Leonardo da Vinci, Selected Writings, Vol. I–II. [1913]

Title: Selected Writings. Vol. I–II.

Author: Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) [Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, and naturalist; the most versatile genius of the Renaissance].

Edited by Leopold Staff: selection, arrangement, translation, and introduction.

Publisher: Warsaw–Kraków, J. Mortkowicz Publishing House.

Year of publication: 1913.

Format: 20 cm.

Volume: XLVIII, 182 pp., 8 plates (Vol. I); [4], 183–436, [14] pp., 8 plates (Vol. II).

Binding: Decorated cloth publisher’s binding with embossing and gilding on the spine.

“Selected Writings,” edited by Leopold Staff, is the first Polish anthology of Leonardo da Vinci’s writings. It introduced Polish readers to the theoretical and literary thought of the creator of the “Mona Lisa” and “The Last Supper.” Staff based his selection on classic foreign editions of the master’s manuscripts: the Parisian “Les manuscrits de Léonard de Vinci,” the Milanese “Codice Atlantico,” and the London “Literary Works of Leonardo da Vinci.” He organized the texts thematically: “On Life and Death,” “Nature and Its Laws,” “Light and the Eye,” “On Painting,” “Letters,” “Fables,” “The Menagerie,” “Prophecies,” and “Epigrams.” He prefaced the entire work with an extensive critical introduction. Volume I opens with a portrait of Leonardo, and both volumes include plates with reproductions of his drawings and sketches. The edition was published by Jakub Mortkowicz’s renowned publishing house, famous for its meticulous editions of belles-lettres. At the end of Volume II, the original list of the publishing house’s titles has been preserved. Leonardo was born on April 15, 1452, in Anchiano near Vinci, and died on May 2, 1519, at Clos Lucé near Amboise, at the court of King Francis I.

Leopold Staff was born on November 14, 1878, in Lviv. He studied law, philosophy, and Romance philology at the University of Lviv. Known as the “poet of three generations,” he was active from the Young Poland movement through the 1950s and served as a model for the poets associated with the “Skamander” group. In 1927 and 1951, he received the State Literary Award. He served as vice president of the Polish Academy of Literature, and was awarded honorary doctorates by the University of Warsaw (1939) and Jagiellonian University (1949). He was also an outstanding translator, notably of Nietzsche, and in 1948 the Polish PEN Club honored him for his translations. He died suddenly on May 31, 1957, in Skarżysko-Kamienna and is buried in the Avenue of the Distinguished at Powązki Cemetery.

Provenance: no stamps or ownership inscriptions.

This is the first edition of *Leonardo* translated by Staff, a complete set of both volumes with plates, in a decorative publisher’s binding. A must-have for collectors of Mortkowicz’s publications, lovers of poetry and Staff’s translations, and art historians studying the reception of Leonardo in Poland.

Paper is clean, with minor discoloration; in Volume I, there is a slight water stain on the first page in the lower corner; the set of plates is intact. The block of Volume I is firm; the block of Volume II is loose. Cloth binding, decorated, heavily worn.

Catalog ID: 1855x1-20-A-X