Per un lessico politico di Leonardo da Vinci. I. La metafora organologica della città come "corpo politico"

Marco Versiero (1)

1 UniOr - Università di Napoli L'Orientale = University of Naples

The aim of this article is to begin an exploration of Leonardo’s political lexicon by analysing two of his anatomical fragments (c. 1489) which contain significant refer- ences to the metaphor of a body politic (a basic image in political philosophy). These are closely related to contemporary town-planning studies for the renewal of Milan during the period of Leonardo’s stay there as a guest of the Sforza court. The interest of these texts resides in their use of a specific political vocabulary, perhaps learnt by Leonardo through his engagement with the military arts, which could have facilitated his acquisition of a familiarity with the political milieu of the time. Both the fragments testify to a close affinity with the political and social context of Milan in a moment when the city appears as an example of a political order still reminiscent of medieval forms of scattered monocracies, amounting to a refusal of the experience of the città- stato typical of late 15th century Italy. Milan therefore represents an alternative to the Florentine republican experiment, especially as far as the interpretation and putting into effect of the category of representation is concerned.

Mots clés: Lessico; Filosofia politica; Pensiero politico; Leonardo da Vinci; Metafora

Domaines: Histoire; Philosophie; Science politique; Littératures; Art et histoire de l'art

Marco Versiero. Per un lessico politico di Leonardo da Vinci. I. La metafora organologica della città come "corpo politico". Bruniana e Campanelliana, Ricerche filosofiche e materiali storico - testuali, 2007. ⟨halshs-01380781⟩