In what is a major coup for an Irish cultural institution, the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin has secured the right to exhibit one of the great masterpieces of science, a work by Leonardo da Vinci now owned by Bill Gates.
The Codex Leicester contains Leonardo's observations on the nature and properties of water as well as other aspects of science and technology and is widely regarded as one of the most important of Leonardo's scientific notebooks. It will go on display in the Chester Beatty Library between June and August next year.
The Codex was acquired by Thomas Coke, First Earl of Leicester in 1717 and was passed down through his descendants for more than two centuries. In 1980, the notebook was purchased by the American industrialist and art collector Armand Hammer, who renamed it the Codex Hammer.
In 1994 Microsoft chairman Bill Gates and his wife Melinda acquired the Codex for $30 million (€23 million), making it the only autograph manuscript by Leonardo in private hands. The Codex Leicester title was subsequently restored to the notebook.
Composed around 1508-1510 and consisting of 18 loose double sheets, the Italian Renaissance artist and scientist illustrated and wrote down ideas and observations in his distinctive script. The manuscript is further enriched by over 300 pen and ink drawings, sketches and diagrams, many of them featuring imagined or real experiments by Leonardo.
The Codex Leicester includes Leonardo's notes and theories on a wide range of subjects ranging from hydraulics to canalisation, from astronomy to atmosphere and meteorology, and from geology and palaeontology.
The notebook also includes designs for strengthening bridges and for flood control, a number of which were used in Leonardo's time and are still in use today.
Truly the original Renaissance man, Leonardo (1452-1519) was a painter, architect, engineer and philosopher. His most famous work, Mona Lisa, is behind bullet-proof glass in the Louvre in Paris. Other paintings, usually on religious subjects, are among the most treasured in the world's great art collections.
The Codex will form part of an exhibition which will have other historical works and manuscripts from the Chester Beatty Library's own collection of manuscripts of Arabic science - some dating as far back as the late ninth century, as well as demonstration models of Leonardo's experiments, and interactive computer stations through which visitors can learn about Leonardo's observations and their influence on Renaissance thought as well as their enduring influence today.
The Codex travels to no more than one country every year and will be displayed only at the Chester Beatty Library during its stay in Ireland. The director of the Chester Beatty, Dr Michael Ryan, said the library had made an approach to Bill Gates's representative over three years ago and asked for the work as it fitted in with some of the library's own collection. He made the case that the library had the capacity to exhibit the Leonardo manuscript and that some of its own collection provided a context.