Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’, possibly one of the world’s most famous notebooks, is on show at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. The ‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’ has been exhibited outside of Italy only a few times. It is on loan from the Biblioteca Reale in Turin, Italy, where it is kept in a special vault with other Leonardo works. The extraordinary document is on display in ‘The Wright Brothers and The Invention of the Aerial Age’ gallery at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum and is on view until 22 October 2013. Leonardo is renowned for his masterpieces of art and sculpture. However, the genius is also famed for his achievements in mathematics, engineering, anatomy, geology, music, physics, military technology and aeronautics. He recorded his forward-looking ideas in notebooks, known as ‘codices’, producing a codex on flight between 1505 and 1506, the ‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’. It is a fragile 8-by-6-inch document, made up of 18 folios and written in the artist’s mirror script. The possibility of human mechanical flight fascinated Leonardo. He sketched flying devices such as ornithopters (flapping-wing flying machines) and a model of an ornithopter is suspended just outside the ‘The Wright Brothers and The Invention of the Aerial Age’ gallery. Leonardo produced more than 35,000 words and 500 sketches dealing with flying machines, the nature of air and bird flight. In the ‘Codex on the Flight of Birds’, he outlined observations and concepts that found a place in the development of a successful aeroplane in the early 20th century. The director of the Biblioteca Reale, Giovanni Saccani, who accompanied Italy’s national treasure to Washington, DC, said: “The codex has travelled to the United States only once before, and rarely left Italy. We are very pleased to be able to bring this extraordinary work to the National Air and Space Museum, where so many American and international visitors will have the opportunity to see an original work by Leonardo da Vinci.” The exhibit has been organised as part of 2013 Year of Italian Culture in the US, an initiative held under the auspices of the President of the Italian Republic, organised by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Embassy of Italy in Washington, DC with the support of Eni and Intesa Sanpaolo. Learn about Leonardo da Vinci's Codex on the Flight of Birds, on view at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, in this video narrated by the exhibit's curator, Peter Jakab:
