LEONARDO DA VINCI.

£4,500 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

The Codex Hammer, First edition, number 468 of 963 copies, of this in-depth study of the Codex Hammer, best known today as Codex Leicester. This copy is from the library of Stephen C. Massey, the antiquarian books specialist and auctioneer at Christie's who sought out, secured for auction, catalogued, and sold the original manuscript to Bill Gates for $30,802,500 in 1994.Composed between 1506-15, the codex collects observations on astronomy, the properties of water, rocks, fossils, and air. It is named after Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. Armand Hammer bought it in 1980 in the Leicester auction sale and commissioned Carlo Pedretti - a scholar of Leonardo - to compile the loose pages of the codex into its original form. The present edition is the result of over five years of Pedretti's work; the monograph comprises a detailed analysis of the codex with illustrations, a critical transcription, and a full translation into English. Appended is a photographic facsimile of the Codex, true to its size, and of Hammer 20, a sheet of figure studies by Leonardo.

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