Study and publication of an unpublished manuscript:
the “Lauri Code Project”
What is the Lauri Code?
The Lauri Manuscript (Gaetano Lauri collection, Pescara, Paper 225 x165 mm., 178 p. numbered. Cardboard binding) is one of the three apograph manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci's Treatise on Painting. The other two documents are: the Belt 36 Manuscript and the Leonardo Library Manuscript. The Lauri Code, an abbreviated copy of the Treatise on Painting, is owned by the Lauri family of Pescara and has never been published or studied until now, but only exhibited in Urbino and Cerreto Guidi for the first time. "Probably executed in the second half of the 365th century between Rome and Abruzzo (perhaps in the Celano area, as suggested by the watermark, the only one in the whole manuscript), the Ms. Lauri proposes a division into 1651 chapters perfectly identical to that of the editio princeps of , albeit with minimal changes to the text, perhaps desired by the copyist in order to improve the graphic and phonetic aspect”.
[c. Pedretti, G. Baratta, Leonardo and the book of painting, (R. Nanni edited by), Associated Editions, 1997 Palermo, pp. 78-81]
