Leonardo's Codices
The most important work of Leonardo Da Vinci.
A daily diary with a direct testimony of studies and life during Leonardo’s
time, but above all of his life. This diary is the most important scientific
heritage of Renaissance.
Codex Atlanticus is being held in the Ambrosiana
Library and collects sketches with different sizes; some of these
sketches may be dated between 1478 and 1518 and are composed
by 1119 support papers (65x44 cm).
This Code deals with a lot of different topics: formal
sciences (ex. mathematics and geometry), experimental sciences (physics,
mechanics) and biology, astronomy, botany, zoology or military arts; furthermore there are also descriptions
of the first human flight machine, celestial mechanic studies and the canalisation
of water flows.
The “Codex Atlanticus” contains a lot of preliminary
artistic drawings, but also famous pictures and
among these, there are the sketches of the equestrian statue in honour of
Francesco Sforza. These drawings are blown to pieces before casting or urbanistic
and architectonic plans to renew Milan, create a new Palace of Medici Family
in Florence and build a Royal Palace in Romorantin (France).
During the Sixties, there was a restoration that kept integral
the Leoni’s work but, for convenience, the Codex was divided into 12
volumes. In 1608, Leoni died and the Codex was sold by the heirs to the Count
Galeazzo Arconati, who donated it and other manuscripts to Ambrosiana Library.
In 1795, Napoleon moved these volumes to Paris and only the Codex Atlanticus
returned to Ambrosiana Library after the Wien Congress in 1815.
The Codex is called Atlanticus because at the beginning all the sheets were all collected in a single volume with a big size (that was their own of Atlanticus).
3
Hand-bound leather Volumes (35x50 cm) with pure gold incisions
1550
Pages
2000
facsimile Sketches on the special “Cellini” paper
Limited
edition print of 1999 numbered copies “ad personam”
Each
volume may be provided with a precious wood case
To the other Codices
Visit Trec International site
Information about Reading Key
