Codex History -- A Coveted Trophy For The Intellectually Curious

The Codex Leicester is a folio of scientific notes and observations that Leonardo da Vinci made during a several-year stay in Milan beginning in 1508. As usual, he divided his time between painting - he was busy working on his luminous "Virgin and Child with Saint Anne" - and continuing his studies on geometry and human anatomy. But in what we now call the Codex Leicester, Leonardo also kept notes on his experiments with hydraulics and his observations about the relationship of the moon to the earth.

During Leonardo's lifetime, the Codex Leicester, like many of his "notebooks," was not published or even, apparently, studied by other Renaissance scientists. Though it appears from some of Leonardo's notes that he intended to publish a few tracts, this never happened.

When he died in 1519, Leonardo's faithful pupil and friend, Francesco Melzi, took Leonardo's papers and notes, perhaps including the ones that would become the Codex Leicester. Such was Leonardo's fame as an original thinker and highly accomplished painter that by the end of the 16th century, he was already revered as an intellectual and artistic titan.

Through Melzi's heirs, many of Leonardo's notebooks eventually passed into the hands of the sculptor Pompeo Leoni. In the late 16th century, he tried to organize Leonardo's notebooks into tracts that would be useful to contemporary scientists and artists. Though Leoni was motivated by his high regard for Leonardo, scholars today regret his attempts to edit Leonardo's work, since Leoni destroyed the original order of the notebooks.

Whether or not the notes that are now called the Codex Leicester were among those reorganized by Leoni is not known. What is known is that the manuscript on hydraulics and lunar observations was found in 1690 in a chest in Rome belonging to a Milanese sculptor, Guglielmo della Porta. In 1717, the manuscript was acquired by the English aristocrat Thomas Coke, who later became the Earl of Leicester. Sometime late in the 18th century the loose notes were bound into book form.

Then, as now, people were fascinated by Leonardo. The wealthy and powerful enjoyed owning Leonardo's artworks and scientific treatises. Owning such artifacts was a sign of intellectual curiosity, and a signal that the owner had a connoisseur's appreciation for the world's fine, rare objects. Not incidentally, owning anything by Leonardo was also a sign of wealth.

The codex remained at the Leicester estate, passing from one member of the family to the next, until 1980, when the English aristocrats who owned it needed to raise money. American industrialist and oil mogul Armand Hammer bought it that year at auction at Christie's.

Hammer unbound the codex, restoring it to its original state of a portfolio of loose notes. He also renamed it the Codex Hammer, reflecting his acquisition of it. When Hammer died in 1994, his estate once again sent the codex to the auction block. On Nov. 11, 1994, Microsoft chairman Bill Gates purchased it from Christie's for $30.8 million. Gates decided to restore the name that the notebooks had had for almost 300 years. The sheets are once again called the Codex Leicester.

Gates' purchase of the codex was a major and unexpected event that sent ripples through the worlds of art and connoisseurship. Though the codex is not considered a work of fine art, Gates' purchase of it excited many in the art world who wondered if the acquisition was a sign that Gates had become interested in collecting original works. Though Gates' interest in projecting electronic reproductions of great artworks on the walls of his Medina estate is well-known, he is not known to have purchased many, if any, original works of art.

Since Gates' purchase of the codex, it has been exhibited in Europe and at the American Museum of Natural History in New York. It is the only of Leonardo's suriving notebooks that remains in private hands. The two other largest remaining groups of Leonardo's notes are in the collections of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Italy; and the Royal Library, Windsor, England.

In the preface he wrote to the Seattle Art Museum catalog for the upcoming show, Gates makes clear that his fascination with the codex has to do with Leonardo's scientific inquisitiveness.

"Leonardo pursued knowledge with unrelenting energy," Gates writes. "His scientific `notebooks' are awe inspiring not simply as repositories of his remarkable ideas but as records of a great mind at work. In the pages of the Codex Leicester, he frames important questions, tests concepts, confronts challenges, and strives for answers. . . . His writings demonstrate that creativity drives discovery, and that art and science - often seen as opposites - can in fact inform and influence each other."

------------------------------ Your guide to `Leonardo Lives' ------------------------------

Welcome to Leonardo's Legacy, a special Seattle Times section devoted to Leonardo da Vinci.

It's your guide to "Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science" at the Seattle Art Museum, Oct. 23 Jan. 4, 1998.

You'll find stories exploring Leonardo's life and his worldwide impact on art and science, a resource list and a calendar of Leonardo events.

"Leonardo Lives" tickets are a hot commodity; find out how to get them on Page 11.