffizi Museum, named Leonardo …” to “A Genovese named Leonardo
Florence. Retrieved from https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Study_of_a_Tuscan_Landscape.jpg 15 February 2024, in the public infidel …” noting the first phrase makes total sense, while
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domain, non-profit research, Italian Decree Law no. 83 of 31/05/2014 the second is both confused and misjudged. Although
clause 12.3 turned into in Law no. 106 of 29/07/2014 the letter could have been written in Italian, either by the
painter Leonardo or just signed by him, I claim instead
essential than the writing in 446E. Even the left-to-right the letter was written in Turkish by the sender, who was a
writing on 8P (Figure 12, shown reversed in Figure 11 Leonardo from Genoese-controlled Caffa. This ties in with
for comparison) is plainer than the ornate writing dated the landscape drawing 8P.
to 1478. It is clear, even from Frosinini’s evidence, that I point to how the scribe draws attention to “Liyârdû
466E is the prime document. The writer was not then (Leonardo)” as an “infidel,” yet the letter is written with the
practicing for years. Only a year later, in 1479, his writing utmost respect for Islam. Indeed, it is as if the writer himself
lost the flourishes and became utilitarian. This confirms was Muslim. Payne 32,p.175 translates part of the letter as: “I,
the proposal that the date August 5, 1473, on 8P, refers your servant, having pondered the problem of the mill,
to events depicted in the drawing, not to the date of the
drawing. The question as to why an educated man would have with God’s help succeeded in finding the solution.” It
continues: “Furthermore, God—may he be exalted!—has
be learning to write in Italian as an adult can be found in granted me …. [my bold]”. There is no doubt this “God” is
a letter that dates to c.1502. I will show that in 1478, the “Allah,” and in Turkish, it is written thus. Surely, the letter-
writer of 446E was essentially a foreigner whose mother writer is demonstrating two obvious realities: (i) he knows
tongue was not Tuscan Italian. He states this very fact
later in writing in the Codex Atlanticus. As with the first about the Islamic faith, and (ii) he respects it. Alternatively,
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two documents, this document is attributed to the Tuscan if the letter writer means the Christian “God,” “God”
painter Leonardo da Vinci through links to the Notebooks translated thus by Payne surely implying this, this would
be hugely insulting to a Sultan, and there would be no
and not through a stylistic consideration of his art and his
painted oeuvre of this period. point even writing the letter because the obvious answer
was going to be no; do not bother coming here to build
3.4. A letter to a Sultan, c.1502, and a Genovese our bridge. The inscription at the top of the letter (cited
Caffan named Leonardo above) can be better translated as “It is the copy of the letter
sent by the Genovese Caffan named Liyârdû” (author’s
A letter was recovered from the Topkapi Archives in
Istanbul in 1952. It is written in Turkish using the Arabic translation). Indeed, this mysterious letter remains poorly
understood. Here, I link it to the landscape drawing 8P,
alphabet. Transcribed into modern Turkish using the Latin document 466E, and the drawing of a hanged man.
alphabet, a phrase at the top reads “Cenevizûn Liyârdû adlû
kâfir gönderdigi mektubun sûretidir [It is the copy of the A Genoese Caffan forced from their birthplace by the
letter sent by Genoese infidel named Liyârdû].” The letter Turkish invasion of 1475 would have known about the
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was translated into English and published by Payne in events beginning on August 5, 1473, that determined
1978, attributed to the Tuscan painter Leonardo da Vinci their destiny. What becomes clear is that a Genoese
and dated to c.1502. The contents revealed a match to the Caffan Leonardo entered Tuscany sometime in 1478, as
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description of a design proposed for a bridge across the by the end of that year, he had begun recording the Italian

Volume 2 Issue 3 (2024) 10 doi: 10.36922/ac.2642