Da Vinci’s to-do list to be displayed

A list of Leonardo da Vinci’s “things to do”, including reminders for works like “observe a brain”, is all set to be publicly displayed at Buckingham Palace from May 4.

The artist’s “to-do” list suggests it also meant to remind the Italian painter, sculptor, scientist, and anatomist to have his anatomy books bound, obtain a skull and describe a crocodile’s jaw.

His note, from about 1510, also mentions items he needs to get for a journey, including paper, charcoal and chalk, The Sun reported.

The previously unseen page will be exhibited with 80 others from his notebooks.

Curator Martin Clayton said: “Like anyone going on a trip, Leonardo listed things to take, but beside shirts and stockings he has forceps, a scalpel and bone-saw.

“His list may have been drawn up before a journey to Pavia medical school in Italy, where he dissected corpses.”

The papers, probably bought by King Charles II, have been in the Royal Collection since 1690.