Notebooks

This two-volume edition gathers Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks in full. Much of what scholars know about the Italian Renaissance master comes from these pages. Roughly 6,000 sheets of his notes and sketches have survived, which may amount to about a fifth of all he produced.

Writing as both an artist and an inquisitive scientist, Leonardo filled the notebooks with studies of how water moves, how rocks form, how birds and machines might fly, and how light behaves. He also examined anatomy, building design, sculpture and painting. Alongside these technical observations, he scribbled fables, short witty sayings and letters, and returned again and again to his conviction that humanity and the natural world form one connected whole.

Reading the notebooks offers a close look at how Leonardo thought and worked, and at the habits he brought to his art and to daily life.