SOURCE: “The Drawings and Manuscripts,” in Leonardo da Vinci, Yale University Press, 1989, pp. 17-22.

In the following essay, Roberts offers a brief textual history of Leonardo's written works, stressing that the notes and drawings that have been recovered represent only a fragment of what Leonardo wrote.

History

Leonardo was extraordinarily prolific both as a writer and as a draughtsman. It should therefore come as no surprise to learn that we have more drawings by him than by any other major artist of his time. We are thus able to examine in detail Leonardo's activities and interests at different stages of his long life. However, it is also clear that what has survived (particularly in Milan, Paris and Windsor) is only a fraction of Leonardo's total output. In the artist's will, written in France on 23 April 1519 (nine days before his death), he bequeathed all the books which he had...