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his collection of drawings, variously executed in ink, chalk, and silverpoint, bear witness to Leonardo’s lifelong fascination for nature phenomena. Flowers, plants, water are depicted with scientific accuracy: plants are considered in relation to the terrain they grow in, water is shown in its dashing, destructive fury as part of an overall vision of atmospheric activities and turbulence, mountains are studied from a geological viewpoint.

As well as the series of drawings on Horses and Other Animals , these studies are part of the Royal Collection at Windsor which also includes the Anatomical Drawings and the drawings for The Last Supper .

For the first time, Leonardo’s nature studies are here presented whole - accompanied by a catalogue by Carlo Pedretti with an introduction by Kenneth Clark -, in chronological order subdivided into ten categories:

• the theme sheet: so called in that it contains elements of all four planned classifications of Leonardo’s drawings at Windsor;
• early studies;
• narrative landscapes;
• black chalk mountain series;
• Leda plant series;
• studio series;
• red series, so called after the red ground preparation of the paper for the use of red chalk;
• water studies;
• Adda River series;
• symbolic landscapes and Deluge series.

A box in half leather binding (size 330 x 480 mm), with gold stamping, contains 70 plates with facsimile reproductions of the drawings, recto and verso, and a text volume of 240 pages and 150 black and white illustrations, bound in half leather with gold stamping on the spine. The Facsimile is limited to 350 numbered, English language, sets world-wide.