Da Vinci’s 500 Year-Old Puzzle!

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Da Vinci’s 500 Year-Old Puzzle Was Turned Into An Awesome Game For Adults.
There are books, there are puzzles, and there are books full of puzzles — most of the latter are intended for children. Until now, that is: This is a wooden book where each page consists of a beautiful and extremely difficult puzzle, satisfying more than one of our nerdiest adult fantasies all at once.

 

There’s no way we could truly capture how cool this thing actually is, but we’re going to try: The entire thing is a totally physical experience, and finding the solution is a lot harder than you’d think. Creator Brady Whitney, who came up with the book/puzzle for his senior thesis at Iowa State University, had this to say about the Codex Silenda:

“I never was a fan of jigsaw puzzles,” he said. “You get a really cool picture out of the deal, but it doesn’t have that satisfying solution or process to me.” That’s why this thing works a little bit differently. “You’re almost working your way backwards from all the different solutions to the problem,” Whitney explained.

This is the Codex Silenda. It’s a book made of puzzles, all crafted from more than 100 pieces of laser-cut maple and birchwood.