Art discussing Academic Help

Need help with my Art & Design question – I’m studying for my class.

“Leonardo was motivated by strong curiosity and belief in the human ability to understand the fascinating phenomena of the physical world. He believed that art and science are two means to the same end: knowledge.

Leonardo showed his investigative and creative mind in his journals, where he documented his research in notes and drawings. His notebooks are filled with studies of anatomy and ideas for mechanical devices, explorations that put him at the forefront of the scientific development of his time.”

He wrote everything in his notebooks in mirror writing, starting on the right side and moving to the left. He wrote in the conventional direction when writing for other people. It has long puzzled people why he did this. Some ideas are:

• He was trying to make it harder for people to read his notes and steal his ideas.
• He was hiding his scientific ideas from the powerful Roman Catholic Church, whose teachings sometimes disagreed with what Leonardo observed. Think about what happened to the likes of Galileo.
• Writing left handed from left to right was messy because the ink just put down would smear as his hand moved across it. Leonardo chose to write in reverse because it prevented smudging.

Why do you think Leonardo wrote in his notebooks this way?