Leonardo's Codex | American Museum of Natural History

October 26, 1996 to January 1, 1997
Engraving by Giorgio Vasari, ca. 1568	This is an exhibition of the only manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) still in private hands and the only one in America. The presentation offers an in-depth view of the scientific thinking of one of the greatest geniuses in the history of the western world. The Codex Leicester, written between 1506 and 1510, opens a window onto the mind of the awe-inspiring Renaissance artist, scientist, and thinker, while illuminating both the scientific process itself and the creativity of that process. The manuscript, which is on loan from William H. Gates III, reveals Leonardo as a man of transcendent brilliance.
Displayed on loose, double-sided sheets of linen paper, comprising seventy-two pages in all, the Codex Leicester is a lively record of Leonardo's thoughts. It embraces a wide variety of topics, from astronomy to hydrodynamics, and includes Leonardo's observations and theories related to rivers and seas; the properties of water; rocks and fossils; air; and celestial light. All of this is expressed in his signature mirror writing, as well as in more than 300 pen-and-ink sketches, drawings, and diagrams, many of them illustrating imagined or real experiments. Leonardo's Codex Leicester: A Masterpiece of Science is organized by Craig Morris, dean of science and curator in the Department of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History. A number of curators and scientists have served as advisors to the exhibition, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Frederick P. Rose Director of the Hayden Planetarium; Neil H. Landman, chairman and curator, Department of Invertebrates; and James Webster, associate curator, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, all of the American Museum of Natural History.
To conserve this delicate manuscript, the pages of the Codex Leicester are displayed in a climate-controlled atmosphere, in special cases that strictly regulate the duration and intensity of potentially damaging light exposure on the manuscript. To simultaneously safeguard the Codex and offer visitors the extraordinary experience of seeing Leonardo da Vinci's actual notebook, not all of its pages are fully illuminated at any one time. While the manuscript is the main focus of Leonardo's Codex Leicester: A Masterpiece of Science, the exhibition includes a variety of interpretive components designed to offer visitors an in-depth view of Leonardo's remarkable thought processes. Selected quotations from his notebook writings are featured on the display cases. A series of sophisticated interactive computer stations provide translations of the Codex pages through a new and unique educational tool called the Codescope(TM), designed by Corbis Corporation. The Codescope not only reverses Leonardo's mirror writing from its original Renaissance Italian, but also transcribes and translates the artist's calligraphy so that it can be read in both English and Italian. Using the Codescope, Museum visitors can scroll up and down each Codex page to examine any section of the manuscript they choose, reading it in simultaneous translation without losing the relationships between Leonardo's words and drawings.
An introductory section of the exhibition converts a group of Leonardo's observations, drawings, and experiments into a kind of scientific "water sculpture" that demonstrates several of his theories. Fossils and scientific instruments from the period, and other materials selected from the Museum's collections are also on view, illustrating some of the subjects of Leonardo's brilliant document. Central to the section of the exhibition on Renaissance science is the Hunt-Lenox Globe, on loan from the New York Public Library. This sixteenth-century globe shows the world as it was known in Leonardo's day.
Dialogues with Nature: Leonardo at the Threshold of Modern Science, an eight-minute video on Leonardo's science, focuses on his remarkable powers of observation, and on his methods of interpretation and experimentation. The video is narrated by Isabella Rossellini, with quotations from Leonardo read by Duccio Faggella. A special study area, where visitors can explore the Codex in greater depth, holds a full translation of the notebook, alongside a complete set of facsimile pages; additional sources on Leonardo; and a selection of resources that may have been available to Leonardo at the time he composed the Codex. Some of these are on loan from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Columbia University, New York City, and from the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, with others drawn from the American Museum of Natural History's own Rare Book Collection. Myles Gordon, director of the Museum's Department of Education, has worked closely with Dr. Morris and his committee to develop a series of educational components that are integral to the exhibition, including a demonstration room. Principal sponsorship of this exhibition is provided by Merrill Lynch. Additional support is provided by Compaq Computer Corporation. Interpretive software and in-kind support have been provided by Corbis Corporation.