Multi-Media
The Leonardo Notebook by The British Library
Course, Subject
Global History and Geography, Social Studies, Social Studies, Social Studies (NYS K-12 Framework Common Core)
Grade Levels
9th Grade, 10th Grade
Description
‘This is to be a collection without order, drawn from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later each in its place, according to the subjects of which they treat.’ Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519).
Leonardo is describing how, in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli in Florence, in the year 1508, he began the collection of short treatises, notes and drawings, which now makes up the Leonardo Notebook in the British Library. The manuscript, in Italian, is written in Leonardo’s characteristic ‘mirror writing,’ left-handed and moving from right to left.
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Background Information
The notebook was not originally a bound volume, but was put together after Leonardo’s death from loose papers of various types and sizes. Many of the pages were written in 1508; others come from different periods in Leonardo’s life, covering practically the whole of his career. The range of subjects, from mechanics to the flight of birds, demonstrates Leonardo’s almost compulsive intellectual curiosity about scientific and technical matters.
British Library Arundel MS 263
Content Provider
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and one of the world's greatest libraries.
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Technical Support
You can try accessing the book directly from the British Library's page located at: http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/virtualbooks/index.html#sthash.xMAlULzj.oF6NDfIR.dpuf
