Arundel MS 263

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Date
1478-1518

Title
Leonardo da Vinci, Notebook (''The Codex Arundel'')

Content
Contents:Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci (''The Codex Arundel''). A collection of papers written in Italian by Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452, d. 1519), in his characteristic left-handed mirror-writing (reading from right to left), including diagrams, drawings and brief texts, covering a broad range of topics in science and art, as well as personal notes. The core of the notebook is a collection of materials that Leonardo describes as ''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'' (f. 1r), a collection he began in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli in Florence, in 1508. To this notebook has subsequently been added a number of other loose papers containing writing and diagrams produced by Leonardo throughout his career. Decoration: Numerous diagrams.
 
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Languages
Italian

Physical Description
  • Materials: Paper.
  • Dimensions: c. 205 x 290 mm.
  • Foliation: ff. 283 + 100* + 101*.
  • Script: Handwriting of Leonardo da Vinci (mirror writing).
  • Binding: None: unbound bifolia.

Ownership
Origin: Italy (Florence, Milan, Rome) and France (Amboise). Provenance: Leonardo da Vinci (b. 1452, d. 1519): writer of the collection of loose papers (most dating to 1508) which, since his death, have been gathered together to form this notebook. Thomas Howard (b. 1585, d. 1646), 2nd earl of Arundel, 4th earl of Surrey, and 1st earl of Norfolk, art collector and politician: owner. Henry Howard (b. 1628, d. 1684), 6th duke of Norfolk: presented the notebook to the Royal Society in 1667 (see below). The Royal Society, London: its ink stamp, ''Soc. Reg. Lond / ex dono HENR. HOWARD / Norfolciensis.'' (f. 2r); purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society together with 549 other Arundel manuscripts in 1831.

Bibliography
  • Catalogue of Manuscripts in The British Museum, New Series, 1 vol. in 3 parts (London: British Museum, 1834-1840), I, part I: The Arundel Manuscripts, p. 79.
  • Il Codice Arundel 263 nel Museo Britannico: Riproduzione Fototipica con Trascrizioni Diplomatica e Critica, I Manoscritti e i Disegni di Leonardo Da Vinci, 1, 3 vols (Rome: Danesi, 1923-1928) facsimile and edition.
  • Il Codice Arundel 263 nella British Library, ed. by Carlo Pedretti, 2 vols (Florence: Giunti, 1998) facsimile with further bibliography.
  • Filippo Camerota, ''Looking for an Artificial Eye: On the Borderline between Painting and Topography'', Early Science and Medicine, 10 (2005), 263-85 (pp. 276-78, fig. 9).
  • Guiseppe Guida, ''Arte e Natura in Machiavelli e Leonardo'', in Con l''Ali de l''Intelletto: Studi di Filosofia e di Storia della Cultura, ed. by Fabrizio Meroi (Florence: Olschki, 2005), pp. 25-63 (pp. 29, 36-37, 38).
  • Juliane Barone, Leonardo da Vinci''s Notebook: The Codex Arundel, Treasures in Focus (London: British Library, 2008).
  • Philip Howard, The British Library: A Treasure House of Knowledge (London: Scala Publishers, 2008), no. 41.
  • Andrea Bernardoni, ''Leonardo and the "Chemical Arts"'', Nuncius, 27 (2012), 11-55 (figs. 2, 4a-b).
Copyright © The British Library Board