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Two-hundred
sheets, recto and verso, for a total of 400 facsimiles, five of which on a
double plate, constitute this impressive corpus of Leonardo's anatomical
studies which Vasari first admired in the sixteenth century and which have so
far been published by various scholars and in various countries without
consistency of method and interpretation.
In this
edition they are presented in the chronological arrangement established by
Carlo Pedretti working directly with the originals during their recent
restoration.
Leonardo's
notes are transliterated, translated and edited by Kenneth D. Keele, an
illustrious historian of medicine.
For the first
time, with this definitive edition of the most spectacular part of the Leonardo
papers in the collection of the Queen of England, it is now possible to follow
the unfolding of the complex and fascinating research that Leonardo was
conducting into the 'human machine' through phases of intense and systematic
involvement which cover a period of some thirty years, from 1483 to 1513, with
a focus gradually moving from morphology to physiology, so that Leonardo's own
art comes to take up connotations of a form of creative knowledge.
Each sheet as
reproduced, whether dealing with a specific theme or reflecting a variety of
interests, is here examined within the whole context of Leonardo's work and
therefore assessed as a document of his extraordinary activity as a painter and
a scientist.
Besides the
facsimiles, every sheet is presented in the text volume in a monochrome
reproduction facing the transcription and the comments.
The work
includes appendixes on special problems, extensive tables of concordance and
indexes.
The work includes a leather-covered box -size 330 x
480 mm., with gold stamping, containing the facsimiles- and two text volumes
(size 330 x 480 mm.) bound in leather with gold stamping on the spines; volume
I, 474 pages, volume II, 1032 pages.
Original edition in English language published by Johnson Reprint
Corporation, New York, 1980, in 998 numbered copies.
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