The Codex Leicester by Leonardo Da Vinci: Presented by The Fine Arts Committee for the Presidential Inaugural of Ronald Reagan.

DA VINCI, Leonardo (Reagan.

Item Number: 95869

Washington: Corcoran Gallery of Art, 1981.

First edition of this detailed analysis of Da Vinci’s Codex of Leicester, presented at the Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Inauguration. Large octavo, original cloth, pictorial endpapers, illustrated. One of 500 copies containing a tipped-in presentation by Nancy and Ronald Reagan with his signature in facsimile. Fine in a fine dust jacket.

Written in 1510, Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex of Leicester currently holds the record for the second highest sale price of any book. Consisting of 18 sheets of paper which form a 72-page document, the handwritten manuscript does not take the form of a single linear script, but is rather a mixture of Leonardo's observations and theories on astronomy; the properties of water, rocks, and fossils; air, and celestial light.