Codex Arundel notebook – Coal Stove

In 1482, Leonoardo da Vinci left Florence for Milan where he found employment at the court of Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan. It was towards the end of Leonardo's time there that he produced the designs on the left-hand page for a coal stove that would generate a supply of hot water for the 'Bath of the Duchess' (Isabella of Aragon). Leonardo's accompanying note provides instructions about dimensions, design and materials; he states that the dome-shaped lid should be made of copper and that terracotta should be used for the rest of the structure to make it durable.

The Codex Arundel is a collection of papers written in Italian by Leonardo da Vinci in his characteristic left-handed mirror-writing (reading from right to left), including diagrams, drawings and brief texts, covering a broad range of topics in science and art, as well as personal notes.

The core of the notebook is a collection of materials that Leonardo describes as 'a collection without order, drawn from many papers, which I have copied here, hoping to arrange them later each in its place according to the subjects of which they treat', a collection he began in the house of Piero di Braccio Martelli in Florence, in 1508.

To this notebook has subsequently been added a number of other loose papers containing writing and diagrams produced by Leonardo throughout his career. It includes notes for a book on the physical properties and geographical effects of water, and a broad range of other material encompassing Leonardo’s interests in art, science and technology over a period of four decades, from c. 1478 to about 1517/1518.