The Notebook of Leonardo da Vinci

The Notebook of Leonardo conserved today in the Biblioteca Trivulziana is a paper manuscript, small in size, in which – within a few years, from 1487 to 1490 – the artist sketched drawings showing studies of physiognomy, architectural drafts for the Cathedral and other buildings in the city, diagrams of mechanical instruments and war machines. At the end Leonardo added in his own hand, in his characteristic mirror writing, long lists of words that document his attempt to enlarge his own vocabulary.

[PAG. 43] The long passage of the Codex Trivulzianus down the centuries through the hands of the various owners is documented by its current state of codicology, with some bundles bound upside down and the loss of about ten sheets, which happened many centuries ago. In fact the modern page numbering in red ink runs from 1 to 102, for a total of 51 sheets, but the older foliation in brown ink, still visible, bears witness to the previous existence of at least 62 sheets. The binding is old but not original and has been re-sewn several times to the textblock. 

In 1935 the Municipality of Milan acquired a great part of the Trivulzio art and book collections, including Leonardo’s Notebook. The Trivulzio library collections, under the name of Biblioteca Trivulziana, became part of the already-existing Archivio Storico Civico and were placed in the Cortile della Rocchetta of Castello Sforzesco, where they remain today. Thus, after more than four hundred years, Leonardo’s manuscript returned to places that still recall his presence in Milan at the end of the fifteenth century.