LDV Mana Sketch

LDV Manna Sketch

Adaptation of Leonardo Da Vinci’s ‘Mana’ sketch (c1490)

One of the pictorial puns in the Leonardo Da Vinci’s collection is a sketch of what looks like some flora. The text in the book refers to the item as ‘an am’, with a little pictorial fish in the middle. The text under the sketch looks more like:

Some people believe that Leonardo wrote backwards / did mirror writing. I have added what that might look like using the online https://www.dcode.fr/mirror-writing tool.

So for me, the text equates to ‘manna’, a form of nourishment sent as a gift from God to feed the people who were lead by Moses.  

“And when the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, It is manna: for they wist not what it was. And Moses said unto them, This is the bread which the Lord hath given you to eat.” Exodus c16 v15 KJV

“And the house of Israel called the name thereof Manna: and it was like coriander seed, white; and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey.” Exodus c16 v31 KJV

The fish symbol was used by early Christians after the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus.

‘The fish symbol served as a secret form of communication. Often the persecuted Christians would scratch this symbol on the ground to identify themselves to fellow believers’.  Google

This sketch, is produced on a piece of blue brolly fabric.