One of Leonardo’s ‘cameras’
Small ‘libricini’ (pocket sized notebooks) recorded whatever image took Leonardo’s fancy.
They were tied to his belt, and captured more detail than an ‘Instamatic.’ Notations of color, size, and even the weather was important to document, as it designated the quality of light.
No bigger than a pack of playing cards, Leonardo was able to take home glimpses of a fleeting pose or a line of poetry or the folds of a robe ruffled by the wind, or an elusive math equation that walking in the marketplace suddenly resolved.
“Observe people carefully in the streets and in the piazza and the fields. Note them down with a brief indication of forms, thus for a head make an O, and for an arm, a straight or bent line, the same for the legs and the body, and when you get home work these sketches up into a complete form.” – Leonardo da Vinci
– excerpt from ‘Leonardo da Vinci- flights of the mind’ by Charles Nicholl
And again: He writes questions to remind himself what to study:
a Leonardo ‘libricini’ (small book)
describe how clouds are formed and how they dissolve, and what causes vapor to rise – Leonardo
– excerpt from ‘Leonardo da Vinci- flights of the mind’ by Charles Nicholl
Veronica Knox 