Overview
From your Pearson text book:
“Leonardo was motivated by strong curiosity and belief in the human ability to understand the fascinating phenomena of the physical world. He believed that art and science are two means to the same end: knowledge.
Leonardo showed his investigative and creative mind in his journals, where he documented his research in notes and drawings. His notebooks are filled with studies of anatomy and ideas for mechanical devices, explorations that put him at the forefront of the scientific development of his time.”
He wrote everything in his notebooks in mirror writing, starting on the right side and moving to the left. He wrote in the conventional direction when writing for other people. It has long puzzled people why he did this. Some ideas are:
- He was trying to make it harder for people to read his notes and steal his ideas.
- He was hiding his scientific ideas from the powerful Roman Catholic Church, whose teachings sometimes disagreed with what Leonardo observed. Think about what happened to the likes of Galileo.
- Writing left handed from left to right was messy because the ink just put down would smear as his hand moved across it. Leonardo chose to write in reverse because it prevented smudging.
Why do you think Leonardo wrote in his notebooks this way?
Comment on theses posts
1- I believe Leonardo wrote in that certain way because he was trying to keep his ideas a secret and so that when ever anyone got a hooked of his journal no one would have any idea for what he was writing about unless they knew his way of writing. Maybe he values his ideas very much and didn’t want them to be taken by others and take his credit for them selves. But also could have just been his preference of writing Glauber he wasn’t trying to hide anything it was just his own style of writing.
2- I believe that Leonardo wrote his notes this way for multiple reasons, but I believe that he originally started writing this way to avoid the ink smudges as I know how frustrating it is when ink smears and ruins the rest of the writing. Especially being left handed it is much easier for him to avoid smudges and clearly see the words he is writing by starting on the right side of the page. This probably became natural for him and he realized that it not only was easier but also made it harder for others to decipher what he had written in case his notebooks fell into the wrong hands. I do not think that was his original intent, however, as it would not be very difficult to realize the he was writing from right to left and his notes would be easy decipherable. He understood that his way of writing was not what people were accustomed to so when he shared his ideas he would write left to right for the benefit of others even though it was not as comfortable for him. I believe he wrote right to left because it was much easier for him to produce notes quickly that way and maybe people would not think much of it if they were to try and read his notes.