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Arundel MS 263
- Record Id:
- 040-002039546
- Hierarchy Root Ancestor Record Id:
- 032-002039280
- MDARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100000000395.0x000357
- LARK:
- ark:/81055/vdc_100180783503.0x000001
- SLARK:
- Format:
- ISAD(G)
- Reference (shelfmark):
- Arundel MS 263
- Title:
- Leonardo da Vinci, Notebook (''The Codex Arundel'')
- Scope & 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.
- Collection Area:
- Western Manuscripts
- Project / Collection:
- Arundel Manuscripts
- Hierarchy Record Ids:
- 032-002039280
040-002039546 - Is part of:
- Arundel MS 1-550 : Arundel Manuscripts
Arundel MS 263 : Leonardo da Vinci, Notebook (''The Codex Arundel'') - Hierarchy:
- 032-002039280[0264]/040-002039546
- Container:
- View / search within Archive / Collection: Arundel MS 1-550
- Record Type (Level):
- File
- Extent:
-
1 paper codex; 283 folios
- Digitised Content:
- https://iiif.bl.uk/uv/#?manifest=https://bl.digirati.io/iiif/ark:/81055/vdc_100180783503.0x000001
- Thumbnail:
-
- Languages:
- Italian
- Scripts:
- Latin
- Start Date:
- 1478
- End Date:
- 1518
- Date Range:
- 1478-1518
- Era:
- CE
- Access:
- Restrictions to access apply please consult British Library staff
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- User Conditions:
- Letter of introduction required to view this manuscript.
- Physical Characteristics:
-
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.
- Custodial History:
-
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.
- Information About Copies:
-
Select digital coverage available for this manuscript; see Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/welcome.htm.
This manuscript is part of the project ''Turning the Pages'' (visit http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/ttp/leonardo/accessible/introduction.html). The double-pages in ''Turning the Pages'' are artificial arrangements.
Full digital coverage is available for this manuscript; see Digitised Manuscripts http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/, where the disbound sheets are displayed as full bifolia.
- Publications:
-
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).
- Exhibitions:
- A History of Magic, (online), 31 July 2017-
British Library Treasures, (online), 27 February 2016-
Discovering literature: Shakespeare and Renaissance, (online), 30 April 2016-
Leonardo 1452-1519, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 15 April 2015 - 19 July 2015
Leonardo de Vinci, Musée du Louvre, Paris, 24 October 2019 - 24 February 2020
Seeing Round Corners, Turner Contemporary, Margate, 21 May 2016 - 25 September 2016
Thinking in 3D: Leonardo to the present, Bodleian Library, Oxford, 19 August 2019 - 5 January 2020 - Material Type:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Legal Status:
- Not Public Record(s)
- Notes:
-
Planimetric sketches -- Notes and Sketches ilustrating Leonardo''s study of breathing apparatus for a diver (1508) -- Notes on the sense of reality in dreams, on water, and the Rivers Sieve and Arno -- Notes on water; sketch illustrating the terrestrial globe -- Notes and diagrams on optics, concerning the caustics of reflection, c.1503-5 -- Notes and diagram on optics, concerning the caustics of reflection; drawing of a lathe designed to manufacture concave mirrors; mathematical calculations, c.1503-5. Exhibited: Leonardo 1452-1519, Palazzo Reale, Milan, 15 April 2015 - 19 July 2015