Leonardo’s Profezia: Moral Writings of a Hybrid Kind

In the period 1490-99, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) wrote nearly three hundred literary writings that were later compiled by scholars into four primary collections: the Bestiario, Favole, Facezie, and Profezia. This article takes Leonardo’s Profezia as its main subject in order to give due recognition to the generic nature of this collection. Specifically, it examines the texts in the Profezia as examples of mixed genre in an attempt to demonstrate how ethos, context, and generic convention yield to the greater moral statement made by Leonardo in the writings themselves. Unlike Leonardo’s other three literary collections, which subscribe to an easily identifiable literary genre, the Profezia texts are hybrid writings that enjoin its readers to consider instead why and how the mixture of forms might be a necessary means of expression to convey a truth and reality.