The Manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci: On Anatomy, Folios A

INTRODUCTION

The anatomical sheets of Leonardo da Vinci, which we are now publishing and which form part of the collection of the Royal Library at Windsor, were written in 1510 1. They are loose sheets, like all the others in this great collection; however, these surely must have originally formed a single volume along with others that are now missing.

As there are many sheets in the Royal Library dealing with anatomyThe original text uses "notomia," an archaic Italian form of the word., and since they are of various types and originally belonged to different volumes, we will distinguish them in this publication using various letters of the alphabet; thus, those published here are designated with the letter A.

Fourteen of these undoubtedly belong to the same volume; they are FoliosA folio is an individual leaf of paper, numbered on the front (recto) and back (verso) rather than by page. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14. Physical evidence for this includes the identical paper, matching dimensions, and corresponding stitch marks These marks indicate where the pages were once sewn into a binding..

Two sheets, 15 and 16—made of paper that is not identical to the others but very similar—also appear to belong to this volume. Folio 15 possesses the same characteristics common to the others, and the pencil drawing, Fig. 219, corresponds to the pen drawing on the versoThe back side of a folio. of Folio 4, Fig. 71; one might also compare the drawing of the leg, Fig. 225, with the corresponding drawing on the rectoThe front side of a folio. of Folio 7, Fig. 111. Folio 16 features identical handwriting, though with different shades of ink, and...

1. Folio 17, front side, page 179: "this winter of 1510 I believe I shall finish all such anatomy." original: "questa vernata del mille 510 credo spedire tutta tal notomia."