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Codex Leicester
The Codex Leicester (also briefly known as the Codex Hammer) is a collection of scientific writings by Leonardo da Vinci. The codex is named after Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, who purchased it in 1719. The codex provides an insight into the mind of the Renaissance artist, scientist and thinker, as well as an exceptional illustration of the link between art and science and the creativity of the scientific process. When the manuscript was last sold to Bill Gates at Christie's auction house on 11 November 1994 in New York for (equivalent to $ million in ), it was the most expensive manuscript ever sold. Manuscript The leather-bound notebook comprises 36 sheets, 29 × 22 cm. The manuscript is not a single linear script but a mixture of Leonardo's observations and theories on astronomy and the properties of water, rocks, fossils, air, and celestial light. The topics addressed include: * An explanation of why fossils of sea creatures can be found on mountains ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leonardo Da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (15 April 1452 - 2 May 1519) was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. While his fame initially rested on his achievements as a painter, he has also become known for #Journals and notes, his notebooks, in which he made drawings and notes on a variety of subjects, including anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, painting, and palaeontology. Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomised the Renaissance humanism, Renaissance humanist ideal, and his List of works by Leonardo da Vinci, collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists matched only by that of his younger contemporary Michelangelo. Born out of wedlock to a successful notary and a lower-class woman in, or near, Vinci, Tuscany, Vinci, he was educated in Florence by the Italian painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio. He began his career ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Erosion
Erosion is the action of surface processes (such as Surface runoff, water flow or wind) that removes soil, Rock (geology), rock, or dissolved material from one location on the Earth's crust#Crust, Earth's crust and then sediment transport, transports it to another location where it is deposit (geology), deposited. Erosion is distinct from weathering which involves no movement. Removal of rock or soil as clastic sediment is referred to as ''physical'' or ''mechanical'' erosion; this contrasts with ''chemical'' erosion, where soil or rock material is removed from an area by Solvation, dissolution. Eroded sediment or solutes may be transported just a few millimetres, or for thousands of kilometres. Agents of erosion include rainfall; bedrock wear in rivers; coastal erosion by the sea and Wind wave, waves; glacier, glacial Plucking (glaciation), plucking, Abrasion (geology), abrasion, and scour; areal flooding; Aeolian processes, wind abrasion; groundwater processes; and Mass wastin ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Microsoft Plus
Microsoft Plus! is a discontinued commercial operating system enhancement product by Microsoft. The last edition is the Plus! SuperPack, which includes an assortment of screensavers, themes, and games, as well as multimedia applications. The Microsoft Plus! product was first announced on January 31, 1994, under the Microsoft codenames, internal codename "Frosting". The first edition was an enhancement for Windows 95, Windows 95 Plus! The enhancements that make up Microsoft Plus! were generally developed by Microsoft itself. The Plus! packs also included games and content from third-party companies; for example, in Plus! for Windows XP, the ''Hyperbowl Plus! Edition, HyperBowl'' game developed by HyperEntertainment Inc. was included. Plus! features that enhance the base operating system or provide utility are generally included free of charge in the next release of Windows. Microsoft Plus! was discontinued and replaced by Windows Ultimate Extras in Windows Vista. Windows Ultimat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM (, compact disc read-only memory) is a type of read-only memory consisting of a pre-pressed optical compact disc that contains computer data storage, data computers can read, but not write or erase. Some CDs, called enhanced CDs, hold both computer data and audio with the latter capable of being played on a CD player, while data (such as software or digital video) is only usable on a computer (such as ISO 9660 format PC CD-ROMs). During the 1990s and early 2000s, CD-ROMs were popularly used to distribute software and data for computers and fifth generation video game consoles. DVDs as well as downloading started to replace CD-ROMs in these roles starting in the early 2000s, and the use of CD-ROMs for commercial software is now rare. History The earliest theoretical work on optical disc storage was done by independent researchers in the United States including David Paul Gregg (1958) and James Russell (inventor), James Russel (1965–1975). In particular, Gregg's paten ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wallpaper (computing)
A wallpaper or background (also known as a desktop background, desktop picture or desktop image on computers) is a digital image (photo, drawing etc.) used as a decorative background of a graphical user interface on the screen of a computer, smartphone or other electronic device. On a computer, wallpapers are generally used on the desktop, while on a mobile phone they serve as the background for the ''home screen''. Though most devices include a default background image, modern devices usually allow users to manually change the background image. The term "wallpaper" was used in Microsoft Windows before Windows XP (In Windows XP and later, it is called the "desktop background"). Meanwhile, macOS refers to it as "desktop picture". On older systems that allowed small repeated patterns to be set as background images, the term desktop pattern was used. History The X Window System was one of the earliest systems to include support for an arbitrary image as wallpaper via the xsetroot pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Screensaver
A screensaver (or screen saver) is a computer program that blanks the display screen or fills it with moving images or patterns when the computer has been idle for a designated time. The original purpose of screensavers was to prevent phosphor screen burn-in, burn-in on Cathode-ray tube, CRT or plasma display, plasma computer monitors (hence the name). Though most modern monitors are not susceptible to this issue (with the notable exception of OLED technology, which has individual pixels vulnerable to burnout), screensaver programs are still used for other purposes. Screensavers are often set up to offer a basic layer of computer security, security by requiring a password to re-access the device. Some screensaver programs also use otherwise-idle computer resources to do useful work, such as processing for volunteer computing projects. As well as computers, modern television operating systems, media players, and other digital entertainment systems may include optional screensavers ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Carlo Pedretti
Carlo Pedretti (6 January 1928 – 5 January 2018) was an Italian art historian. In his lifetime, he was considered one of the world's leading experts on the life and works of Leonardo da Vinci. He was a professor of art history and Armand Hammer Chair in Leonardo Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles from 1960 until his retirement in 1993. Life Carlo Pedretti was born in Bologna. By his 13th birthday Pedretti had taught himself to write left handed and read backwards as did Leonardo. Pedretti's first articles about Leonardo were published in 1944 at the age of 16. From 1960 until his retirement in 1993, Pedretti was a professor of art history and Armand Hammer Chair in Leonardo Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. He was instrumental in animating the Elmer Belt Library of Vinciana. He was the author of more than 60 books and 500 essays and articles in various languages. He moved to Italy in 2013 to live in the Villa di Castel Vitoni in Lam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Armand Hammer
Armand Hammer (May 21, 1898 – December 10, 1990) was an American businessman and philanthropist. The son of a Russian Empire-born communist activist, Hammer trained as a physician before beginning his career in trade with the newly established Soviet Union. Having made his fortune in pharmaceuticals and whiskey, he nearly retired before coming into control of the then-failing Occidental Petroleum in 1956. He spent the next 33 years as chief executive officer and chairman of the company, overseeing its growth to become one of the largest companies in the U.S. Called "Lenin's chosen capitalist" by the press, he was also known for his art collection and his close ties to the Soviet Union. Hammer's business interests around the world and his " citizen diplomacy" helped him cultivate a wide network of friends and associates. Early life Armand Hammer was born in New York City to Rose (''née'' Lipschitz) and Julius Hammer. Rose and Julius Hammer were Jewish emigrants from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppe Ghezzi
Giuseppe Ghezzi (November 6, 1634–1721) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active mainly in Rome. Biography Born in Comunanza, in the Marche (then part of the Papal States), he was the son of the painter Sebastiano Ghezzi, a painter and architect for the papacy of Pope Urban VIII. Sebastiano died when Giuseppe was only 11 years old, and he was sent to Fermo to study philosophy and letters, but took also painting instruction under Lorenzino da Fermo. He then moved to Rome where he chose painting over law studies. He painted in many Roman churches. He painted in the style of Pietro da Cortona. Giuseppe Ghezzi was the first ''secretary in perpetuity'' for the Accademia di San Luca The Accademia di San Luca () is an Italian academy of artists in Rome. The establishment of the Accademia de i Pittori e Scultori di Roma was approved by papal brief in 1577, and in 1593 Federico Zuccari became its first ''principe'' or director; ... in Rome. He was the father of the mor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Michelangelo
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6March 147518February 1564), known mononymously as Michelangelo, was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance. Born in the Republic of Florence, his work was inspired by models from classical antiquity and had a lasting influence on Western art. Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci. Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era. Michelangelo achieved fame early. Two of his best-known works, the ''Pietà (Michelangelo), Pietà'' and ''David (Michelangelo), David'', were sculpted before the age of 30. Although he did not consider himself a painter, Michelangelo created ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guglielmo Della Porta
Guglielmo della Porta (c. 1500–1577) was an Italian architect and sculptor of the late Renaissance or Mannerism, Mannerist period. He was born to a prominent North Italian family of masons, sculptors and architects. His father Giovanni Battista della Porta (sculptor), Giovanni Battista della Porta was a sculptor. He trained in his uncle's workshop in Genoa and moved to Rome in about 1537, where he was very much influenced by Michelangelo. Della Porta provided legs for the Farnese Hercules when it was first excavated; when the original legs were found some years later, Michelangelo recommended that Della Porta's legs be retained, showing how modern artists were capable of direct comparison with the Ancients. He was appointed to the papal mint in 1547. His prolific output is varied. He began his artistic training under the guidance of his uncle Giovanni Giacomo, who takes him on his construction site of the Cathedral of Milan and assigned him the task of sculpturing and reinterpret ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mirror Writing
Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when reflected in a mirror. It is sometimes used as an extremely primitive form of cipher. A common modern usage of mirror writing can be found on the front of ambulances, where the word "AMBULANCE" is often written in very large mirrored text, so that drivers see the word the right way around in their rear-view mirror. It is also on Fire engine, fire engines and Police car, police cars too. Some people are able to produce handwritten mirrored text. Notably, Leonardo da Vinci wrote most of his personal notes in this way. Mirror writing calligraphy was popular in the Ottoman Empire, where it often carried mystical associations. Ability to write mirrored text An informal Australian newspaper experiment identified 10 true mirror-writers in a readership of 65,000. A higher proportion of left- ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
