The Codex Leicester

If we’re going to discuss really old books, then we have to start with the cream of the rare book crop … the Codex Leicester (pronounced like Lester). 

Here are the Facts:

• Personal journal of Leonardo da Vinci from 1508-1510
• 72 pages long – 18 pages folded in half and written on both sides
• Genre: nature, science, personal interest
• Current location: Bill Gates personal library
• Shock Value: held the title of most expensive book ever sold for 23 years

Let’s Explore it More:

A codex is a hand bound manuscript and an early form of book making.  It is made by folding paper in half and then stitching the seam.

Back in 1508, when da Vinci was living in Milan – and being supported by bankers, popes, and kings – he spent his days thinking and writing in his journal.  Leonardo da Vinci wrote in a very specific, one-of-a-kind mirror style.  He wrote right to left with reversed lettering; the only way to effectively read the Codex is with a mirror.  Throughout the course of time there have been speculations as to why da Vinci chose to write in this complex fashion.  One theory is that it was in an effort to keep his ideas to himself, another theory is that he wrote reversed because he was left-handed.  By writing in this mirror style, da Vinci is able to save countless shirt sleeves from being ruined by wet ink.  Since Leonardo lived during the late 15^th-early 16^th century he wrote in a very antiqued – yet modern at the time – form of Italian.

The Codex Leicester is written in an antiqued version of the Italian language.  The ink used aged to various shades of brown.  On his heavier pen strokes, the ink is a beautiful umber brown and then appears to be a warm tawny or caramel color for da Vinci’s lighter strokes. 

The handwritten journal is full of da Vinci’s scientific observations, that he referred to as “cases”.  Some of his cases are explored in depth, while others are briefly mentioned for possible later exploration.  Such topics that crossed his mind were the moon’s luminosity, the flow of water, and why sea fossils can be found on mountain tops.  Da Vinci explored topics that, if made public, would have led to him being exiled from the church. 

It is important to remember that the Codex Leicester was a brainstorming journal and not one full of da Vinci’s inner thoughts.  We are not being provided with da Vinci’s thoughts on the world and government policies; however, we are offered a front row seat to genius at work.  The Codex is primarily thought out text with sketches – totaling 360 – for reference.

The Codex Leicester primarily focused on Leonardo da Vinci’s observations regarding nature.  He explored the relationship between the earth, moon, and sun.  At one point da Vinci attempts to explain the moon’s luminosity as the moon being covered in water which reflects the sun’s light.  There is even a sidenote about him needing to make magnifying glasses to see the moon’s surface better.  Leonardo also theorized about the movement of water and included illustrations of water moving around different geometric shapes and the impact of waves crashing. 

The most interesting topic explored in the Codex Leicester are da Vinci’s thoughts on how sea fossils ended up on mountain tops.  Today it is understood that overtime sea levels have receded and that is why we find fossilized remains at high altitudes.  However, during the days of da Vinci, it was common to believe that the sea fossils wound up on mountains as result of the Great Flood in Genesis.  In Leonardo’s era it was believed that humans had only been around for a few thousand years.  Had da Vinci publicly shared his theory on a reducing sea level, he would have been at risk of being ridiculed, labeled as blasphemous, and would lose his financial support.  Instead, he scribbled them down in his journal.

“Since things are more ancient than letters, it is not to be wonder at if in our day there exists no record of how the aforesaid seas extended over so many countries; and if moreover such record ever existed, the wars, the conflagrations, the changes in speech and habits, the deluges of waters, have destroyed every vestige of the past.” (Leicester 31r)

After Leonardo’s death in 1519, no one knows for sure where the Codex Leicester was spending  its time.  The only record I found was on Wikipedia that gives ownership to Italian sculptor Guglielmo Della Porta and then Italian painter Giuseppe Ghezzi.  When it comes to wiki, one can never be too sure if the information is true.  What is true, is that in 1719 it came into the possession of Thomas Coke, the first Earl of Leicester; he had the pages organized and bound to his liking.  This is where the journal received its name: The Codex Leicester.  After Coke’s death in 1759, the Codex Leicester remained in the earl’s estate and was housed in the Leicester library at Holkham Hall.

The Codex remained at Holkham Hall for 221 years, before being sold to Armand Hammer at the famous Christies Auction House in 1980.  Armand Hammer – the great grandfather of actor and rumored cannibal Armie hammer – paid a staggering $5.1 million for the codex.  While in possession of the famed text, Hammer enlisted da Vinci expert Carlo Pedretti who reorganized the pages back to da Vinci’s original order.  The Codex remained with the Hammer estate until 1994 and was briefly known as the Codex Hammer.

In 1994 the Codex Hammer/Leicester found itself back on Christies auction block.  This time it was sold for – gather your pearls to clutch – $30.8 million (inflated value of $51 million) to avid reader Bill Gates.  Unlike past owners who locked the codex away, Gates has made the Codex Leicester available for viewing.  Gates had the pages unbound and placed in mounted glass display cases.  Once a year, Gates allows one museum to exhibit the Codex Leicester.  He even developed the “Codescope” which translates da Vinci’s mirrored handwriting in modern English.  Bills Gates made the Codex Even more accessible, by using some pages as screensavers for his Window’s 95 “davinci” upgrade.

The Codex Leicester held the title as the world’s most expensive book ever sold for 23 years.  In 2017, the Church of Latter-Day Saints stole the title when it paid $35 million for a printer’s manuscript of the Book of Mormon.

For more info on Bill Gate’s Codex Leicester display and the codescope:

*Dartmouth has a really good step by step guide to making your own Codex at home: https://sites.dartmouth.edu/ancientbooks/2016/05/23/making-your-own-codex/