A researcher who claims that a famous 1514 engraving by Albrecht Dürer is actually a photograph of a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci – containing a hidden code – has contacted a da Vinci expert.

Roger Davies, an amateur photographer from Wales, is convinced that the famous 16th-century Dürer engraving, Melancholia, is the ‘world’s first photograph’, after he spent three years researching the theory.

Furthermore, as we reported last month, Davies claims to have uncovered a secret ‘da Vinci code’ in the artwork linked to the number ‘532’.

Davies this week told Amateur Photographer (AP) that he has since approached the Leonardo da Vinci Society.

However, he said that the society showed ‘complete disinterest’ in the theory.

Contacted separately by AP, the Leonardo da Vinci Society’s president, Dr J V Field, told us: ‘You are as good as judge as I am of the claims made by your reader.’

Speaking during the summer, AP’s photo-science consultant Geoffrey Crawley slammed Davies’ theory, saying it was ‘impossible’ that the multi-faceted element lens needed to be able to produce such an image could have existed in the early 16th century.

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