CODEX ATLANTICUS
This notebook is the work of Pompeo Leoni, a sixteenth-century sculptor with nerve. Taking original Leonardo manuscripts from 1480 to 1518, Leoni used his own judgment in separating the scientific sketches from one, concerned with nature, anatomy, and the human figure. In this codex, made up of what he thought of as scientific materials, are some 1,119 sheets on astronomy, botany, zoology, geometry, and military engineering. Leoni titled his creation “Drawings of Machines, the Secret Arts, and Other Things by Leonardo da Vinci, collected by Pompeo Leoni.” It has since been renamed the Atlanticus, and today the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan is home to its twelve leather-bound volumes. Many (but not all) of what Leoni deemed to be the more artistic pages ended up in England, in the Royal Windsor collection.
CODEX TRIVULZIANUS
These pages detail Leonardo’s ongoing efforts to educate himself in literature, architecture, and other areas. The name comes from the codex’s home—the Biblioteca Trivulziana at the Castello Sforzesco in Milan. At least seven out of the original sixty-two sheets are missing.
CODEX “ON THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS”
Held in the Biblioteca Reale of Turin, Italy, this collection from 1505 includes seventeen sheets of the original eighteen. It covers Leonardo’s studies of birds, the mechanics of flight, air resistance, winds, and currents.
CODEX ASHBURNHAM
General Napoleon Bonaparte, in his expansion of French rule, made a point of amassing as much of Leonardo’s work as he could; he later returned some of it to the original owners, but not this collection. Dating from about 1489-1492, these assorted drawings, bound in cardboard, remain in the Institut de France, in Paris.
CODICES OF THE INSTITUT DE FRANCE
Also at the Institut de France in Paris, these papers are bound together in various ways—by parchment, leather, or cardboard. Each of the twelve manuscripts is called by a letter of the alphabet, from A to M. The topics relate to Leonardo’s usual interests—the flight of birds, hydraulics, optics, geometry, and military matters.
CODEX FORSTER
The Victoria and Albert Museum in London houses these manuscripts, bound in parchment, which focus on geometry and hydraulic machines.
CODEX LEICESTER
This codex was lost until 1690, when it was discovered in a sculptor’s trunk. The Earl of Leicester bought it, and eventually it was purchased—for $30 million—by Bill Gates of Microsoft, at a 1995 auction. Its seventy-two linen sheets, bound in leather, detail all aspects of water and its movement; included is an illustration of what looks like a toilet. More information and pages to view are at http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/codex/.
ROYAL WINDSOR FOLIOS
This notebook lives on in the Royal Collection of England’s Windsor Castle. It includes the artistic drawings pulled by Italian sculptor Pompeo Leoni—some six hundred studies in human anatomy, horse anatomy, geography, and many other topics.
THE MADRID CODICES
These are the most recent discovery. At some point after their creation between 1503 and 1505, they were in the possession of Pompeo Leoni, and were then lost. Only in 1966 were they found once more, in the National Library of Madrid, Spain. The two manuscripts, bound in red leather, were named Madrid I (mostly on mechanics) and Madrid II (geometry).
A POSTSCRIPT
To better explain Leonardo da Vinci’s contributions to science, this book has left out many details of his fabulous career as an artist. Visit your library for other books about him and his place in art history.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS
(* books especially for young readers)
Bambach, Carmen C., ed . Leonardo da Vinci: Master Draftsman. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
Bortolon, Liana. The Life, Times, and Art of Leonardo. New York: Crescent, 1965.
Bramly, Serge. Leonardo: The Artist and the Man. New York: Penguin, 1994. [For an assortment of reasons, writers have put a lot of imagination into telling the story of Leonardo da Vinci. I believe the most reliable facts are reported here.]
Brucker, Gene. Florence, the Golden Age, 1138-1737. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.
*Byrd, Robert. Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer. New York: Dutton, 2003.
Desmond, Michael, and Carlo Pedretti. Leonardo da Vinci: The Codex Leicester—Notebook of a Genius. Sydney, Australia: Powerhouse Publishing, 2000.
Fairbrother, Trevor, and Chiyo Ishikawa. Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci’s Legacy of Art and Science. Seattle: Seattle Art Museum, 1997.
Freud, Sigmund, Leonardo da Vinci: A Study in Psychosexuality. New York: Random House, 1947.
Gelb, Michael J. How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. New York: Random House, 1998.
Grant, Edward. The Foundations of Modern Science in the Middle Ages: Their Religious, Institutional, and Intellectual Contexts. Cambridge, United Kingdom: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
*Langley, Andrew. Leonardo and His Times. New York: Dorling Kindersley, 2000.
Leonardo da Vinci. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, compiled and edited from the original manuscripts by Jean Paul Richter (an unabridged edition of The Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, 1883), in two volumes. New York: Dover Publications, 1970.
Leonardo da Vinci. The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci, compiled and edited by Edward MacCurdy. Old Saybrook, Connecticut: Konecky & Konecky, 1939.
Lindberg, David C. The Beginnings of Western Science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1992.
Lindberg, David C. Theories of Vision from Al-Kindi to Kepler. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1976.
Manchester, William. A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance: Portrait of an Age. Boston: Little, Brown, 1993.
Nuland, Sherwin B. Leonardo da Vinci: A Penguin Life. New York: Viking, 2000.
Rocke, Michael. Forbidden Friendships: Homosexuality and Male Culture in Renaissance Florence. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996.
Siraisi, Nancy G. Medieval & Early Renaissance Medicine: An Introduction to Knowledge and Practice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990.
White, Michael. Leonardo: The First Scientist. New York: St. Martin’s, 2000.
WEB SITES
(Verified May 2008)
“Leonardo and the Engineers of the Renaissance,” Institute and Museum of the History of Science, Florence, Italy: http://brunelleschi.imss.fi.it/ingrin (includes his robots and flying machines, pages from Codex Atlanticus and several other Notebooks)
“Leonardo da Vinci: A Man of Both Worlds”: http://library.thinkquest.org/3044/index.html (includes 42 scientific drawings)
“Leonardo da Vinci, Master Draftsman,” exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum, New York, 2003: http://www.metmuseum.org/special/Leonardo_Master_Draftsman/draftsman_tour.htm
“Leonardo da Vinci Notebook—Turning the Pages at the British Library”: http://www.bl.uk/collections/treasures/digitisation.html#leo (pages from Codex Arundel)
“Leonardo da Vinci—Scientist—Inventor—Artist,” Museum of Science, Boston: http://www.mos.org/leonardo/ (has classroom activities)
“Leonardo’s Codex Leicester: A Masterpiece of Science,” exhibit at the American Museum of Natural History, New York, 1997: http://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/codex/
“The Leonardo Museum in Vinci”: http://www.leonet.it/comuni/vincimus/invinmus.html
“Leonardo”: National Museum of Science and Technology, Milan: http://www.museoscienza.org/english/leonardo/ (includes one hundred drawings of inventions and machines)
INDEX
abacus
Adoration of the Magi (painting)
aerodynamics
Alberti, Leon Battista
alchemy
algebra
Alhazen
anatomy,
artists’ knowledge of,
Leonardo’s study of
see also dissection
animals
anonymous
accusations
anti-Semitism
apprentices
Arabic numbers
Arabic scholars
Archimedes
architecture
Aristotelian logic
Aristotle
army, career in
Arno River
art, career in
arteriosclerosis
artistic training,
Leonardo’s
arthritis
astrology
astronomy
autopsies
Bacon, Roger
Belvedere Palace
Bible
bicycle, invention of
birds
Black Death
epidemic of
blood
Bonaparte, Napoleon
book publishing
books
censorship and
printed
Borgia, Cesare
botany
brain structure
Bramante, Donato
British Museum
bronze horse, statue
Brunelleschi, Filippo
bubonic plague, see Black Death
buchi della Verità
Cardan, Fazio
Caterina (mother of Leonardo)
censorship
chemistry in artists’ studios
China
Church, Catholic
circulation of the blood
cities, conditions
city planning
city-states
classical learning
Clos Lucé
Codex Arundel
Codex Ashburnham
Codex Atlanticus
Codex Forster
Codex Leicester
Codex “On the Flight of Birds,”
Codex Trivulzianus
Codices of the Institut de France
Columbus, Christopher
comets
contagion
Copernicus, Nicolaus
da Vinci, Francesco
da Vinci, Leonardo
appearance
arrested
childhood
collections
curiosity of
death of
early biographies of
household of
isolation
lack of focus
need for privacy
old age
personality
secretiveness
sex life of
da Vinci, Piero
deformity, fascination with
depression
diet
digestive process
disease
dissection
methods of
Divina Proportione
doctors
drawings
techniques
Earth, position of
education
Classical, lack of
formal
self-education
encyclopedias
energy, search for new sources of
engineer-architect
erosion
Euclid
experimentation
Leonardo’s experiments
explorers
eye, structure of
famine
Fazio, Cardan
Feast of Paradise
flight, study of
Florence
Florentine painters’ guild
flying machines
fossils
theories of
France
Francis I, King of France
Freud, Sigmund
Galen
Galileo
Gates, Bill
geography
geology
geometry
Giotto
glasses
Greece
Gutenberg, Johannes
Harvey, William
health, rules for
heart, theories of
helicopter, invention of
heredity, theory of
Hippocrates
history of science
homosexuality
humors, theory of
Huygens, Christian
hydraulics
Icarus
illegitimacy
income
indulgences
influence of Leonardo on other scientists
inheritance
inventions
Islamic scholars
Italian, as “vulgar tongue,”
Italy
jokes
knowledge, unifying theories and principles of
Last Supper, The (painting)
Latin
Laws of Motion
left-handedness
Leo X, Pope
Leoni, Pompeo
lever, invention of
libraries
life expectancy
light, theories of
linear perspective
literacy
Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci, The
Louis XII, King of France
Luther, Martin
Lyell, Charles
Machiavelli, Niccolò
Madrid Codices, The
manuscripts
maps
Masque of the Planets
mathematics
Leonardo’s limited knowledge of
mechanical devices
medical training
Medici
Medici, Lorenzo de’ (the Magnificent)
medicine, medieval
Renaissance
medieval worldview
Melzi, Francesco
Melzi, Orazio
Michelangelo
Microsoft
Middle Ages, life in
Milan
military engineer
mirror-image script
Mona Lisa (painting)
moon
mortality rates
musical ability
natural philosopher (term)
nature, direct study of
Newton, Isaac
“New World,”
Nostradamus
notary
notebooks, Leonardo’s
arrangement of
described
fate of
publication
readership of
see also under individual codex names
observation skills
Office of the Night
On the Revolutions of Celestial Bodies
On the Structure of the Human Body
Opticae Thesaurus
optics
outer space
Pacioli, Luca
pageants, designs for
painting
Leonardo’s attitude toward
methods
theories on
paintings, Leonardo’s
number of
see also individual paintings
paleontology
paper
patronage
peasants, living conditions
peripheral vision
physiognomy
plague, see Black Death
planets
Plato
Pliny
politics, Leonardo’s disinterest in
pranks
Protestant Reformation
pseudosciences
Ptolemy
rats
Rayleigh, Lord
religious beliefs, Leonardo’s
Renaissance
reproductive system
robot
Roman numerals
Rome
rose water perfume
Royal Windsor Folios
Salai
sanitation
Savonarola, Girolamo
scholars
science, state of in Renaissance
Leonardo’s education in
relationship to art
scientia
scienti
fic ideas, origins
scientific method
Scientific Revolution of
scientific vocabulary
scientist, Leonardo’s development as
“scientist” as a term
self-education
Sforza, Duke Ludovico
job application to
overthrown
Sistine Chapel
sixth sense
skeletons
solar eclipses
solar energy
St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome
steam power
submarines
telescope
tides
toilets
Torre, Marcantonio della
torture
Toscanelli, Paolo
trade
travel
unfinished projects
universal theories
universities
University of Pavia
Vatican
vegetarian
Verrocchio, Andrea del
Vesalius, Andreas
Vespucci, Amerigo
Vinci (town)
vision
Vitruvian Man
warfare
water, study of
waves, movement of
weapons
wings