Leonardo built an automatic mechanical lion that was presented in homage to the new King Francis I of France on the occasion of his solemn entry into Lyon in 1515. A printed document mentioned in a letter from Iacopo Morelli to Giuseppe Bossi in 1807, unnoticed for over a century (with the exception of a reference by Galbiati in 1920), enables us to shed light on the circumstances of the commission.
This document was a description by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger of a banquet for the marriage of Maria de’ Medici and King Henri IV of France, published in Florence in 1600. It describes the moment when a fierce lion appeared to guests: “as it moved, and rose in two parts, the chest opened and one could see that it was full of lilies”1. Buonarroti took care to specify that it was “a similar concept to that which Leonardo da Vinci produced for the Florentine nation in the City of Lyon for the arrival of King Francis”. Buonarroti, writing “for the Florentine nation”, would have been well aware that Leonardo’s client was the governor of Florence, Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, the nephew of Pope Leo X and Giuliano de’ Medici, the Pope’s brother. On 9 January 1515, the day of Louis XII’s death, Giuliano left Rome, as noted by Leonardo, who had been his guest at the Vatican.

Fig. 1. The mechanical horse by Maillard, 1733

Giuliano was on his way to marry Filiberta of Savoy, the aunt of the future King Francis I. It was the first step in a policy of getting closer to France by the Medici Pope, that was later to lead to a meeting between the Pope and Francis I in Bologna in December the same year. In July 1515, the new King made his triumphal entry into the city of Lyon, and was warmly welcomed, particularly by the substantial Florentine community of bankers and merchants. This explains the intervention of the governor of Florence, Lorenzo di Piero de’ Medici, who was a financial backer of the Florentine community in Lyon, and for whom Leonardo, again in 1515, designed a magnificent palace in Florence, opposite that of Cosimo the Elder, the old Palazzo Medici.
Leonardo’s technological masterpiece was devised and created in Florence, and later sent to Lyon. No reference to this extraordinary event remains, however, in Leonardo’s manuscripts. The in-depth research that I carried out in the Municipal Archive of Lyon does not enable us to establish whether the automatic device was presented on the occasion of the King’s first entry into Lyon, on 12 July 1515, or later the same year in Lyon or Bologna, or even in 1517, in connection with the solemn entry into the city of Francis I’s wife, Claude of France. According to documents published by Solmi in 19042, a mechanical lion, probably Leonardo’s, appeared again on 30 September 1517 on the occasion of Francis I’s entry into Argentan, and again when he entered Amboise in 1518. The appointment of “meschanicien d’estat”, the King’s mechanic, when Leonardo was buried on 12 August 1519, was surely also a recognition of his recent technological marvel in honour of France.
There is more historical evidence of Leonardo’s mechanical lion, but none of it specifies the occasion for which it was built. Besides the curious mention by Vasari3 (1550 and 1568), Lomazzo recalled in 1584 what he had heard from Francesco Melzi, the pupil who followed Leonardo to France: “once, in front of Francis I, the King of France, he made a Lion, made with a marvellous mechanism, walk from its place in a room, and then it stopped and opened its chest, which was completely full of lilies and other flowers”.4 Lomazzo also recalls (1590), among the technological virtuosities of Leonardo, “the way of making Lions move using wheels”,5 or rather a system of cogs.
This study is the first conjectural reconstruction of Leonardo da Vinci’s lion. It is based on the study of the mechanisms of French automatons from the period, when it may be supposed that the memory of Leonardo’s renowned automaton was still fresh.
Its destiny can be followed in the creation of automatic machines in France, up to the end of the eighteenth century.
In particular, our attention focuses on the mechanism of Maillard’s horse of 1733 (plate 1). All the cogs used in that device were already well known at the end of the fifteenth century, and many of them can be found in drawings in Leonardo’s manuscripts (plate 2).

Fig. 2. Reconstruction of the mechanical lion.

During the last three months of 1513, Leonardo was in Florence, where a menagerie of lions was located behind Palazzo della Signoria. For this reason, the road leading from Piazza San Firenze to the Logge del Grano is still called Via dei Leoni. On a sheet of paper from the French period, in Codex Atlanticus, 249 r-a (673 r), next to a small plan, the words “room of the lions of Florence” appear. It is therefore extremely likely that it was in Florence that Leonardo was able to study the movements of lions closely, in order to emulate them mechanically in an effective way (plate 3).

Fig. 3. Operative model of the lion made of papier-maché, wood and iron

It is possible to reconstruct precisely the route of Francis I’s procession to Lyon, culminating in the surprise presentation of the mechanical lion.
In the far north of the city stood the “Vase Gate”, which opened to let in the royal procession as it arrived from the North of France. A heraldic lion was sculpted on the gate, and for this reason it is sometimes referred to as the “Lion’s Gate”. The pediment bears the motto from the beginning of the sixteenth century: “One God, one king, one faith, one law”. The arms of France were painted on this gate in 1490 by Jean Perreal, the famous painter who was also well known for his friendship with Leonardo. The three angels and a lion, carved around the shield, were sculpted by Nicolas Leclerc (Archives Municipales de Lyon, cote BB 19 and BB 20). The royal procession continued along one of the main roads that crossed the city from North to South (plate 4)6. The first road ran along the right bank of the River Saône,

Fig. 4. Map of Lion with the route of thel royal procession

along Borgneuf, between the hill and the river, before cutting through the larger neighbourhoods of Saint-Paul and Saint-Jean.
The procession was then reunited in Rue Mercière, before going along rue Confort, and across Saint-Nizier square and rue Grenette towards the near centre, thanks to the bridge over the Rhône, where the royal procession stopped on the second main road, to create his lion, as I conjecture in my reconstruction.
Conceptually, this shifts backwards, and attributes Leonardo with the invention of the pendulum clock, which needs an escapement and counterbalance in order to work. The invention of the pendulum clock is traditionally attributed to Christian Huygens, in 1673 (see Ernst Mach, The Science of Mechanics).
It is also true that we have no surviving drawings by Leonardo showing the combined use of a counterbalance mechanism and an escapement for the creation of a pendulum clock. Also for our reconstruction of the lion, we used the escapement and the idea of counterbalance separately (in twodifferent systems).
Padre Boffito in Gli strumenti della scienza o la scienza degli strumenti (The instruments of science or the science of instruments), writes: “In Leonardo’s opinion, the constant aim of his research was to achieve a more suitable division of time, and a more accurate measurement, neither of which were permitted by the clocks which were then in use, which functioned using sand, water or wheels. He realised that if the old methods of escapement were used to moderate those objects, so that they did not run down excessively quickly, they did not set the time. He showed how it was possible to avoid jars and applied a balance wheel.
Or rather, for a moment, as various sketches in the Codex Atlanticus show, he had the fortunate intuition of making use of a pendulum. Since elsewhere he returns to certain links between these and other clocks, we must not rule out the possibility that, in some way, he went further”.
Recently, in January 2006, Jill Burke published an article9 (Oxford Art Journal, 29 January 2006, pp. 77-91), in which she examined a document found in the Biblioteca Nazionale (National Library) in Florence about a mechanical lion which Leonardo created in 1509 for the entry of King Louis XII into Milan. The document
says (Fondo Principale II.IV.171): “For the King’s entry into Milan, as well as other performances, Leonardo
The automatic lion with its complex functions (plate 6) (it walked, sat on its hind legs, and opened its chest with lilies coming out of it) made a great impression on its contemporaries. The role of the Florentine colony in the organisation of the celebrations for Francis I explains the choice of the lion, as an explicit reference to the motherland: the lion, known as “il Marzocco” is the symbol of Florence, and it was made famous by Donatello’s sculpture.
The choice of lilies, or fleur-de-lis, was not incidental either, as the flower was the coat of arms both of France and of Florence. The involvement of the Florentine colony in the celebrations for Francis I also had a specific political significance. They were paying homage to the powerful monarch, with whom the Medici Pope, Leo X, hoped to form an alliance. It was not by chance that the Lyonese celebration took place, as has been mentioned, between the marriage of the Pope’s brother, Giuliano de’ Medici to the King’s aunt, at the beginning of 1515, and the Pope’s meeting with Francis I in Bologna at the end of the same year. Probably, when the automatic lion was set in motion in front of the King, the following poem was recited for the occasion, based on what has been reported:8 It was very wise, To set up a Rampant Lion, Since the love which surrounded it Had been chosen separately, A gesture in the most suitable age Which it could have had among one hundred.

Fort fut la sagesse / Pour percer ung
rampant / Car amour qui la gesse /
L’avoit choysie à part, / Traict a l’age
plus décent / Avoit entre cent.

As well as inducing wonder and amazement, the lion invented by Leonardo is also important in the history of science for two reasons. These are: the counterbalance mechanism of the automaton, and its “escapement”, the two inventions necessary for making it work. Both are drawn in separate figures in the codes of Leonardo. (plate 7 and 8). Therefore they were known to Leonardo and may have been used by him together in order to day known as

Fig. 5. Jean Perreal, illumination of Petit Livre d’Amour by Pierre Sala

Cours Lafayette. The procession consisted of the King with Queen Claude, the Constable, René of France, and the Marshal of France, Trivulzio. They were preceded by a long procession of bishops, mitred abbots, the seneschal, the 12 councillors of Lyon, the procurator, the notables and lastly the bourgeois bearing gifts for the King, including the Florentine merchants dressed in crimson with precious gifts, probably including Leonardo’s mechanical lion.
The goldsmith Jehan Lèpere created the golden lion presented to Francis I in 1515, as well as the golden cups given to Queen Claude and the Queen Regent (Archives Municipales de Lyon, cote BB, 35, cc 638-63g). The golden lion was seated and held the shield of the city of Lyon in its paws.
It seems that Jean Perreal (plate 5), the official court painter, played a marginal role in Francis I’s solemn entry into the city of Lyon in 1515. Only a year later, however, on 30 October 1516, the Council elected to organise the entry of the Queen, that included many Florentines and was known as the Consulate, entrusted Perreal with the task of producing the decoration and stage design for the solemn entry of Queen Claude, on 2 March 1517, across the bridge over the Rhône.
Serious financial difficulties made it hard for the city of Lyon to prepare a suitable solemn entry for Francis I in 1515. However, the desire to preserve the privileges given to the city by Charles VIII led the Lyonese community to make a great effort. The decorations were entrusted to Jean Yvonnet and Jean Richier. There were seven big decorations and eight smaller ones, while around 50 actors were involved in the procession. Guillaume Le Roy, who is in all probability the author of the miniatures in the manuscript L’entrée de François I, Roy de France, en la cité de Lyon le 12 juillet 1515, was among the artists who took part in the entry. The manuscript, housed in the Herzog August Bibliothek in Wolfenbüttel,7 has a few pages missing, but it includes miniatures illustrating the most salient moments of the King’s entry. Unfortunately there is no image of Leonardo’s lion.

da Vinci, the famous Florentine painter, devised an intervention. He created a lion, above the gate, which was lying down, and then stood up as the King entered the city: with its claws it opened its chest and drew out some blue spheres full of golden lilies, which it then threw down and scattered on the ground. Then it dragged out its heart and pressing it, made more golden lilies come out. The Marzocco of the Florentines symbolised by that animal had its innards full of lilies: the King stopped in front of this performance, which he found very pleasing, and it made him very cheerful”.
This appears to be the description of an earlier, different lion, invented by Leonardo, that did not walk, and that was probably equipped with a simpler mechanism. From a lying down position, the lion appeared to rise up on its hind legs, thanks to a cylinder-shaped rod that rose from the ground level, and moved the front part of the lion’s body upwards. A similar mechanism is illustrated in the plate 10 of an automaton from 1600, preserved in an English museum.

Fig. 6. Set of the movements of the walk

When the King entered Milan, the entire city was full of hope and enthusiasm for the man who had conquered the Venetians, who had been the undefeated enemies of the Milanese for a long time. After his victory at Agnadello, Louis XII made his entry on 1 July 1509. In addition to the lion, he also saw painted stories and buildings and roads which were decorated for a feast. It seems that these decorations were carried out by Leonardo, as Oltrocchi concluded from the following Latin text by Bernardino Arluno, in the Storia de Bello Veneto (History of the Venetian War):10 “Erecti quippe triumphales arcus recolendum maiestate sua Ludovicum, rerumque magnificentia gestarum admirabilem, dum sese Jovis in arcem ex delubro Virginali recipit triviis compitisque progressum excipiebant: ibi totius belli series disposta, effigiataeque levibus penicillis imagines intervivebant: digesta membratim per tabulas forosque con glutinati belli materia discernebatur: re- florescebant vegeti spiritus redivivaque Ludovico ferocitas insolescebat, cum sese tanto apparatu totque legionibus oppositum hosti terra marique potentissimo pictura planiore relegeret: […]

Fig. 7. Leonardo da Vinci, Codice Atlantico, f. 388 v-a (1077 r)
(particular). Diagram of a counterbalance clock

Suos inibi Proceres de re bellica disserentes omnemque suscepti finiendique belli rationem diligentius explicantes admirabatur: se quoque medium inter eos sedentem exigentemque de re dubia singolorum opinionem […].
Incredibili voluptate spectabat: nec procul insertis pontis compage fluminisque traiectu restrictos hostes attonitosque proruentium impetu Gallorum conspicabantur horrentem Livianum immitique picturae vultu praeferocem cunctatorem Petilianum, prudentesque togatos inter bellatores ducturesque fortissimos agentes cernebat […] Ludovico vero consiliis eorum insultabundus adversabatur, in ipsaque picturati staminis lecitone cuneis omnibus impulsis suaque ad mota acie diffusam hostilem militiam imprimebat, scindebat, sternebat: artificum praedoctae manus tantoque opere exaequando laboriosae suspensas miris modis lineas inducebant, conflectebant, dirrigebant: tum vivis coloribus et spirante fuco diversarum formarum imagines speciesque rerum mollissimas in ipsos motus palpitantibus venis ac membris connitentibus animabant; crederes equos tinnire, plangere solum, sanguinem fluere; praecipites hinc Gallos, ruentes illinc venetos, distentis telis, excitisque viribus concorrere, permisceri, confligere: adeo exacta omnia, suisque finibus terminata, insuflato coloribus spiritu fervens pictura vegetabat […]. At in ipsa spetaculorum serie praeculto pollice digesta omnia viventibusque lineis effigiata multo lumine corruscabant longo esamine spaciosisque marginibus illustria viri facinora censebantur et cum admiranda omnia spectatores olim audissent nunc omnia cominus admirabiliora cernebant, atque cum singula magni Ducis acta prospicerent, tantoque sudore, ac sanguine madido set irrorantes artus intuerentur captivum protinus et ad pedes Regis stantem Livianum suspiciebant […] exinde profugi milites confusaeque omnium bellatorum turmae tanti viri captura, tantoque abisso Duce ex ipsis picturae claustris amentes alienique protinus erumpebant […]. Harum tali erat rerum species talique adumbratae artificis ministerio figurae colribus infusis viventes agebant: allectabat animos voluptate titillantes miraculorum speciosa lectio. Sed inter omnes Rex ipse magno singulis spectaculorum intersticiis affectu distinebatur: tum vero laetitiis omnibus incessit extimuitque pleno dilatatus impetu, cum ad ipsam Jovis arcem deventum est. Ibi caelo moles educta stabat, arcuque conflexa triplici fornicabatur: bipartenti capacissimoque Regem adita gratanter excipiens universus terrarum orbis axe commuto tremefactisque cardinibus adventanti Ludovico patebat, imperantique praecelso troni sui fastigio parere reverenter acclinarique cuncta videbantur. […] Haec variis impressa praescriptaque figuris Ludovicus seriatim perlegens, omnemque summa cum voluptate picturam ex alto perlustrans flaccidi set inanibus oculos nutrimenti pascebat”.

Fig. 8. Leonardo da Vinci, Codice Madrid I,this and following page, studies of exhausts

Translation:
“In actual fact the triumphal arches that had been constructed were intended to welcome Ludovico, who was to be honoured for his dignity and who could be admired for the magnificence of his achievements, which proceeded through crossroads and junctions on their way from the temple of the Virgin to the fortress of Jupiter. Here a carefully ordered sequence of the events of the whole of the war took shape, with the images depicted using fine brushes.
Piece after piece, using the panels and the cells, the topic of the war as a whole was divided. The determined attitude flourished and Ludovico was proud of the restored dignity, seeing once more a very clear representation of himself facing the extremely powerful enemy on land and sea with lots of war machines and many legions …
He is shown admiring his nobles who were discussing the issues of the war and carefully explaining all the reasons for starting or stopping the war […] and he watches with great pleasure as he himself sits in their midst and asks each one for their opinion on a doubtful point […] Not far away, the horrified Liviano and the wary Petiliano with a very proud expression in the painting observe the enemies oppressed by the structure of the connected bridge and by the crossing of the river, as they are dumbfounded by the attack of the Gauls who are hurling themselves against them. Petiliano caught a glimpse of the wise lawyers who worked amongst warriors and very courageous commanders… In truth Ludovico was very insolent and opposed their decisions, and in the same interpretation of the painted panel, after having pushed forwards all the wedges (battle formations in the form of wedges), and having put his crushing formation into action, he divided and laid low the vast army of the enemies. The expert and industrious hands of the artists showed great ability when it came to producing such a big work, as they drew, curved and drafted fine lines. Then with bright shades and the crucial inspiration of colour they gave life to the images of the various figures and the extremely graceful depictions of things with throbbing veins and tense limbs showing real movement. You can almost hear the horses neighing, and see the land suffering and the blood flowing.
On one side the Gauls throw themselves into battle, and on the other side the army of Veneto collapses, as weapons are hurled, and elated men run as they mingle and fight. At a certain point, blazing with the vital spirit inspired by the colours, the painting gives life to all the things that are complete and set within its boundaries […]. However in the same sequence of the depictions, everything, starting with the very elegant fingers that are portrayed using lines that make them seem real, gleams because of all the light. The great achievements of the man were carried out by the long formations and wide margins, and while once the spectators had heard all these admirable things with their own ears, now they were given a close-up view of even more admirable things.

Fig. 9, Huygens’s pendulum clock , 1673

Observing the individual actions of the great commander, and discerning the limbs which were drenched with so much sweat and blood, close-up they admired Liviano who had been taken prisoner and who stood at the king’s feet […] After that they saw the soldiers fleeing and the swarms of warriors who were certain of defeat after the capture of such a great man.
Having lost such a great commander, straight afterwards they hurled themselves out of the prison of the painting itself, beside themselves with rage and deranged […]. All these things looked beautiful, and the figures, depicted with great skill by the artist, looked as if they were real thanks to the infusion of colours. The marvellous interpretation captivated the minds of those who delighted in the wonders with great pleasure. However, of all of them, the kind himself was entertained with great emotion by each interval of the performance. In actual fact he avoided any happiness and was afraid, with his fear increased by a great force when he came to the fortress of Jupiter itself. The massive structure was there, led down from the heavens, and formed a triple arch.
Everybody welcomed the king with great joy, after the very large axis of the double door had been moved and the hinges had been shaken, it opened and Ludovico appeared. Everything seemed to obey with respect and bow to the emperor, who was very high due to the pediment of his throne […].
Ludovico examined this succession of engraved and depicted things in various figures and looked up carefully at each painting, with great pleasure in his eyes and with languid and incorporeal nourishment”.

Fig. 10. Mechanical raising up lion, with jointed shield. che si eleva, XVII century

End Notes

1 Michelangelo Buonarroti the younger, Descrizione delle felicissime nozze Della cristianissima Maestà di Madama Maria Medici Regina di Francia e diNavarra (Description of the wedding celebrations of Her Christian Majesty Maria Medici Queen of France and Navarre), Florence, Giorgio Marescotti, 1600, p. 10.

2 E. Solmi, Documenti inediti sulla dimora di Leonardo da Vinci in Francia nel 1517 e 1518 (Unpublished documents on Leonardo da Vinci’s stay in France in 1517 and 1518), in the Acts of the Veneto Royal Institute of Sciences, Letters and Arts, 1904-1905, Part II. And also in Florence, La Voce, 1924.

3 Giorgio Vasari, Le Vite de’ più eccellenti Pittori, Scultori e Architetti (Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects), Florence, Giunta, 1568: “Leonardo was asked to make something fanciful, and therefore he made a lion, which walked several steps, and then opened its chest and showed that it was full of lilies”.

4 G.P. Lomazzo, Trattato dell’Arte della Pittura, Scultura et Architettura… diviso in sette libri, (Treatise on the Art of Painting, Sculture and Architecture… divided into seven books), Milan, Gottardo dal Ponte, 1584.

5 Id., Idea del Tempio della Pittura (The Idea of the Temple of Painting),1590.

6 The two main roads which cross the city were already evident on the map of Lyon in 1547, preserved in the Municipal Archive of Lyon, and they are much older.

7 Ms. 86.4 extravagantium, Biblioteque Ducale de Wolfenbuttel.

8 G. Guigue, L’Entrée de François Premier… en la cité de Lyon, Lyon, 1899.

9 J. Burke, Meaning and Crisis in the Early Sixteenth Century: Interpreting Leonardo’s Lion, published in the «Oxford Art Journal», 29 January 2006, pp. 77-91.

10 S. Ritter, Baldassare Oltrocchi e le sue memorie storiche su la vita di Leonardo da Vinci (Baldassare Oltrocchi and his historical memoirs of the life of Leonardo da Vinci), Rome, Loescher, 1925, pp. 33-35.