The current exhibit includes the first two printed works containing material produced by Leonardo da Vinci. Like someone today who avoids email and the web, Leonardo sat out the Printing Revolution. Despite Leonardo’s remarkable accomplishments and enduring interest, his manuscripts were safe-guarded with utmost secrecy to preserve their value to his court patrons. As a result, Leonardo unfortunately published no books during his lifetime. However, Leonardo’s friend, Luca Pacioli, published some of his geometrical diagrams in 1509 – the only example of any of Leonardo’s work published during his lifetime (image, right).

Later, the earliest of Leonardo’s works to be printed was a collection of notes and essays entitled Treatise on Painting, published in Paris a century after his death: Leonardo da Vinci, Trattato della pittura (Paris, 1651).

Unquestionably, Leonardo is best known today for his remarkable manuscripts, never published in his lifetime. This is why we are pleased to announce the acquisition of a magnificent, readable edition of Leonardo’s manuscripts and drawings produced in Italy by Trec International publishers. The set includes 10 volumes:

• Drawings, 1470-1489
• Drawings, 1490-1519
• Notebooks of Anatomy (Royal Library of Windsor)
• Codex Trivuizianus (Sforza Castle, Milan) + Codex On the Flight of Birds (Biblioteca Reale, Turin; 1 vol)
• Codex Anatomy
• Codice Atlantico (3 vols; Ambrosiana Library, Milan)
• Codex A (Institute de France)
• Codex Arundel (British Library; not yet available)

Each manuscript page is reproduced in a full-color facsimile, accompanied (usually on the facing page) by an Italian transcription. The transcription offers a convenient way to check your reading of Leonardo’s right-to-left mirror-image handwriting. Most facsimile pages also include overlying tissue-paper keys to label different parts of the text, sketches and drawings in the original manuscript.

One additional volume consists of the Codex Leicester, formerly owned by Armand Hammer and now owned by Bill Gates. In addition to the facsimile and Italian transcription pages, the Leicester codex volume also includes an English translation, introduction and notes. (View record in catalog)

These massive volumes are published in a large format (35 x 50 cm), printed on fine paper, hand-bound in beautiful leather bindings, and housed in dark wood slipcases.

For more information on this new edition see the Trec website. The Collections hold many additional editions of Leonardo’s works, including other facsimiles and various translations, commentaries and analyses. For more information on Leonardo, see the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia and the Complete Dictionary of Scientific Biography (must be logged in to the OU Libraries catalog).