// THE LEICESTER CAMPAIGN

Bring the last Leonardo
back to the world.

The Codex Leicester — 72 pages of Leonardo's science, written around 1508 — is the only major notebook still in private hands. In 1994 it sold at Christie's for $30.8 million, the most expensive manuscript ever sold. Every other codex now lives in a museum or library. This one we could bring home.

$0pledged of $65,000,000 goal

0.0%

$30,800,000
1994 hammer price

Be the first to backChristie's · 30 Nov 1994 · the most expensive manuscript ever sold

Back the CampaignA pledge is a vote for reunification — not yet a charge.

72pages, double-sided — Leonardo's thoughts on water, the moon, fossils & light

1508written in Milan, in his unmistakable mirror-script

$30.8Mpaid at Christie's, 1994 — a record that still stands for any manuscript

1 of 1the only Leonardo codex not held by a public institution

Why this matters

Our library has reunited 32 collections and 8,617 pages of Leonardo's surviving work — scattered across 14 institutions in seven countries — into one place, free for anyone. The Leicester is the missing piece: locked away, seen by few. This campaign is a statement of intent — that the humanities belong to everyone, and that even the unreachable is worth reaching for.

Honest note: the Codex is not for sale, and this is first a movement, not a transaction. Pledges signal demand and fund the wider mission — digitizing, translating, and opening Leonardo to the world. Should the impossible ever become possible, we'll be ready.