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he celebrated Treatise on Painting by Leonardo, compiled by his pupil Francesco Melzi according to the masters instructions and with the exact copies of tests and drawings taken directly from the originals, for the grater part lost. "The most important document in the whole history of art", as Lord Kenneth Clark has defined this work by Leonardo, the only one that, in abbreviated version, was first published in Paris in 1651 with illustrations by Poussin. The archetype codex is here presented for the first time in complete facsimile edition, with the original colours, even with the blank pages left by the compiler for further additions at the end of each of the eight sections into which the work is divided.

In addition to the facsimile of 336 folios (672 pages), there is a text volume (edited by Carlo Pedretti with the assistance of Carlo Vecce) containing an introduction, transcriptions, and a critical apparatus that sums up three centuries of studies on Leonardo’s celebrated Treatise on painting, here restored to its original title Libro di Pittura (Book on Painting), as intended by the author himself.

A leather covered box (size 250 x 360 mm), with gold stamping, contains the facsimile and a text volume of 544 pages (size of both volumes 158 x 219 mm). The Facsimile is limited to 998 numbered sets world-wide.