Beschreibung:

DA VINCI, LEONARDO The Codex Hammer of Leonardo da Vinci Translated into English and Annotated by Carlo Pedretti . Florence: Giunti-Barbèra, 1987. One of 998 sets (with 35 reserved for Armand Hammer and various libraries). Brown leather-covered clamshell case with gold tooling, text in wrappers. 17 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches (45 x 31.5 cm); lx, 220 pp. text; accompanied with a precise facsimile in the dimensions of the original; a matted plate of a sheet of drawings also from the Hammer Collection; the limitation leaf in sleeve; and the prospectus. Fine condition. Codex "Hammer" (formerly "Leicester"), now owned by Bill Gates, was compiled about 1508-1510, and is a synthesis of Leonardo's views on nature as given visual shape in the backgrounds of this paintings, from St. Anne to the Mona Lisa. It begins with hydrostatics and hydrodynamics, and continues with river regulation and hydraulic engineering, encompasses every aspect of cosmology, and goes from geology to paleontology and from astronomy to meteorology, a whirlwind of intellectual endeavor. There are also items of autobiographical interest, the record of his work on the "great horse of Milan", the spectacular vision of a wind storm over Lake Maggiore, the vivid observations on the numerous localities of his wanderings in Tuscany and Lombardy. The 18 bifolia of Leonardo's dense compilation are characterized by more than 350 marginal and textual illustrations, all of which are accurately reproduced in this facsimile, accompanied by a volume with the critical apparatus and transcription edited by Carlo Pedretti. C