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The twelve Leonardo manuscripts in the Bibliothèque de
l'Institut de France in Paris, designated as Paris MSS. A to M, are individual
notebooks preserved in their original format and kept the way they were when
Leonardo compiled them. Thus they are exceptional documents for the study of
Leonardo's life and work.
Their more than 2000 pages are brilliantly illustrated
by masterly drawings reflecting the full range of Leonardo's interests.
He focuses in turn upon geometrical problems,
mechanical questions, technological ideas of daring conceptions, often
interjecting autobiographical information and digressing into literary
creations and artistic observations. Leonardo the man, the artist and the
scientist comes through clearly with extraordinary freshness.
Some of these manuscripts are pocket-size notebooks on
which Leonardo noted, with keen thought and incisive drawings, sometimes an
occasional meditation, at others an amazing invention or a personal record.
Those of larger size contain his more elaborate
writings and drawings and are actual drafts of treatises on such topics as
painting, architecture, optics, and the science of water.
The Leonardo text is presented in
diplomatic and critical transcriptions with annotations by Augusto Marinoni.
In addition, each text volume contains an
introduction, appendices and indexes.
Twelve
leather-covered boxes with gold stamping. Each box (size 250 x 360 mm) contains
the facsimile and a text volume printed on handmade paper and bound in Fabriano
paper.
Facsimile edition of 998 numbered sets for the whole
world.
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