Vinci - Red Codex

Throughout his life, Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) scribbled, noted, studied, dissected, analyzed, and calculated. His Notebooks contain the artist's thoughts on philosophical or technical subjects. An archetype of universal genius, the autodidact drew up projects for architecture, weapons, and even flying machines deduced from the observation of bird flight.

These Notebooks are undoubtedly the most important mass of writings dating from the Renaissance (several thousand pages), covered in his very particular handwriting, from right to left, readable thanks to a mirror. They are full of sketches and geometric figures, which deal with subjects as varied as architecture, physics, anatomy, geography, military art, hydraulics, astronomy, techniques and theories of art or the study of bird flight.

Leonardo da Vinci's Notebooks, c. 1487
Paris, Library of the Institute of France