Summary of « The testament was a forgery »
A novel By Robert Casanovas
ISBN : 979-1098072963
https://www.amazon.fr/dp/B0G2B56MDP/
In October 2023, at the National Archives of France, historian Pierre Bertier makes a disturbing discovery. A specialist in art restitution, he has been investigating Leonardo da Vinci for three years when he comes across an enigmatic phrase in a correspondence: Leonardo supposedly had "letters from the Most Christian King allowing him to make a will." However, after meticulously examining all nine volumes of the Catalogue of Acts of Francis I, which lists every letter of naturalization granted between 1515 and 1547, Bertier finds no trace of Leonardo da Vinci.
The implication is explosive: without naturalization, Leonardo died a foreigner on French soil. The "droit d'aubaine" —a feudal law stipulating that upon a foreigner's death, all their possessions automatically reverted to the king— therefore applied. Leonardo could never have legally bequeathed his works. The testament upon which the entire history of his estate's transmission rests would be a forgery, especially since no French original has ever been found, only an Italian version.
Together with Antoine Marchand, curator of the National Archives, Bertier develops his thesis: Francesco Melzi, Leonardo's favorite disciple, fabricated a false testament to appropriate works that legally belonged to the Crown. As for the Mona Lisa, contrary to the official version claiming it was "given" to the king by Salaì in 1518, it would have entered the royal collections through confiscation under the droit d'aubaine.
The novel reconstructs Leonardo's life at the Clos Lucé manor. In autumn 1516, at 64 years old, exhausted by thirty years of wandering among Italian courts, he finally finds refuge with Francis I, who offers him complete freedom: the title of "First Painter, Engineer and Architect to the King," a pension of one thousand gold écus, and this magnificent manor connected to the royal château by an underground passage.
Leonardo arrives accompanied by his two disciples: Francesco Melzi, 25 years old, a Milanese nobleman who has abandoned everything to follow the master, and Salaì, 36 years old, a former street child turned accomplished artist. The workshop becomes a center of creative and scientific activity. Leonardo endlessly retouches the Mona Lisa, observes nature with insatiable curiosity, conceives projects for Francis I (the staircase at Chambord, fortifications, canals).
But his body betrays him: a stroke has partially paralyzed his right arm. A genuine friendship develops with the young king, who regularly comes to converse with him, sometimes alone through the underground passage. In December 1518, Leonardo realizes with anguish that he has neglected to officially request letters of naturalization. He summons his disciples and explains the terrible implications: upon his death, everything will automatically revert to the king. Royal agents will come to make an inventory, to take everything away. His thousands of pages of scientific research —on the flight of birds, the flow of fluids, human anatomy— will be dispersed, sold to ignorant collectors, relegated to damp libraries. It is then that Salaì suggests the unthinkable: remove the most precious works before the royal agents arrive. Francesco Melzi adds his voice: they could hide the creations. Leonardo, moved by the devotion of these two men who have sacrificed their youth for him, finally tacitly agrees: "Do what you deem necessary. But be careful." On May 2, 1519, Leonardo passes away at the Clos Lucé. Immediately, Francesco and Salaì implement their plan with military precision. The Mona Lisa must remain —its absence would be noticed. But the thousands of pages of manuscripts, the scientific notebooks, certain lesser-known paintings are discreetly evacuated to Italy.
A few days later, the royal agents arrive and make their inventory of what remains. How could they know what should be there? They never saw Leonardo's workshop during his lifetime. The Mona Lisa officially enters the royal collections under the droit d'aubaine. The official history begins to be written. Francesco returns to Milan with his treasure. Intelligent and cultivated, he knows that haste is fatal. He develops a sophisticated strategy over several years. First, silence: from 1519 to 1521, he says nothing, lets time pass. Then he methodically constructs a network of testimonies. He cultivates "memories" among former servants of the Clos Lucé who would have "heard" Leonardo speak of his heirs. A local priest would have "attended" his final moments. All these testimonies miraculously converge: Leonardo wanted to bequeath everything to Francesco. Francesco's genius lies in his understanding that he needs an institutional guarantor. He relies on the Boreau family, notaries of Amboise for generations, who become the custodians of the "secret." An institution that will perpetuate itself, transmitting the official version from father to son, creating an architecture of lies so elaborate it will survive five centuries. Francesco never fabricates false letters of naturalization —too dangerous. His plan is more subtle: he abandons what remained in France (the Mona Lisa, already confiscated de facto) to legitimize what he took to Italy. These works, no longer being on French territory at the moment of Leonardo's death, escape the droit d'aubaine. The testament only appears in 1525, six years after Leonardo's death, when Francesco needs to legitimize a sale. It is an Italian version —no French original exists. But no one is surprised: everyone already "knew" that Francesco was the heir. Francesco has made a pragmatic calculation: rather than trying to keep everything and risk losing it all, he has sacrificed what he could not preserve to save the rest.
Back in the present, Bertier and Marchand conduct three years of in-depth research, progressively discovering all the inconsistencies, suspicious silences, and missing documents. Bertier writes an academic article published by the Leibniz Institut für Sozialwissenschaften in 2025, then a historical novel to make his thesis accessible. In December 2025, Bertier stands before the Mona Lisa at the Louvre, shortly after a spectacular theft at the museum. A month has passed since the publication of his novel. He contemplates the Lady, still there behind her bulletproof glass, imperturbable. Marchand joins him and asks: "After all this work... do you still think Francesco Melzi was wrong to steal these works?"
Bertier replies: "Francesco was a man of his time. He acted according to the moral codes of the sixteenth century. We judge him with our twenty-first century values. What is certain is that without Francesco's audacity, we might not have these extraordinary scientific manuscripts. Was the droit d'aubaine just? No. Was the theft justified? Probably not. But the result is there. Masterpieces preserved, studied, admired by millions of people."
The novel concludes on this deliberate moral ambiguity. Bertier has left the judgment to the reader: "Criminal or hero? Thief or savior? Each reader forms their own opinion."
