The twelve Paris Notebooks by Leonardo Da Vinci

Twelve of a total of 25 notebooks have been preserved up to our days and are known as the Parisian Manuscripts, one of them being the „Manuscrit A“; they are today in the possession of the Institut de France and comprise a total of 1008 pages, which are now published by Faksimile Verlag, together with the two Ashburnham notebooks.

Twelve of a total of 25 notebooks have been preserved up to our days and are known as the Parisian Manuscripts, one of them being the „Manuscrit A“; they are today in the possession of the Institut de France and comprise a total of 1008 pages, which are now published by Faksimile Verlag, together with the two Ashburnham notebooks.

Manuscrit A – The first volume of the series

Leonardo used a scattered combination of notes and drawings to collect his thoughts on different subjects which mattered to him at a certain moment: he always used to carry around with him a notebook or some loose sheets of paper, where he would put down spontaneous impressions and thoughts, or would draw sketches of things he had seen or ideas on his mind. This is the reason why his notes don’t follow any order as to the treated topics.

The movement of water kept a special attraction for him: Leonardo used a total of 77 words to analyze and describe that movement. For Leonardo, „flowing water has per se infinite possibilities of movement“. The notes in Manuscrit A reflect the beginning of his studies about this element, which literally moves the world.

Leonardo’s way of questioning reflected the thinking of the Renaissance: the world was seen as the macrocosm, with the human being representing it as a microcosm. To understand all these connections was one of Leonardo’s main objective.

The Fine Art Facsimile Edition

Through his whole life, Leonardo always carried along a notebook with him in order to put down his ideas immediately. Now his twelve Paris notebooks, together with two supplements, are made available as perfect, true-to-original facsimile editions, limited to a number of 990 copies.

True-to-original facsimile editions of the manuscript in the possession of the Institut de France in Paris and limited worldwide to a number of 990 copies. A huge amount of sketches on 128 pages of 21.3 x 14.8 cm illustrate Leonardo’s ideas. The original binding of genuine parchment is going to be truly reproduced, and the precious edition will be presented in a beautiful box for its protection.

The scientific commentary volume, to be published in 2023, examines all aspects of the manuscript, traces back its exciting history and describes the main themes of Leonardo’s work. We are very excited to count on an excelling editorial team under the lead of Martin Kemp and Domenico Laurenza who are going to provide a formidable access of the partially very complex contents – written in ancient Italian and as previously mentioned, in mirror writing – by a modern translation of the content and an accessible explication of the main themes. Our endeavor is not only to preserve a piece of cultural heritage, publishing the facsimile of Da Vincis noteboks but also to make this formidable cultural treasure accessible to a wider public.