Notes by Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Arundel. Folio page of notes by Italian artist and scientist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519). Leonardo wrote thousands of pages of illustrated notes on a wide range of topics. The Italian text is a form of mirror writing, written backwards from right to left. Leonardo's notes, not published in his lifetime, are now held in collections around the world. This page (f.129v) is from the British Library's Codex Arundel, a collection of 570 pages of notes dating from between 1478 and 1518. The topics covered include mechanics, optics, astronomy, geometry, cosmology, hydraulics, engineering, and architecture.