Leonardo da Vinci’s “Codex on the Flight of Birds”

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Codex on the Flight of Birds” is a notebook containing observations, sketches, and musings on bird flight and the possibility of human flight. In Girl in the Glass, James receives a postcard with a picture of a dove on the front, the other side a cryptic poem written backwards. These are both clues to the postcard’s author.

In Girl in the Glass, James shows Declan the postcard and asserts, “It’s not any bird, this drawing is a pigeon.”

When Declan counters, “I think it’s a dove,” James correctly points out, “Pigeons and doves are the same bird.”

Despite the different connotations - doves are birds of peace, pigeons are flying rats - both names describe the same bird. Doves and pigeons are members of the same family, and only one person loves pigeons enough to send a postcard of one, Nikola Tesla.

Also, the postcard is written in a similar style to Leonardo da Vinci, with unique mirror writing, meaning the text is reversed and reads from right to left. Da Vinci wrote this way because he was left-handed and didn’t want to smudge the ink, but it also added an extra level of security against casual glances. In Girl in the Glass, Mr. Tesla, also left-handed, uses mirror writing to encrypt his message.

The “Codex on the Flight of Birds”, written in 1505, contains 500 drawings focused on the mechanics of bird flight, the nature of air, and ideas for human flight. Leonardo observed and documented bird movement, balance, and aerodynamics, anticipating the aeronautical concepts crucial for the development of aviation. The codex also contains sketches and designs for flying machines, including a flapping-wing device, influenced by his observations of bird flight.