Codex Arundel
Codex Arundel (British Library Arundel MS 263) is a bound collection of pages of notes written by Leonardo da Vinci and dating mostly from between 1480 and 1518. The codex contains a number of treatises on a variety of subjects, including mechanics and geometry. The name of the codex came from the Earl of Arundel, who acquired it in Spain in the 1630s. It forms part of the British Library Arundel Manuscripts.
Description
The manuscript contains 283 paper leaves of various sizes, most of them around 22 cm × 16 cm.[1] Only a few of the leaves are blank. Two folios, 100 and 101, were incorrectly numbered twice.[clarification needed] The codex is a collection of Leonardo's manuscripts originating from every period in his working life, a span of 40 years from 1478 to 1518.[2] It contains short treatises, notes and drawings on a variety of subjects from mechanics to the flight of birds. From Leonardo's text, it appears that he gathered the pages together, with the intention of ordering and possibly publishing them.[3] Leonardo customarily used a single folio sheet of paper for each subject, so that each folio presented as a small cohesive treatise on an aspect of the subject, spread across both back and front of a number of pages. This arrangement has been lost by later book binders who have cut the folios into pages and laid them on top of each other, thereby separating many subjects into several sections and resulting in an arrangement which appears random.[3]
It is similar to the Codex Leicester, which is also a compilation of the notes, diagrams and sketches.[3] The Codex Arundel is recognized as second in importance to the Codex Atlanticus.[2]
History
The manuscript was written in Italy at the end of the 15th century and the beginning of the 16th century. Most of the pages can be dated to between 1480 and 1518.[4]
The manuscript was purchased in the early 17th century by Thomas Howard, 2nd Earl of Arundel (1585–1646), art collector and politician. His grandson, Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk (1628–1684), presented it to the newly-founded Royal Society in 1667.[1] The manuscript was first catalogued in 1681 by William Perry, a librarian, as a scientific and mathematical notebook.[5]
It was purchased by the British Museum from the Royal Society along with 549 other Arundel manuscripts (half of Arundel's collection) in 1831. It was catalogued by the British Museum in 1834. It remained in the British Library as MS Arundel 263 when the library separated from the British Museum in 1973.
The most recent facsimile was published in 1998.[6] On 30 January 2007 the manuscript became part of the British Library's project "Turning the Pages", when it was digitised along with Codex Leicester, and became available in the 2.0 format.[7][8] These two manuscript of Leonardo notebooks were reunited online.[9]
See also
- List of works by Leonardo da Vinci
- Codex Atlanticus
- Codex Leicester
- Codex Urbinas
References
Citations
- ^ a b "An Introduction to Leonardo da Vinci's Codices Arundel and Leicester" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-07-11. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
- ^ a b Carlo Pedretti, Introduction to Leonardo's Codex Arundel Archived 2019-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ a b c Katrina Dean, Keeping books of nature: An introduction to Leonardo da Vinci’s Codices Arundel and Leicester, British Library [1] Archived 2019-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Codex Arundel at the Leonardo the ideal city
- ^ Librorum Manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Norfolcianae in Collegio Greshamensi ... accurante Guilielmo Perry, in Edward Bernard, Catalogi Manuscriptorum Angliae, 1697, vol. 2, 74-84, No 254.
- ^ Leonardo da Vinci, Il Codice Arundel 263 nella British Library, ed. by Carlo Pedretti, 2 vols (Florence: Giunti, 1998)
- ^ Codex Arundel[permanent dead link] at the Art&Design'09
- ^ "Tunning the PagesTM". Armadillosystems.com. Archived from the original on 2013-07-29. Retrieved 2013-07-23.
- ^ Leonardo notebooks reunited online Archived 2008-06-07 at the Wayback Machine at the British Library
Bibliography
- Leonardo da Vinci, Il Codice Arundel 263 nella British Library, ed. by Carlo Pedretti, 2 vols (Florence: Giunti, 1998) (in Italian)
- Nicholl Ch., Leonardo da Vinci, Lot wyobraźni, Warsaw 2006, W.A.B., ISBN 83-7414-220-0 (in Polish)
- Philip Howard, The British Library: A Treasure House of Knowledge (London: Scala Publishers, 2008), no. 41.
External links
- Codex Arundel Archived 2012-10-18 at the Wayback Machine on the British Library's Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts
- A full digital version of the Codex Arundel Archived 2019-07-13 at the Wayback Machine on the British Library's Digitised Manuscripts website
- Codex Arundel at The Book that closes a century and opens a new millennium
- Codex Arundel at the Art and music
- Carlo Pedretti, Introduction to Leonardo's Codex Arundel Archived 2019-12-07 at the Wayback Machine
- Page from the codex Archived 2012-02-21 at the Wayback Machine
- Turning the Pages 2.0 Archived 2013-09-27 at the Wayback Machine
- Leonardo da Vinci: anatomical drawings from the Royal Library, Windsor Castle, exhibition catalog fully online as PDF from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, which contains material on Codex Arundel (see index)
- v
- t
- e
- The Annunciation
- The Baptism of Christ ✻
- The Madonna of the Carnation
- Ginevra de' Benci
- Benois Madonna
- The Adoration of the Magi
- Saint Jerome in the Wilderness
- Madonna Litta ✻
- Virgin of the Rocks
- Portrait of a Musician ✻✻
- Lady with an Ermine
- La Belle Ferronnière
- The Last Supper
- Sala delle Asse
- Portrait of Isabella d'Este
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne and Saint John the Baptist
- Buccleuch Madonna ✻
- Salvator Mundi ✻✻
- Lansdowne Madonna ✻
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne
- Mona Lisa
- La Scapigliata
- Saint John the Baptist
- Medusa
- The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (cartoon)
- Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist
- The Holy Infants Embracing
- The Battle of Anghiari
- Leda and the Swan
- Budapest Horse
- Horse and Rider
- Sforza Horse (unexecuted)
- Study for the Madonna of the Cat
- Head of a Bear
- The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian
- Vitruvian Man
- Studies of the Fetus in the Womb
- Portrait of a Man in Red Chalk
Studies for the Virgin of the Rocks | |
---|---|
Studies for the Last Supper |
|
Studies for the Louvre Saint Anne |
- Codex Arundel
- Codex Atlanticus
- Codex on the Flight of Birds
- Codex Leicester
- Codex Madrid
- Codex Trivulzianus
- A Treatise on Painting
- Cultural references
- Namesakes
- Portraits of Leonardo
- Conservation-restoration of The Last Supper
- Mona Lisa replicas and reinterpretations
- High Renaissance
- Mathematics and art
- The Lost Leonardo
- Leda and the Swan (Galleria Borghese)
- ✻ Collaboration
- ✻✻ Possible collaboration
- Category