certain paper-packets of pence; but he would not take
them, saying in answer, "I am no penny-painter." Having been blamed
for cheating Piero Soderini, there began to be murmurings against
him; wherefore Leonardo so wrought upon his friends, that he got the
money together and took it to Piero to repay him; but he would not
accept it.

He went to Rome with Duke Giuliano de' Medici, at the election of
Pope Leo, who spent much of his time on philosophical studies, and
particularly on alchemy; where, forming a paste of a certain kind of
wax, as he walked he shaped animals very thin and full of wind, and,
by blowing into them, made them fly through the air, but when the
wind ceased they fell to the ground. On the back of a most bizarre
lizard, found by the vine-dresser of the Belvedere, he fixed, with a
mixture of quicksilver, wings composed of scales stripped from other
lizards, which, as it walked, quivered with the motion; and having
given it eyes, horns, and beard, taming it, and keeping it in a box,
he made all his friends, to whom he showed it, fly for fear. He used
often to have the guts of a wether completely freed of their fat and
cleaned, and thus made so fine that they could have been held in the
palm of the hand; and having placed a pair of blacksmith's bellows
in another room, he fixed to them one end of these, and, blowing
into them, filled the room, which was very large, so that whoever
was in it was obliged to retreat into a corner; showing how,
transparent and full of wind, from taking up little space at the
beginning they had come to occupy much, and likening them to virtue.
He made an infinite number of such follies, and gave his attention
to mirrors; and he tried the strangest methods in seeking out oils
for painting, and varnish for preserving works when painted.

He made at this time, for Messer Baldassarre Turini da Pescia, who
was Datary to Pope Leo, a little picture of the Madonna with the
Child in her arms, with infinite diligence and art; but whether
through the fault of whoever primed the panel with gesso, or because
of his innumerable and capricious mixtures of grounds and colours,
it is now much spoilt. And in another small picture he made a
portrait of a little boy, which is beautiful and graceful to a
marvel; and both of them are now at Pescia, in the hands of Messer
Giuliano Turini. It is related that, a work having been allotted to
him by the Pope, he straightway began to distil oils and he