On the 3rd day of January.

Benedetto came on the 17th of October; he stayed with me two months
and 13 days of last year, in which time he earned 38 lire, 18 soldi
and 8 dinari; he had of this 26 lire and 8 soldi, and there remains
to be paid for the past year 12 lire 10 soldi.

Giodatti (?) came on the 8th day of September, at 4 soldi a month,
and stayed with me 3 months and 24 days, and earned 59 lire 14 soldi
and 8 dinari; he has had 43 lire, 4 soldi, there remains to pay 16
lire, 10 soldi and 8 dinari.

Benedetto, 24 grossoni.

[Footnote: This seems to be an account for two assistants. The name
of the second is scarcely legible. The year is not given. The note
is nevertheless of chronological value. The first line tells us the
date when the note was registered, January 3d, and the observations
that follow refer to events of the previous month 'of last year'
_(dell'anno passato)_. Leonardo cannot therefore have written thus
in Florence where the year was, at that period, calculated as
beginning in the month of March (see Vol. I, No. 4, note 2). He must
then have been in Milan. What is more important is that we thus
learn how to date the beginning of the year in all the notes written
at Milan. This clears up Uzielli's doubts: _A Milano facevasi
cominciar l'anno ab incarnatione, cioe il 25 Marzo e a nativitate,
cioe il 25 Decembre. Ci sembra probabile che Leonardo dovesse
prescegliere lo stile che era in uso a Firenze._ (_Ricerche_, p. 84,
note.)]