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BOOK OF
SECRETS
FACSIMIL
E
˅
LIMITED EDITION FACSIMILE OF 200 HAND-NUMBERED
COPIES
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‘ When I looked at the
science of
engineering and saw
that it had
disappeared after its
ancient heritage,
that its masters
have perished, and
that their memories
are now forgotten, I
worked my wits and
thoughts in secrecy
about philosophical
shapes and figures,
which could move
the mind, with
effort, from
nothingness to being
and from idleness to
motion. And I
arranged these
shapes one by one in
drawings and
explained them ‘‘
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The Book of Secrets
Limited edition facsimile of 200 hand-numbered
copies
Fac-simile of 96 pages bound by hand
€ 1.200 (standard edition)
€ 2.000 (deluxe edition: facsimile + book with
transcriptions and interpretations + documentary on
DVD and velvet box)
ISBN: off-market limited edition
Info: Leonardo3
A one-of-a-kind manuscript is preserved in the
Laurentian Library in Florence: the copy of an 11th-
century text completed in 1266 and containing
designs for 31 extraordinary machines including
water-clocks, mechanical “theaters” and war
instruments. A reproduction of the manuscript has
been produced for the first time in history and is
available in a limited edition of 200 hand-numbered
copies. The original text, which has never been
published before, was written in Arabic by an
Andalusian scientist, a precursor of Leonardo da
Vinci from 400 years earlier! This official publication
is a collaborative effort with the Laurentian Library
in Florence, which houses the manuscript.
The Book of Secrets | Ibn Kha…
Kha…
CONTENTS
Standard edition: A red velvet bag contains: the
exclusive, 96-page facsimile (of super high
resolution photographs made directly from the
original), bound in leather, decorated with gold and
numbered by hand; certification of limited-edition
status; and gloves for consultation. A separate
booklet with the entire Arabic text, as well as textual
and image-based interpretations of all the
machines, is also provided in either Italian and
French or English and Arabic.
Deluxe edition: An elegant, velvet box contains: the
exclusive, 96-page facsimile (of super high
resolution photographs made directly from the
original), bound in leather, decorated with gold and
numbered by hand; certification of limited-edition SHARE
status; gloves for consultation; a book devoted to
the subject with all the transcriptions, translations
and interpretations; and a DVD about the project.
EDITION (single)
200 numbered copies, 100 of which have already
been consigned to various heads of state and
dignitaries around the world.
>
KITAB AL-ASRAR FI
NATAYIJ AL-AFKAR
The Book of Secrets in Of the eight treatises
the Results of Ideas is contained in the volume,
conserved in the The Book of Secrets is
Biblioteca Medicea doubtless the most
Laurenziana of Florence important one, because
and was completed in of both its contents and
1266. The date is illustrative drawings.
written on the last page,
48v, which also states The whole manuscript
the title of the book was catalogued under
“Kitab al-Asrar fi Nataij the name Tabulae
al-Afkar”. The title is Astronomicae and its
also mentioned on top discovery as a treatise
of the first page, but dedicated to machines
part of it is damaged dates back only to
(most of the right side October 1974, thanks to
of the manuscript is David A. King, the
missing and was later famous professor of
restored, but some history of science, who
segments of the texts immediately made its
and drawings have been existence known to
lost). The author is professor Donald R. Hill SHARE
mentioned on the first (1922-1994), the
page as [Ahmad] ibn distinguished historian
Khalaf al-Muradi, of medieval Islamic
presumably an engineer science and the
of Islamic Andalusia. translator of the
The references of the treatises of al-Jazari
text suggest that the and the Banu Musa
original manuscript was brothers. In fact,
written in Cordoba Assemani’s catalog had
which was the capital of already identified the
Muslim Spain for manuscript back in the
almost three hundred 18th century as “a
years. treatise in mechanics
entitled The Book of
The manuscript Mysteries and
contains 48 folios (96 containing 34 figures”.
pages 273 x 200 mm or The history of the
10.62 x 7.87 inches) manuscript’s journey
and is written in a clear from Spain to Italy has
Maghribi handwriting. not been reconstructed
There is no punctuation, yet. Perhaps it followed
except for rare the journey of other
occasions in which the Arab writings that joined
transcriber inserted a the collections of the
point at the end of a Biblioteca Medicea
chapter or a main Laurenziana. In 1584, by
section (for example, at the order of Pope
the end of the Gregory XIII and
introduction on page Cardinal Ferdinando de’
1v). Medici, the Medicea
Oriental Printing House
The manuscript is was inaugurated in
gathered with seven piazza Monte d’Oro in
other treatises and the Rome. The aim was to
whole volume is publish Oriental books
catalogued under and it was necessary to
Orientale 152 in the gather manuscripts
Biblioteca Medicea beforehand in order to
Laurenziana. It was publish them. This
assembled in this form search mission was put
in the second half of the into the hands of the
18th century under the two brothers, Giovanni
supervision of the Battista and Gerolamo
librarian Angelo Maria Vecchietti, who started
Bandini who united the their voyages to Egypt,
manuscripts Orientali Syria, Persia and India in
281 and 282 because this aim.
they had an analogous
format.
STUDY OF THE
MANUSCRIPT
The Book of Secrets is All the work that has
an extraordinarily been carried out on the
important manuscript in manuscript was
the field of the history of presented in an
science, because it exhibition at the
represents one of the Museum of Islamic Art
earliest written and in Doha and was one of SHARE
drawn testimonies the main attractions at
about complex ancient the museum’s
machines and has never inauguration on
before been studied or
divulged. November 22, 2008.
The research project A one-of-a-kind
was sparked by manuscript is preserved
Leonardo3’s discovery in the Laurentian
of this important Arab Library in Florence: the
manuscript, The Book of copy of an 11th-century
Secrets in the Results of text completed in 1266
Ideas, in the Biblioteca and containing designs
Medicea Laurenziana in for 31 extraordinary
Florence, where the only machines including
surviving copy is water-clocks,
preserved. It has never mechanical “theaters”
before been fully and war instruments. A
studied or disclosed in reproduction of the
all its complexity. It is a manuscript has been
unique source for the produced for the first
study of ancient Arab time in history and is
technology, to which available in a limited
reference must be made edition of 200 hand-
when studying the numbered copies, 100
inventions of the of which have already
Renaissance, like those been consigned to
by Leonardo da Vinci. various heads of state
and dignitaries around
Thanks to the auspices the world.
of the Emir of Qatar, His
Highness the Emir
Sheikh Hamad bin
Khalifa Al Thani, and
the competence of the
Italian research center
Leonardo3, the
manuscript has, for the
first time ever, been
transcribed (in Arabic)
and translated (into
Italian, English and
French), and all its
machines have been
interpreted and
reconstructed.
FAC-SIMILE
A reproduction of the A red velvet bag
manuscript has been contains: the exclusive,
produced for the first 96-page facsimile,
time in history and is bound in leather, with
available in a limited golden decorations and
edition of 200 hand- numbered by hand;
numbered copies certification of limited-
whose detail is exactly edition status; and
the same as the original gloves for consultation.
manuscript, using super A separate booklet with
high resolution the entire Arabic text,
photographs made as well as textual and
directly from the image-based
original. interpretations of all the SHARE
machines, is also
provided in either Italian
and French or English
and Arabic.
EDITION
200 numbered copies,
100 of which have
already been consigned
to various heads of
state and dignitaries
around the world.
INTERPRETATIONS,
PROBLEMS E
PROSPECTS
The original source, the It is worth noting that
text of the manuscript, the text of the
which was our point of manuscript is very
departure, presents organized and is not in
various problems. First any way a series of
of all, all the pages are point or notes, but a
damaged to a great final treatise meant to
extent along the main circulate.
diagonal. The
manuscript deteriorated The technology we used
because of humidity served us a lot: the 3D
which distorted many animations of the
segments of its text and machines helped us
the drawings. This verify, on the one hand,
required the patient what is actually
interpretation of the mechanically possible
missing parts, and, on the other hand,
according to specific what contains errors. All
logical and the interpretations of
interpretative rules, the machines presented
which definitely cannot in the coming pages
avoid errors altogether. were carried out thanks
I do not exclude the to tridimensional
possibility that during graphics which made
the drafting phase of them more easily
the original text, from comprehensible.
which this copy was However, our several-
made, several models of year experience in
the machines, not ancient machines
necessarily the taught us that the
definitive ones, were suggested
presented to the author. reconstructive and
I found this conviction interpretative solutions
on the grounds of the are rarely definitive.
impossibility of
designing and In fact, the extreme
describing such complexity of these
complex machines machines and,
without the attempt of sometimes, the scarcity
constructing them and and imprecision of the
perfecting certain available information,
technical details, which both in the texts and in SHARE
otherwise would not be the drawings, leave
feasible. It is, therefore, room for future
possible that al-Muradi modifications,
observed these complex improvements and even
machines himself and full revisions of the
saw their drawings (at project.
least quick and
unordered sketches of
them) in his difficult
attempt to reorganize
them, draw diagrams
and write descriptive
texts.
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