Throughout his life, Le Corbusier always carried sketchbooks in which he accumulated observations, calculations, notes, architectural drawings, and sketches of works and projects. As a whole, these constitute a source of extraordinary interest. The architect's reflections come to life, creation appears in its nascent state. In and of themselves, the sketchbooks represent a sort of fundamental "latent work," for which the finished work, whatever its mode of expression, is only a secondary outcome. Hoping to make these works accessible to everyone, in 1981 the Le Corbusier Foundation in Paris authorized the publication of 73 sketchbooks from the years 1914 to 1964, comprising a major portion of the Le Corbusier legacy. Later, the foundation was able to acquire six of the earliest sketchbooks, which correspond to the period of the voyage to the east in 1910-1911, and which were not part of the original bequest.
In their current state, Charles-Edouard Jeanneret's notations for Voyage d'Orient begin in sketchbook numbered "V" in Le Corbusier's hand; the first pages, however, correspond to his 1910 trip to Germany. The four preceding sketchbooks, which have not been found, undoubtedly refer to the beginning of that voyage. Nevertheless, these six sketchbooks, which have been only recently discovered, cover the entire period of Voyage d'Orient, a time now known to have been exceptionally significant in the formation of the architect who would become Le Corbusier. Consequently, these sketchbooks constitute a homogeneous totality of fundamental importance that justifies their publication. This led to an agreement with the Italian publishing house, Electa, to produce a facsimile edition. Professor Giuliano Gresleri, a respected scholar of Le Corbusier's early years and author of the work Viaggio in Oriente, oversaw the general presentation of these sketchbooks and the editing of the explanatory notes. For its part, the Le Corbusier Foundation saw to the transcription of the texts, the interpretation of which, from manuscript form, was often difficult.
