Notebooks of Obsession

Leonardo wrote backward in mirror script, reversing every letter so his notes read from right to left. The reason was likely practical: he was left-handed, and writing this way kept his hand from dragging through wet ink.

These notebooks reveal a mind that made no distinction between art and science. A single page might hold an anatomical drawing of the human arm beside sketches for a flying machine, with notes on water flow and plant growth squeezed into the margins. Everything connected in Leonardo's thinking.