May 27, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



755 



work in the interests of liis muse, instead of 

 merely for his own selfish ends, the public would 

 not be slow to appreciate scientific work more 

 nearly in accordance with its merits. 



T. D. A. COCKERBLL. 



Jl Codiee Allantico di Leonardo da Vinci nella 

 bihlioleca ambrosiana di Milano. lieprodotto 

 e pubblicato dalla Regia Accademia dei Lined 

 soUo gli auspice e col sussido del Be e del 

 Ooverno. Milano. Ulrico Hoepli, Editore 

 Librajo della Keal Casa e della R. Accademia 

 dei Lincei. New York, G. E. Stechert. 

 1894-8. 35 parts ; 800 pages ; 1750 draw- 

 ings and illustrations ; folio. $240. 

 This magnificent reproduction of the extra- 

 ordinary works of one of the most wonderful 

 men of genius known to history is a work for 

 which the world has long waited. It is issued 

 in parts to subscribers, and none are furnished 

 to the trade or furnished as complimentary 

 copies. Each of its thirty-five parts contains 

 40 heliotype plates, reproducing the drawings 

 and sketches of the great author, with double 

 transcription of the text, and with notes. It 

 is printed upon hand-made paper, 38 cm. (15 

 in.) by 50 cm. (20 in.) in dimensions ; and but 

 280 copies, it is stated, will be issued. The 

 first 20 copies are supplied to the earliest sub- 

 scribers, in order of date, at a discount of 20 

 per cent. Inspection is permitted of the first 

 part before subscribing. 



The work has been performed under the 

 direction of the Italian Ministry of Public In- 

 struction, and with direct supervision of the 

 Eoyal Academy, and the transcription was 

 made by Dr. John Piumati — already distin- 

 guished both for his learning and for his suc- 

 cess in earlier and somewhat similar work — 

 assisted by Lucas Beltrami, well known in 

 connection with his work on the Vincian Codex 

 of the Trivulzian Library. The work is in- 

 tended to give as complete a reproduction as 

 the existing remains permit of the collection of 

 manuscripts of Leonardo, now almost four cen- 

 turies old, which, since the death of Menzi, a 

 half-century after their completion, have been 

 dispersed. 



Pompeo Leoni gathered a large proportion of 

 them together, somewhat later (1587), and pro- 



duced the ' Codex Atlanticus ' of that time. 

 Cardinal Frederic Borromeo ordered its tran- 

 scription in 1G26, and his Ambrosian Library 

 became its possessor in 1637, meantime an of- 

 fer of a thousand doubloons from Charles I. of 

 England having been refused. During the last 

 century Anthony David made a study of its 

 collections in mechanics, and Balthasar Oltroc- 

 cio. Governor of Ambrosian Library, made it 

 the basis of a Life of Leonardo, later published 

 by Amoretti. The Codex itself was cajitured 

 by the French in 1796, and taken to Paris for 

 the National Library, where Venturi found it 

 and made it the source of his writings upon 

 physics and mathematics, largely. 



Lihri, Omodeo, Angellucci and others studied 

 it in its old home, but the publication of the 

 whole collection has only now been undertaken. 

 The commencement of the enterprise here illus- 

 trated was actually made with the issue of the 

 ' Saggio ' at the time of the inauguration of 

 the monument to Leonardo, at Milan, in 1872 ; 

 its twenty-four plates giving a foretaste of what 

 was coming, so interesting and absorbing to 

 collectors and admirers of the great soldier, 

 poet, engineer, artist, and man of science, as to 

 compel immediate assurance of the ultimate 

 completion of the work. 



This splendid reproduction will throw new 

 light upon the character and achievements of 

 the man who has been mainly portrayed by his 

 biographers as a sort of Admirable Crichton with 

 a genius primarily artistic, and who have ob- 

 tained their ideas from such biographies, rather 

 than from a source giving a true account of his 

 life and his work in all its various fields. Even 

 a cyclopedia like Johnson's, generally regai'ded 

 as having a scientific rather than a literary or 

 artistic character, gives prominence to his ac- 

 complishments as artist, says little of his 

 achievements as soldier, his talents as engineer, 

 or his learning in science and in literature. His 

 ' Last Supper ' is given deserved attention ; a 

 catalogue of his paintings is presented , and a 

 good bibliographical list is submitted ; but its 

 author says : " It is impossible, in the space at 

 command, to give an account of Leonardo's 

 scientific labors;" and none is given, and but 

 little is suggested, to indicate to the reader the 

 fact that he was a great military engineer, a 



