OF THE CANAL OF MARTESANA.
By making the canal of Martesana the water of the Adda is greatly diminished by its distribution over many districts for the irrigation of the fields. A remedy for this would be to make several little channels, since the water drunk up by the earth is of no more use to any one, nor mischief neither, because it is taken from no one; and by making these channels the water which before was lost returns again and is once more serviceable and useful to men.
[Footnote: “el navilio di Martagano” is also mentioned in a note written in red chalk, MS. H2 17a Leonardo has, as it seems, little to do with Lodovico il Moro’s scheme to render this canal navigable. The canal had been made in 1460 by Bertonino da Novara. Il Moro issued his degree in 1493, but Leonardo’s notes about this canal were, with the exception of one (No. 1343), written about sixteen years later.]
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.