"Zoroaster Da Peretola"

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommaso_Masini [ITA better]

Tommaso di Giovanni Masini (c. 1462 – 1520), known as Zoroaster Da Peretola, was a friend and collaborator of Leonardo da Vinci.

According to Scipione Ammirato, he was born in Peretola, near Florence, and he was the child of a gardener, although he said he was the Illegitimate child of Bernardo Rucellai, Lorenzo il Magnifico brother-in-law.

In 1505 he returned to Florence and worked with Leonardo in The Battle of Anghiari.

He was buried at the Church of Sant'Agata dei Goti.

It is believed that Masini was the inspiration for the character "Zoroastro" in the short stories of Anton Francesco Grazzini known as Lasca.

"He was a man of thirty-six in forty, large and well-built, olive-colored, with a gruff face and fierce gaze, with a shaggy black beard almost up to his chest, very whimsical and fantastic. He had worked on alchemy; he was behind and nevertheless went to the bay of enchantments, he had seals, characters, filattiere, pentacles, bells, bowls, and stoves of various kinds to ooze grass, earth, metals, stones and woods: he still had unborn paper, wolf eyes deer, angry dog ​​drool, pigeon fishbones, bones of the dead, hangmen, daggers and swords that had killed men, Solomon's bolt and knife, and grass and seeds plucked at various times of the moon and under various constellations, and a thousand other tales and gossip to frighten fools. He attended to astrology, physiognomy, palmistry, a hundred other bajacce: he believed a lot in witches, but especially in spirits he followed; and yet he had never been able to see, or do anything that transgressed the order of nature, although a thousand scarpelloni and novellacce he told about it, and to make them believe he did his best to people: and, having neither father nor mother, and much well-to-do being, it suited him to stay alone at home most of the time, not finding out of fear either a servant or a familiar who wanted to stay with him; and he marvelously enjoyed this infra himself: and practicing little, going at random and with the beard enveloped without ever combing his hair, always filthy and dirty, he was held by the plebs for a great philosopher and necromancer. "

Licia Brescia and Luca Tomio, Tommaso di Giovanni Masini da Peretola known as Zoroastro , in the Vinciana Collection , 1999, pp. 63-77.

3 Gennaio 1506, primo tentativo di volo umano ad opera di Leonardo da Vinci

• https://www.verdeazzurronotizie.it/accadde-oggi-3-gennaio-1506-prim...

It happened Today, January 3: 1506, the first attempt at human flight by Leonardo da Vinci

The machine, according to hardly credible legends, seems to glide for 1000 meters, before abruptly landing in Camerata. The "pilot" Masini reported a fracture in his legs. It was the first flight experiment to have been documented (by Leonardo himself) in the Code on the flight of birds.

Mount Ceceri is the location where one of the most famous myths about Leonardo da Vinci takes place: from here Leonardo in 1506 would have tested one of his flying machines. In this narration the pilot would have been Tommaso Masini, known as Zoroastro da Peretola, one of Leonardo's collaborators.

Closeup of memorial inscription

References

• Wikipedia contributors. (2022, April 17). Monte Ceceri. In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 22:08, June 9, 2022, from https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Monte_Ceceri&oldid=10832...

1. Licia Brescia e Luca Tomio, Tommaso di Giovanni Masini da Peretola detto Zoroastro, in Raccolta Vinciana, 1999, pp. 63-77.
2. Codex Atlanticus f. 1006v, 1493-95
3. See for example Domenico Laurenza, Leonardo il Volo - Giunti, Florence
4. Tin, Christopher. "Sogno di Volare".