(7 Nov 2019) LEAD IN: Renaissance books that may have inspired Leonardo da Vinci in his study of man and nature are being exhibited in Jerusalem.
The exhibition, named "Five centuries since Leonardo da Vinci", seeks to spotlight the available literature of the time that Da Vinci may have worked from.
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The Mediterranean Sea as it was visualised in the 16th Century. This map was designed by French writer and naturalist Piere Belon.
Curators of this exhibition believe his work, and the work of other great thinkers of his time, very likely influenced Renaissance genius, Leonardo da Vinci.
The books are part of the rich collection of the Library of the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land in Jerusalem.
Some 30 books are available for public viewing as part of a project, called Books of Peace, a collaboration between Associated Pro Terra Sancta – a non-governmental organisation of the Custody of the Holy Land and European Research Centre for Books, Publishing and Libraries.
They depict antique maps, detailed drawings of plants and animals, medical and architectural achievements.
The exhibition is divided into five sections, explains Alessandra Restagno, a student of Modern Philology at Universita Cattolica in Milan, Italy and participant in the project.
"The first one is about geography, the second one is about plants and animals. And the third one, maybe the most important one, is about the body. And the fourth one is about the arts and proportion. And the last one is about Luca Pacioli, a Dominican friar and friend of Leonardi Da Vinci who helped him become the genius he is renowned to be," Restagno says.
The Custody of the Holy Land — the Franciscan Order's organ in Israel, the Palestinian territories, Jordan, Lebanon and Cyprus — has carried out numerous archaeological excavations around the region, focusing on sites with connections to the Bible and runs a world-renowned library with manuscripts and printed books.
Edoardo Barbieri, lecturer at the Universita Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan and director of the project, says the exhibition focuses more on Da Vinci the scientist than the painter.
"We followed the big themes of geographical discovery, natural discovery, the discovery of the human body, medicine and, in parenthesis, this is interesting because the pharmacological know-how of the Franciscan order allowed for the preservation of many medical books that were actually used for the healing of people here, and finally the discovery of mathematics and architecture," Barbieri says.
The books show elaborate works of creation that have been preserved for centuries, helping save knowledge of humankind from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and modern times.
"We think 500 years ago was a lot of time but it looks like they already knew what we know today," says Gabrielle Russotti, another student and project participant.
This year marks the 500th anniversary of the Da Vinci's death.
The "Five centuries since Leonardo da Vinci" exhibition runs until November 8, 2019.
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