Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, November 12, 1994 TAG: 9411140082
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Short
The auction house, Christie's America, said the purchase was anonymous, but Gates' ownership was confirmed by a spokeswoman for Waggener/Edstrom, Gates' Portland, Ore., public relations firm.
Gates bid for the manuscript, known as the Codex Hammer, through a Seattle representative. Christie's said it had expected the work, compiled between 1506 and 1510 in Florence and Milan, Italy, to bring between $10 million and $15 million.
The 72 loose pages document in 300 scientific drawings and notes Da Vinci's brilliant scientific musings on astronomy, canal building, geography, geology and hydraulics. Some of the text is in the artist's distinctive backward ``mirror script.''
The manuscript or codex (Latin for book or manuscript) has been known as Codex Hammer since the late oilman Armand Hammer bought it in 1980 in London for $5.6 million.
Da Vinci anticipated Galileo on the subject of the moon, speculating in this codex that the ``moon has no light of itself and yet is luminous, it is inevitable but that its light is caused by some other body,'' later adding that body was the sun.
Da Vinci's theories of optics and color saturation in this manuscript are still studied today.
The manuscript offers advice on flood control and improving acoustics in churches. Also found is his engineering design for a snorkel and submarine.
by CNB