Da Vinci's Notebook Has Special Appeal
The Age
Tuesday January 24, 1995
The man of the moment, Microsoft's billionaire chairman Bill Gates, writes his second column for Computer Age. This time he is answering questions submitted by readers around the world.
QUESTION: What possessed you to buy one of Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks?
LEONARDO was one of the most amazing people who ever lived. He was a genius in more fields than any scientist of any age, and an astonishing painter and sculptor.
His notebooks, of which 21 survive, were hundreds of years ahead of their time. They anticipated submarines, helicopters and other modern inventions, and are filled with original ideas.
Surprisingly little is known about Leonardo, outside of what is in these scientific notebooks. The one I bought contains more than 300 illustrations and was compiled by Leonardo between 1506 and 1508 while he was in Florence and Milan. He began work on it a few years after finishing some of his most famous paintings, including the Mona Lisa.
In the notebook, Leonardo speculates on hydraulics, cosmology, astronomy, geology, paleontology and other topics. I have read a translation of some of it.
I bought the manuscript for personal pleasure. I bid anonymously at an auction, but the secret did not last long. Don't expect me to make other bids like this one.
The manuscript is unique, and important to me because I have had a keen interest in Leonardo since I was 10.
My only regret is the disappointment my winning bid caused in Italy where a charity associated with a bank had hoped to bring the manuscript ``home" from the auction. I'd probably feel the same way if I were Italian.
But Leonardo was more than just an Italian, and this notebook is part of the intellectual and cultural heritage of the entire world. It should be shared with the world.
I will lend it to museums most of the time, beginning with an Italian museum, which will have it for a year.
So, Leonardo's manuscript will go home after all, if only for a long visit.
QUESTION: How many questions do you receive? What chance do I have of getting a personal reply?
I HAVEN'T counted the exact number of questions, but in the week after my first newspaper column ran I received two or three hundred electronic messages. Many were interesting.
I can't possibly answer all of this mail personally, but I can read it. If you get a reply, it will be personal in the sense that I'm the one who answers it, but I'll mostly answer in the pages of the newspaper. I have to set aside a little time to run Microsoft.
So far the questions I have read are from people who sent electronic mail to the address askbill@microsoft.com Askbill is a special name I set up for a mailbox especially for readers of this column. I can browse through the mailbox contents at any time.
It isn't really a mailbox, in a physical sense. It is the electronic equivalent, a place where e-mail messages are stored on a computer at Microsoft.
The address includes microsoft.com because Microsoft is a commercial entity.
If my mailbox were at an educational institution, the last three letters of the address would be edu instead of com. For example, if my address were at the University of Washington, it would include u.washington.edu in its name. Addresses at organisations use org, and there are some other abbreviations, too.
Electronic addresses outside the United States usually end in a two- letter abbreviation that represents the country. For example, last week readers sent me e-mail with return addresses labelled au, br, ca, hk, it, my, th, sg, uk and ve. These showed the messages came from Australia, Brunei, Canada, Hong Kong, Italy, Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and Venezuela.
Some addresses in the United States end with the abbreviation us but a lot of US addresses, including Microsoft's, were established back in the days when the Internet was a phenomenon largely limited to North America. So, most US addresses omit the us.
If you write to me at Microsoft, just use askbill@microsoft.com Don't say anything personal or confidential. Communication on the Internet is not private. People can snoop electronically. This will change. Networks will become quite secure, but it hasn't happened yet.
You don't have to ask your question via e-mail, by the way.
Newspapers running this column are publishing a postal address, too.
No postal letters from the column have reached me yet because postal letters always take time to reach their destination. That's one of the great things about an e-mail message. It is immediate and direct. You send it, and I get it.
I read e-mail in the office, at home, and on my laptop computer as I travel. In fact, if you have sent me e-mail I might be reading it right now.
Editor's Note: Bill Gates paid $US35 million ($A45 million) for the notebook late last year.
Questions may be sent to Bill Gates by electronic mail to the Internet address: askbill@microsoft.com or by conventional mail to the following address: Bill Gates Column, care of The New York Times Syndicate, 14th Floor, 122 E 42nd St, New York, NY 10168, USA.
Bill Gates regrets that unpublished questions cannot be answered individually.
© 1995 The Age