Melzi - To catch the light?
Da Vinci - I could position the mirrors and the lens. You have to visualize them, in a shallow cradle, some pieces one and two inches square, some pieces two and three inches square, most of them concave, all specially ground, to fit together like an eye, to focus like the eye. They could be raised or lowered, tilted, under a lens which I could also focus.
Melzi - They brought the sky closer?
Da Vinci - All of the mirrors and lens were destroyed by the man who had cut and polished them. He smashed them. Malice...fear...envy...
Melzi - A bitter experience, Maestro!
Da Vinci - That’s how it was...in Rome. The Pope learned of these experiments and ousted me from the Vatican.
He fell asleep.
Cloux
May 20, 1519