Wrote the most expensive book in the history of Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, an Italian painter, architect, sculptor and scientist. While in Milan, he worked for 4 years on a book, which he called "A Treatise on Water, Earth and Celestial Affairs." From 1506 to 1510 Leonardo da Vinci wrote down his observations, inferences and logical conclusions, not forgetting to accompany everything with illustrations, diagrams, mathematical calculations and drawings.
The result of painstaking work was 18 sheets covered with "mirror" type on both sides, which were collected in a 72-page book. Leonardo da Vinci loved to use the technique of "mirror writing", which he himself invented, so the Leicester Code can only be read in the reflection of the mirror.
In the book, you can read Leonardo's reasoning on such topics: why the moon shines, where did the fossils come from on earth, why and how water flows in river beds, and the like. Only one thing remained unchanged: in each new chapter of the Code, da Vinci appealed to descendants with a convincing explanation that the world is a single “living organism”. Leonardo imagined that air is "the soul of the planet", rivers are "blood", the surface of the earth is "body".
"Treatise" got its name "Code of Leicester" by the name of an ancient county family from England, who in 1717 acquired this unique work and for a long time was its keeper and owner.
In 1980, the book was bought from the Lester's descendants by oil magnate and antiques collector Armad Hammer. The book was even briefly renamed "The Hammer Code".
After the death of the oil tycoon, the book was put up for auction in 1994, where it was bought by Bill Gates (founder of Microsoft). The Lestresky Codex was purchased for a record high price of $ 30.8 million, in terms of the January 2015 exchange rate this figure is $ 44.6 million.
Promotional video:
However, even being the owner of the rarity, Bill Gates does not hide the "Treatise on Water, Earth and the Matters of Heaven", he kindly provides the book to various museums around the world for exhibitions, where anyone can see it.
