Book Notes: Pt 6: Leonardo da Vinci’s Note-Taking (From Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson)

Reading Time: 10 minutes

Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

PublisherSimon & Schuster

ISBN-13 : 978-1501139154

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3Part 4 | Part 5Part 6 |Part 7


Introduction

  • As a descendant of notaries, Leonardo had an inherent inclination for record-keeping. He was a prolific note-taker and began keeping notebooks regularly in the early 1480s, shortly after arriving in Milan 
    • “As the offspring of a long line of notaries, Leonardo da Vinci had an instinct for keeping records. Jotting down observations, lists, ideas, and sketches came naturally” (113, loc. 1726-1727) 
  • At over 7,200 pages, his notebooks contain sketches of anatomy, machines, water flows, flying machines, and much more. Initially, he primarily recorded ideas relevant to his art and engineering. However, over time, the content of his notebooks evolved. His later notebooks reflect a shift towards “curiosity for its own sake”, with a growing interest in not just how things work but also why. 
    • In collecting such a medley of ideas, Leonardo was following a practice that had become popular in Renaissance Italy of keeping a commonplace and sketch book, known as a zibaldone. (114, loc. 1745-1746)
    • But in their content, Leonardo’s were like nothing the world had ever, or has ever, seen. His notebooks have been rightly called “the most astonishing testament to the powers of human observation and imagination ever set down on paper.” (114, loc. 1746-1748)
    • Later notebooks show Leonardo pursuing curiosity for its own sake, and that in turn evolved into glimmerings of profound scientific inquiry. He became interested not only in how things work but why. (116, loc. 1765-1767)
  • The surviving 7,200 pages of his notebooks are estimated to be only a quarter of his total writings. While he aspired to organize his notebook entries into published works, this goal remained largely unfulfilled. 
    • Over the years, as his scientific study got more serious, he filled pages with outlines and passages for treatises on topics such as flight, water, anatomy, art, horses, mechanics, and geology. (114, loc. 1742-1743)
    • He occasionally declared an intent to organize and refine his notebook jottings into published works, but his failure to do so became a companion to his failure to complete artworks. (116, loc. 1777-1778)
    • As he did with many of his paintings, he would hang on to the treatises that he was drafting, occasionally make a few new strokes and refinements, but never see them through to being released to the public as complete. (116, loc. 1778-1780)
  • One exception is a selection of his notebooks that served as the foundation for “Leonardo’s Treatise on Painting”, compiled by his devoted assistant and heir Francesco Melzi after his death. 
  • Melzi meticulously drew upon these fragmented pages, bringing together Leonardo’s observations on art, science, and the natural world to create a comprehensive guide to painting. 

Content of the Notebooks

  • Leonardo’s notebooks served as a repository for a vast array of thoughts, including observations of people and emotions, engineering designs, costume ideas, to-do lists, and outlines for treatises on diverse topics. 
    • As an engineer, he honed his technical skills by drawing mechanisms he encountered or imagined. As an artist, he sketched ideas and made preparatory drawings. As a court impresario, he jotted down designs for costumes, contrivances for moving scenery and stages, fables to be enacted, and witty lines to be performed. (114, loc. 1739-1741)
  • Primarily intended for personal use, Leonardo used his notebooks to record ideas, experiment on paper, and evaluate concepts by visualizing them. They are filled with to-do lists that reflect his desire to learn about a wide range of topics.
    • Over and over again, year after year, Leonardo lists things he must do and learn. (14, loc. 203-204)
  • The notebooks evolved into platforms for artistic and scientific exploration. Leonardo used them to develop his skills in both art and engineering. He sketched ideas, made preparatory drawings for his art, and drew machines he observed or imagined. As his scientific studies intensified, his notebooks became filled with outlines and passages for potential treatises on subjects such as flight, water, anatomy, art, horses, mechanics, and geology

Purpose of the Notebooks

His notebooks served multiple purposes:

1. To Record Observations and Ideas: 

He carried a small notebook on his belt to capture interesting people, scenes, and emotions. As the descendant of notaries, Leonardo had an innate inclination for documentation. His notebooks became a natural extension of this instinct, allowing him to jot down observations, lists, ideas, and sketches. 

  • Scribbled in the margins were to-do lists, records of expenses, and sketches of people who caught his imagination. (114, loc. 1741-1742) 

2. Track Daily Tasks: 

He scribbled to-do lists, expenses, and sketches of intriguing people in the margins. These lists were not merely mundane reminders of daily chores but reflected Leonardo’s insatiable desire for knowledge, blending practical tasks with ambitious intellectual pursuits.

  • One of them, dating from the 1490s in Milan, is that day’s list of things he wants to learn. “The measurement of Milan and its suburbs,” is the first entry. This has a practical purpose, as revealed by an item later in the list: “Draw Milan.” (13, loc. 197-199) 

3. To Ask Questions from Experts:

Leonardo da Vinci used his notebooks to remind himself to seek knowledge from experts in various fields

  • In addition, he liked to pick people’s brains. He was constantly peppering acquaintances with the type of questions we should all learn to pose more often. (176, loc. 2698-2699)
  • “Ask Benedetto Portinari how they walk on ice in Flanders,” reads one memorable and vivid entry on a to-do list. (177, loc. 2699-2700)

Another entry on the same list reveals his scientific curiosity, and his eagerness to learn from experts in various fields, supplementing his own observations and experiments with the knowledge of others. : 

  • “Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars are positioned on bastions by day or night. . . . Find a master of hydraulics and get him to tell you how to repair a lock, canal and mill in the Lombard manner. . . . Ask Maestro Giovannino how the tower of Ferrara is walled without loopholes.” (177, loc. 2700-2702) 

4. To Develop Artistic and Engineering Skills: 

He sketched ideas, made preparatory drawings for his art,  and also drew machines he saw or imagined.

  • As an engineer, he honed his technical skills by drawing mechanisms he encountered or imagined. As an artist, he sketched ideas and made preparatory drawings. (114, loc. 1739-1740) 
  • Paris Ms. B, begun around 1487, contains drawings of possible submarines, black-sailed stealth ships, and steam-powered cannons, as well as some architectural designs for churches and ideal cities. (116, loc. 1764-1765) 
  • The best example was his set of plans for a utopian city, which was a favorite subject for Italian Renaissance artists and architects. (111, loc. 1690-1691)
  • Milan had been ravaged in the early 1480s by three years of the bubonic plague, which killed close to one-third of its inhabitants. With his scientific instincts, Leonardo realized that the plague was spread by unsanitary conditions and that the health of the citizens was related to the health of their city. (111, loc. 1691-1693)
  • on multiple pages composed in 1487, he proposed a radical concept, one that combined his artistic sensibilities with his visions as an urban engineer: the creation of entirely new “ideal cities” planned for health and beauty. (111, loc. 1694-1696)
  • As with so many other of Leonardo’s visionary designs, he was ahead of what was practical for his time. Ludovico did not adopt his vision of the city, but in this case Leonardo’s proposals were sensible as well as brilliant. If even part of his plan had been implemented, it might have transformed the nature of cities, reduced the onslaught of plagues, and changed history. (113, loc. 1719-1721)

He also made numerous studies and prepwork for his art. For instance, Leonardo filled pages with studies of drapery, meticulously rendering the folds and interplay of light and shadow. These studies honed his mastery of chiaroscuro, the technique of using contrasts of light and shadow to create the illusion of three-dimensionality on a two-dimensional surface.

  • For Leonardo, the drapery studies helped foster one of the key components of his artistic genius: the ability to deploy light and shade in ways that would better produce the illusion of three-dimensional volume on a two-dimensional surface. (50, loc. 755-757)
  • They also helped him hone his ability to observe how light subtly caresses an object, causing a glistening of luster, a sharpened contrast on a fold, or a hint of reflected glow creeping into the heart of a shadow. (50, loc. 757-758)

5. Document Theatrical Designs: 

As a court impresario, he jotted down designs for costumes, stage machinery, fables, and witty lines for performances. For instance, his notebooks contain sketches of stage machinery, costumes, and special effects for productions like The Masque of the Planets and La Danae. 

These designs often incorporated intricate mechanisms, such as the system of ropes and pulleys used to lower Mercury from the heavens in La Danae, and revolving stages to reveal a dramatic depiction of Hades.

  • As a court impresario, he jotted down designs for costumes, contrivances for moving scenery and stages, fables to be enacted, and witty lines to be performed. (114, loc. 1740-1741)
  • The centerpiece of the wedding celebration was a performance and feast, filled with sounds and lights and pageantry, of a theatrical extravaganza entitled The Feast of Paradise, which climaxed with a stage piece, The Masque of the Planets. (120, loc. 1840-1842)
  • Leonardo’s triumph designing The Masque of the Planets brought him a modest amount of fame (121, loc. 1854-1855)
  • It also delighted him. His notebooks show the interest he took in the mechanism of the automated props and scenery changes. (122, loc. 1856-1857)

6. To Explore Scientific Concepts: 

As his scientific studies deepened, Leonardo’s notebooks became a platform for outlining and developing treatises on subjects like flight, water, anatomy, art, horses, mechanics, and geology. 

He filled pages with outlines and passages for books on flight, water, anatomy, art, horses, mechanics, and geology. 

Leonardo’s notebooks are filled with detailed anatomical drawings that reflect his desire to understand the workings of the human body. He documented his dissections, often making notes and sketches directly on the page as he observed the structures of muscles, bones, and organs. Many of these drawings were never intended for publication, but they allowed Leonardo to explore the complexities of anatomy and refine his understanding of the human form.

Leonardo’s fascination with water is evident in his numerous sketches and observations of its movements. He used his notebooks to explore ideas about how water flows, how it erodes the earth, and how it shapes the landscape. His initial theories about the relationship between the flow of water on Earth and the human circulatory system were later revised as he encountered new evidence, demonstrating the dynamic nature of his provisional thinking.

His notebooks showcase a transition from recording practical knowledge to pursuing scientific inquiry for its own sake, driven by a desire to understand the “why” behind the “how”.

7. To List Books

Leonardo also used his notebooks to keep track of his personal library. His lists of books illustrate his diverse interests, ranging from texts on military machinery and surgery to collections of poetry and fables. 

  • His notebooks are filled with lists of books he acquired and passages he copied. (175, loc. 2684-2684)
  • By 1492 Leonardo had close to forty volumes. A testament to his universal interests, they included books on military machinery, agriculture, music, surgery, health, Aristotelian science, Arabian physics, palmistry, and the lives of famous philosophers, as well as the poetry of Ovid and Petrarch, the fables of Aesop, some collections of bawdy doggerels and burlesques, and a fourteenth-century operetta from which he drew part of his bestiary. (176, loc. 2687-2689)
  • By 1504 he would be able to list seventy more books, including forty works of science, close to fifty of poetry and literature, ten on art and architecture, eight on religion, and three on math. (176, loc. 2689-2691)
  • He also recorded at various times the books that he hoped to borrow or find. (176, loc. 2692-2692)

8. To Capture Provisional Thoughts: 

Leonardo’s notebooks offered a space for capturing “provisional thoughts, half-finished ideas, unpolished sketches, and drafts for treatises not yet refined” (116, loc. 1775-1776). 

He used the notebooks to experiment with ideas and evaluate concepts visually, often revisiting pages to add new thoughts or refine existing ones.  This approach is reflected in the way he filled his notebooks with a mixture of observations, sketches, diagrams, and written notes, often jumping between different subjects on a single page. The notebooks provided a safe space for Leonardo to experiment with ideas, allowing him to follow his curiosity wherever it led without the constraints of formal presentation or publication

While he intended to organize his notebook entries into published works, this ambition remained largely unfulfilled, mirroring his tendency to leave artworks incomplete.

Format and Organization

Diverse Content: 

  • Leonardo’s notebooks are a blend of text and images. And, Leonardo crammed as much as possible onto each page. He wrote about many different things on the same page, even if they didn’t seem to go together. 
  • The notebooks are also full of ideas that were not finished yet, reflecting the fluid nature of his thinking.
    • Because good paper was costly, Leonardo tried to use every edge and corner of most pages, cramming as much as possible on each sheet and jumbling together seemingly random items from diverse fields. Often he would go back to a page, months or even years later, to add another thought, (116, loc. 1767-1769) 
    • The juxtapositions can seem haphazard, and to some extent they are; we watch his mind and pen leap from an insight about mechanics, to a doodle of hair curls and water eddies, to a drawing of a face, to an ingenious contraption, to an anatomical sketch, all accompanied by mirror-script notes and musings. (116, loc. 1771-1773) 

Lack of Organization: 

  • Lack of Dates: Leonardo “rarely put dates on his pages, and much of their order has been lost” (115, loc. 1753-1753). This makes it challenging to trace the development of his ideas over time.  
  • Disassembly and Reorganization: Compounding the dating issue, many of Leonardo’s notebooks were “disassembled” after his death, with pages reorganized, sold, and compiled into new collections. 
  • This fragmentation further obscures the original sequence of his writings, making it difficult to establish a coherent timeline for his work. 
    • After his death, many of the volumes were disassembled and the interesting pages were sold or reorganized into new codices by various collectors, most notably the sculptor Pompeo Leoni, who was born in 1533. (115, loc. 1753-1755) 
    • For example, one of the many repackaged collections is the Codex Atlanticus, now in Milan’s Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which consists of 2,238 pages assembled by Leoni from different notebooks Leonardo used from the 1480s to 1518. (115, loc. 1755-1756) 
  • Revisiting and Adding Thoughts: Leonardo also frequently revisited old notebooks, adding new thoughts months or years later.  
  • This practice of layering thoughts makes it difficult to isolate discrete periods of intellectual focus and further complicates efforts to create a linear chronology of his work.
    • Leonardo sometimes went back to fill in the unused parts of a page or add to an old notebook he had put aside. (115, loc. 1761-1762)

Lessons from Leonardo’s Notebooks

  1. Connect seemingly unrelated concepts:
    • The seemingly chaotic structure of his notebooks highlights his ability to “extract from his pages, as he did from nature’s, the patterns that underlie things that at first appear disconnected.(116, loc. 1774-1775)”.
    • Even though Leonardo’s notebooks look messy, he was able to find the patterns and connections between things that seemed to have nothing to do with each other. 
  2. Value the process over the finished product:
    • Leonardo was willing to embrace unfinished thoughts and ideas. It’s important to allow ideas to develop organically, without the pressure of completion. 
  3. Document your intellectual journey:
    • The sheer volume and diversity of Leonardo’s notebooks show how important it is to write down your thoughts and ideas, even if they don’t work out. This helps you remember what you’ve learned and what you’ve tried.

Read the whole series

Part 1: Book Summary 
Part 2: The Outsider Who Revolutionized Art and Science
Part 3: Key Elements of Leonardo’s Genius and Actionable Insights
Part 4: The Interplay of Art and Science in Leonardo’s Work
Part 5: Technology and Culture as Catalysts for Genius and “Scenius”
Part 6: Leonardo da Vinci’s Note-Taking
Part 7: Leonardo, Macchiavelli, and The Prince