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Leonardo notebooks reunited online

British Library and Microsoft announce historic Turning the Pages 2.0 versions of Codex Arundel and Codex Leicester at the launch of Windows Vista

The British Library, London, 30 January 2007 - Two of the great landmarks of world culture and science, Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Arundel and Codex Leicester, have been brought together digitally for the first time since the dispersal of Leonardo's manuscripts in the sixteenth-century.

The reunification of 'Turning the Pages 2.0' digital versions of the notebooks was announced by Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, and Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library at the consumer launch of Microsoft's new operating system, Windows Vista, which took place at the Library's flagship building at St Pancras this morning.

Codex Arundel, one of the British Library's greatest treasures, and Codex Leicester, which is owned by Bill Gates, are compilations of the notes, diagrams and sketches Leonardo made while investigating subjects ranging from mechanics and engineering to optics and the properties of the moon. They document the inquiring scientific spirit that underpinned his artistic achievements and include discoveries and lines of thought that were far ahead of their time.

These precious manuscripts are kept under secure and controlled conditions in locations thousands of miles apart, but Turning the Pages 2.0 allows users to browse high resolution online versions of both texts, compare the volumes side-by-side in a 3-D workspace, magnify and rotate the pages and even reverse Leonardo's famous 'mirror writing' so that it reads the right way around.

Demonstrating the enhanced graphics and functionality of the new Windows Vista platform, Turning the Pages 2.0 also enables users to make personal and group notes and interact with others around the world who are viewing the notebooks online.

These developments open up Leonardo's notebooks to anyone who has an interest in his life and times, and have huge potential for the international research community as scholars exchange ideas, commentary and interpretation on texts that were previously only available for viewing by a select few.

Bill Gates said: "The way Leonardo da Vinci combined incomparable genius with the human determination to strive for knowledge and practical improvement is an incredible inspiration. It's a privilege to participate in any project that has the potential to increase our understanding of the ideas and achievements of this remarkable man. Turning the Pages 2.0 is a great tool for making these amazing works accessible to people around the world, and it demonstrates the power of Windows Vista as a platform for connecting people to information."

Lynne Brindley, who shared a platform with the Microsoft founder at the launch event for Turning the Pages 2.0 and Windows Vista, said, "For the past decade the British Library has digitised treasures as a means of making our unrivalled collections freely available to as wide an international audience as possible - with Armadillo Systems we developed the Turning the Pages system to provide an attractive, user-friendly interface. Turning the Pages 2.0, enhanced by Windows Vista, offers researchers the first glimpse of the next generation of digitised texts, combining a rich and life-like interaction with the text itself with the potential for collaborative international research."

She continued, "In this exciting virtual space the historian of science will be able to exchange ideas with the historian of art, the Leonardo biographer with the structural engineer, the aeronautics expert with the mathematician - all congregating around a text that facilitates a richer level of engagement than was ever possible in the physical world."

Professor Martin Kemp, one of the world's leading experts on Leonardo, said, "The Codex Arundel is the second biggest single compilation of Leonardo pages - second only to the great collection in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan - and it's virtually unknown. Known to only a few scholars, seen by very few people: at this point, it's the major unknown element in Leonardo's studies.

"It is incredibly important to have it available digitally as a scholar. I have privileged access - and I have a substantial Leonardo library - but even for me it is difficult to consult the originals when I need to do so. To have this material online, available at the touch of a button is just amazing and wonderful," he added.

The reunited Codex Arundel and Codex Leicester will be displayed on the British Library website at www.bl.uk for six months from today. 15 of the other existing Turning the Pages treasures - including the Lindisfarne Gospels, Mozart's musical diary and Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground - will also be available in the Turning the Pages 2.0 format. For users without Windows Vista the existing Shockwave versions of all the Turning the Pages texts will continue to be available.

The British Library has also announced a competition which will be open to public libraries across the UK. The Library is to offer Turning the Pages 2.0 packages worth £10,000 each to four public libraries in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, giving them the opportunity to make Turning the Pages versions of their own treasures available online. Details of the competition will be rolled out in February.

For further information and images please contact:

British Library Press Office +44 (0)20 7412 7110

Ben Sanderson at the British Library Press Office (telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7113, email: ben.sanderson@bl.uk) or Lawrence Christensen (telephone +44 (0)20 7412 7114, email: lawrence.christensen@bl.uk)

Notes for editors:

  1. The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. The British Library's collections include 150 million items from every era of written human history beginning with Chinese oracle bones dating from 300 BC, right up to the latest e-journals. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk
  2. Microsoft was founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq "MSFT") is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. Microsoft is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries. The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
  3. In addition to the Leonardo Turning the Pages 2.0 , the following items in the British Library's collection are now available on Turning the Pages 2.0 and also in their original Shockwave format at www.bl.uk :
  • Lindisfarne Gospels (circa 700): one of the most magnificent manuscripts of the early Middle Ages written and decorated at the end of the seventh century by the monk Eadfrith who became Bishop of Lindisfarne in 698
  • Sultan Baybars' Qur'an - a masterpiece of Arabic calligraphy, produced in Cairo between 1304-1306 AD (704-705 in the Muslim calendar)
  • Golden Haggadah: a lavishly illustrated fourteenth century Hebrew Manuscript from Spain (a Haggadah is the Hebrew Service Book used in Jewish households on Passover Eve)
  • The Luttrell Psalter (circa 1325-1335): one of the most famous medieval manuscripts because of its rich illustrations of everyday life in the early fourteenth century
  • Sforza Hours: a masterpiece of Renaissance art by celebrated artists Giovan Pietro Birago and Gerard Horenbout
  • The Sherborne Missal (circa 1400): the largest, most lavishly decorated medieval service book (containing the order of service then used in the Roman Catholic Church) to have survived the Reformation intact
  • The Diamond Sutra: a Chinese Buddhist scroll printed in 868 AD, the world's oldest, dated, printed book
  • The Golf Book: a masterpiece of Flemish manuscript painting. Produced in the 1540s by Flemish artist Simon Bening, this book of hours features devotional texts to accompany private prayer and painted scenes of contemporary life, work and pastimes through the seasons of the year
  • Elizabeth Blackwell's Herbal (1737-39): George III's copy of a beautiful botanical text
  • Andreas Vesalius' Anatomy - a landmark medical work of the sixteenth century and one of the most influential works in the history of Western medicine. It contains beautifully detailed anatomical engravings by artists from the workshop of Titian
  • Mercator's Atlas: a stunning 90-page digitisation of Gerardus Mercator's sixteenth century Atlas of Europe - the most important surviving body of Mercator's work in a single volume
  • Jane Austen's 'History of England': written when she was just 15 years old, the entire 36-page document including waspish pen-portraits of key historical figures
  • Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures Under Ground (1864): the fully-digitised first version of what eventually became 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' containing 90 pages and 37 illustrations.
  • Mozart's Thematic Catalogue: This manuscript is Mozart's record of his compositions in the last seven years of his life, and thus is a uniquely important document.
  • The Notebook of William Blake: William Blake is famous today as an imaginative and original poet, painter, engraver, and mystic. Blake wrote and sketched in this notebook, which came into his possession after his brother's death in 1787, for 30 years.