Leonardo in Vaprio d'AddaLeonardo da Vinci was born on 15 april 1452 in Anchiano di Vinci. He was the illegitimate son of a notary, Ser Piero and a peasant, Caterina. In 1469 he moved to Florence with his father to join Verrocchio’s studio where he met artists like Sandro Botticelli and Domenico Ghirlandaio. In 1482, Leonardo got to Milan, guest of Ludovico il Moro first, and the French governor Charles d’Amboise later. He spent 20 years in Lombardy devoting to different subjects: painting, sculpture, architecture, science, music... In 1507, Leonardo lived in Vaprio d’Adda for short periods, guest of Duke Gerolamo Melzi. He devoted himself to the study of water flows and movements as we can still see in the drawings he left concerning The Adda and Naviglio Martesana. One of these drawings, now stored at Royal Library, portrays the ferry in the river port between Canonica and Vaprio, probably seen from villa Melzi. Two more drawings show the coast along Naviglio Martesana in the way between Vaprio and Trezzo d’Adda. Leonardo dealt with sailing problems along watercourse by designing, for example, some improvements to the sluice system. He was also Francesco Melzi’s tutor; Francesco was considered his best and beloved student and the one who inherited all Leonardo’s manuscripts kept in the villa for a long time. When Melzi died, all Leonardo’s works were scattered around. Nowadays, after trades, thefts, donations we can count 28 codexes arranged among libraries in Italy, Spain. England and France. Scholars believe they represent just a fifth of the original number. Leonardo died on 2 may 1519 in Amboise, France. Altri due celebri disegni, custoditi anch’essi alla Royal Library, ritraggono la costa del naviglio Martesana nel tratto compreso tra Vaprio e Trezzo sull’Adda. Leonardo inoltre studiò i problemi di navigazione dei corsi d’acqua, progettando, ad esempio, alcune migliorie per il sistema delle chiuse del naviglio. Divenne anche il precettore del giovane Francesco Melzi, figlio di Gerolamo, suo miglior allievo. Leonardo lasciò tutti i manoscritti a Francesco, che li custodì nella villa di Vaprio. Alla morte del Melzi ebbe inizio la dispersione dei manoscritti vinciani. Oggi, dopo complesse vicende, vendite, furti, donazioni e sparizioni, rimangono 9 codici leonardeschi distribuiti fra le biblioteche di ltalia, Francia, Inghilterra e Spagna. Gli studiosi ritengono siano solo un quinto di quelli che erano in origine. Leonardo morì il 2 maggio del 1519 ad Amboise, in Francia.Life of Francesco MelziFrancesco Melzi, son of Gerolamo Melzi, of a noble Lombard family, was probably born in Milan in 1491 or in 1493. Francesco received a humanistic education and in 1506 began his relations with Leonardo Da Vinci and intensified in 1513, when the Master was a guest of the villa of the Melzi in Vaprio d'Adda. The first works he carried out for Leonardo were stationery tasks and later he will write or copy his letters, in fact we have some of his works considered autograph, preserved in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle and some drawings in the Ambrosian Library, including “Testa of an old man ”and“ Male head inclined to the left ”. Melzi soon became the best pupil of Leonardo and followed him both in Rome and on his last trip to France, always staying close to him, until the death of the Master. In 1519 Leonardo, at the point of death, bequeathed to him manuscripts and graphic materials which Melzi later systematically reorganized, organizing his annotations on painting in an organic way for a future printed edition. When he returned from France he married Angiola of the Landriani counts, from whom he had eight children and in 1520 he was appointed by Francesco I "gentleman of the room". In the following years he wrote the so-called "Book of Painting" also known as "Treatise on Painting". Art of typically Leonard-style style that we find above all in two of his works: "Leda with the swan" and "Madonna with the child". Francesco Melzi died in Canonica d’Adda 1567.