The Forster Codices are three small notebooks, dating from the end of the fifteenth to the beginning of the sixteenth centuries, which were used by Leonardo da Vinci for jotting down annotations in his usual handwriting from right to left and for drawing his masterly sketches.

       They deal with a variety of scientific subjects -important geometry studies, hydraulic machinery projects, notes on physics        and on the study of grammar. They also include cosmological themes, hints at fables and jokes, as well as numerous        sketches of horses referring to the bronze equestrian monument commissioned by Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, a great        work that never saw its completion. Very interesting and beautiful are also his designs for masquerades. A final curiosity: it        is in one of these notebooks that Leonardo recorded the expenses for the burial of a mysterious 'Catarina', perhaps his        mother.

       After Leonardo's death the Forster Codices were first kept by his faithful pupil Francesco Melzi and later passed into the        hands of the sculptor Pompeo Leoni and at some undefinable time reached Vienna.

       In the nineteenth century they were bought by Earl Edward George Lytton at whose death were inherited by John Forster        (1873) who, in 1876, bequeathed them to the Victoria and Albert Museum, where they are still preserved.

       In this edition each codex is accompanied by a volume with the critical and diplomatic transcription edited by Augusto        Marinoni.

      Three leather-covered boxes with gold stamping. Each box (size 250 x 360 mm) contains a facsimile and a text volume       printed on handmade paper and bound in Fabriano paper.

     Facsimile edition of 998 numbered sets for the whole world.

Geometry studies, hydraulic machinery projects, notes on physics and on the study of grammar, cosmological themes, hints at fables and jokes, numerous sketches of horses, designs for masquerades...