National Library of Australia - Gateways

ISSN 1039-3498 | no. 56 | April 2002


Facsimile of Leonardo Papers Acquired

The Codex Arundel is a collection of papers assembled after the death of Leonardo da Vinci (1542–1519). It includes notes for a book on the physical properties and geographical effects of water, and a broad range of other material encompassing Leonardo’s other interests in art, science and technology over a period of four decades, from the description of a prehistoric sea monster (c.1478–80) to architectural projects for the royal residence at Romarantin in France (dating to about 1518). The text is written in Italian in Leonardo’s characteristic ‘mirror writing’.

The original codex, named after the great English collector, Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel (1586–1646), is now housed in the British Library. The Codex Arundel is generally acknowledged as the second most important Leonardo collection of manuscripts, after the Codex Atlanticus, held in the Ambrosian Library, Milan. The National Library holds a 12-volume facsimile of the Codex Atlanticus, and the purchase of the two-volume Codex Arundel, using funds from the Library’s Acquisitions Trust Fund, is a welcome addition to the Library’s resources on Leonardo da Vinci.

The facsimile of the Codex Arundel edited by Carlo Pedretti, the leading modern authority on Leonardo’s manuscripts, was produced by the Giunti Publishing House in Florence, Italy.
—Philip Jackson

 

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