If it be not reported there that this is to be a public canal, it will be necessary to pay for the land; [Footnote 3: il re. Louis XII or Francis I of France. It is hardly possible to doubt that the canals here spoken of were intended to be in the Milanese. Compare with this passage the rough copy of a letter by Leonardo, to the “Presidente dell’ Ufficio regolatore dell’ acqua” on No. 1350. See also the note to No. 745, 1. 12.] and the king will pay it by remitting the taxes for a year.
Taken from The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci edited by Jean Paul Richter, 1880.