Volume 21, Number 20 · December 12, 1974
Leonardo's Notebooks
By Kenneth Clark
The Madrid Codices of Leonardo da Vinci
edited by Ladislao Reti
McGraw-Hill, 1,700, 5 vols. pp., $750 (deluxe edition)
The Unknown Leonardo
edited by Ladislao Reti
McGraw-Hill, 320, 871 illustrations pp., $34.95
Leonardo da Vinci's mental and calligraphic energy overflowed into innumerable notebooks; 'innumerable' because, although a daunting collection of these notebooks has come down to us, we shall never know how many there were originally. To give three indications of how much is lost: Francesco Melzi, his devoted disciple and heir, transcribed most accurately observations on the art of painting which were scattered throughout the notebooks in order to compile a more or less coherent treatise on the subject, later to be published as the Trattato della Pittura. Of these extracts only about a quarter can still be read in Leonardo's hand; three quarters were in notebooks now lost.
Review, 3739 words
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