Codex Atlanticus

{{Short description|Set of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci}}

{{Infobox manuscript

| name = Codex Atlanticus

| location = Biblioteca Ambrosiana

| image = Codice Atlantico - Legatura.jpg

| width =

| caption =

| Also known as =

| Type = Codex

| Date = 1478–1519

| Place of origin =

| Language(s) = Italian

| Scribe(s) =

| Author(s) = Leonardo da Vinci

| Compiled by = Pompeo Leoni

| Illuminated by =

| Patron =

| Dedicated to =

| Material =

| Size =

| Format =

| Condition =

| Script =

| Contents = 1,119 paper leaves (2,238 pages); 12 volumes

| Illumination(s) =

| Additions =

| Exemplar(s) =

| Previously kept = Leonardo da Vinci → Francesco Melzi → Orazio Melzi → Pompeo Leoni → Biblioteca Ambrosiana → Institut de France → Biblioteca Ambrosiana

| Discovered =

| Accession =

| Other =

| below = [http://codex-atlanticus.it/#/?lang=EN Browsable online archive]

}}

The Codex Atlanticus (Atlantic Codex) is a 12-volume, bound set of drawings and writings (in Italian) by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest single set. Its name indicates the large paper used to preserve original Leonardo notebook pages, which was used for atlases. It comprises 1,119 leaves dating from 1478 to 1519, the contents covering a great variety of subjects, from flight to weaponry to musical instruments and from mathematics to botany. This codex was gathered in the late 16th century by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni, who dismembered some of Leonardo's notebooks in its formation. It is now in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

Description

The Codex Atlanticus is the largest single collection of drawings and writings (in Italian) by polymath Leonardo da Vinci, containing 1,119 paper leaves (2,238 pages){{efn|Sheets are written on the front and back}} arranged into 12 leather-bound volumes.{{sfn|The Associated Press via NYT|2007}} Its size and scope has led art historian Carlo Pedretti to recognize it as the most important of Leonardo's manuscripts.{{sfn|Pedretti|1998|p=1}} The pages are in various sizes, "from folded sheets to minute fragments."{{sfn|Pedretti|1998|p=8}} They range from 1478 to 1519 and cover Leonardo's entire professional career through Florence, Milan, Rome, and Amboise.{{sfn|Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana - A}}

The codex contains drawings and writings on a diverse range of subjects, including studies and sketches for paintings, works on mechanics, hydraulics, mathematics, astronomy as well as philosophical meditations and fables. It also has many inventions such as parachutes, war machineries and hydraulic pumps.{{sfn|Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana - A}}

Argano sollevatore pesi Leonardo Museo scienza e tecnologia Milano.jpg|Hoist by Leonardo da Vinci (Codex Atlanticus, f. 30v., 1480 ca.). Reconstruction at the Museo nazionale della scienza e della tecnologia Leonardo da Vinci, Milan.

DaVinci Crossbow.JPG|Design for a giant crossbow

Facsimile-of-codex-atlanticus-screws-and-water-wheels-laminate.jpg|Waterwheels and Archimedean screws

History

Leonardo composed the 1,119 leaves later collected in the Codex Atlanticus from 1478 to 1519.{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=170}} His notebooks—originally loose papers of different types and sizes, were largely entrusted to his pupil and heir Francesco Melzi after the master's death.{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=169}} These were to be published, a task of overwhelming difficulty because of its scope and Leonardo's idiosyncratic writing.{{cite journal | author = Keele Kenneth D | year = 1964 | title = Leonardo da Vinci's Influence on Renaissance Anatomy | journal = Med Hist| volume = 8| issue = 4| pages = 360–70| pmc=1033412 | pmid=14230140 | doi=10.1017/s0025727300029835}} After Melzi's death in 1570, the collection passed to his son, the lawyer Orazio, who initially took little interest in the journals.{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=169}} In 1587, a Melzi household tutor named Lelio Gavardi took 13 of the manuscripts to Florence, intending to offer them to the grand duke of Tuscany. However, following Francesco I de' Medici's untimely death, Gavardi took them to Pisa to give to his relative Aldus Manutius the Younger; there, Giovanni Magenta reproached Gavardi for having taken the manuscripts illicitly and returned them to Orazio. Having many more such works in his possession, Orazio gifted the 13 volumes to Magenta. News spread of these lost works of Leonardo's, and Orazio retrieved seven of the 13 manuscripts, which he then gave to Pompeo Leoni for publication in two volumes; one of these was the Codex Atlanticus.{{sfn|Major|1866|pp=15–16}} Leoni dismembered some of Leonardo's notebooks in the formation of the codex, gathering the original leaves into 1,222 pages.{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=170}}

When Napoleon conquered Milan in 1796, he seized about a dozen Leonardo manuscripts including the Codex and sent them to Paris, saying that "all men of genius ... are French, whatever the country which has given them birth." The manuscript was returned to Milan at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, but the other manuscripts remain in the Paris Institut de France.{{sfn|Wallace|1972|p=170}}

The codex was restored and rebound by the Basilian monks working in the Laboratory for the Restoration of Ancient Books and Manuscripts of the Exarchic Greek Abbey of St. Mary of Grottaferrata from 1968 to 1972.{{sfn|Abbey of St. Mary of Grottaferrata}}

In April 2006, Carmen Bambach of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City discovered an extensive invasion of molds of various colors, including black, red, and purple, along with swelling of pages.{{sfn|The Associated Press via NYT|2007}}{{cite web|url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article3085390.ece |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115091305/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article3085390.ece |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 15, 2008 |title=Codex Atlanticus by Leonardo Da Vinci is being damaged by mould |publisher=The Times |access-date=2013-07-17}} Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi—then the head of the Ambrosian Library, now head of the Pontifical Council for Culture at the Vatican—alerted the Italian conservation institute, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, in Florence. In October 2008, it was determined that the colors found on the pages were not the product of mold, but were instead caused by mercury salts added to protect the Codex from mold.{{cite web|url=http://www.physorg.com/news143811439.html |title=Study: Da Vinci Codex old but not moldy |publisher=Physorg.com |date=2008-10-21 |access-date=2013-07-17}} Moreover, the staining appears to be not on the codex but on later cartonage.{{Cite web|url=https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081021/ap_on_sc/eu_italy_da_vinci_codex_1|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081026215502/http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081021/ap_on_sc/eu_italy_da_vinci_codex_1|url-status=dead|title=Italy museum says da Vinci writings gather no mold|via= Yahoo|date= October 21, 2008|archivedate=October 26, 2008}} Later in April 2006, the Codex Atlanticus was publicly displayed in Tokyo, Japan until August, for an exhibition with the Leonardo3 Museum: "The Virtual Codex Atlanticus".{{cite web |title=The Virtual Codex Atlanticus |website=leonardo3.net |publisher=Leonardo3 Museum |access-date=22 November 2020 |url=http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article3085390.ece|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080115091305/http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/visual_arts/article3085390.ece|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 15, 2008}}

In 2019, an interactive [http://codex-atlanticus.it/#/?lang=EN website] has been launched that allows exploration of the Codex Atlanticus in its entirety and to organize its 1,119 pages by subject, year and page number. 12 drawings of the Codex Atlanticus were on display at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in Washington, D.C. from June 21, 2023, until August 20, 2023.{{cite web |title=Imagining the Future|website=dclibrary.org| publisher=District of Columbia Public Library|access-date=25 June 2023|url=https://www.dclibrary.org/leonardo-da-vinci}}

Notes

References

Sources

;Books

{{cite book |last=Major |first=Richard Henry |author-link=Richard Henry Major |year=1866 |title=Archaeologia, or, Miscellaneous tracts relating to antiquity |publisher=Society of Antiquaries of London |location=London, England |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=HlBIAAAAYAAJ }} }}
{{cite book |last=Pedretti |first=Carlo |author-link=Carlo Pedretti |year=1978 |title=The Codex Atlanticus of Leonardo Da Vinci |publisher=Harcourt |location=San Diego, California |isbn=978-3840950032 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=yZhdlmmwRtMC }} }}
{{cite book |last=Wallace |first=Robert |year=1972 |orig-year=1966 |title=The World of Leonardo: 1452–1519 |publisher=Time-Life Books |location=New York, New York |isbn=978-0316509206 |url={{google books|plainurl=y|id=8TVQAAAAMAAJ }} }}

;Journals and articles

{{cite news |agency=Associated Press |date=23 December 2007 |title=Officials Report Mold in a Leonardo Collection |work=The New York Times|location=New York, New York |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/23/world/europe/23davinci.html |ref={{sfnRef|The Associated Press via NYT|2007}} }}
{{cite news |last=Taggart |first=Emma |date=16 May 2019 |title=All 1,119 Pages of Leonardo Da Vinci's "Codex Atlanticus" Now Available Online |publisher=My Modern Metropolis |url=https://mymodernmet.com/leonardo-da-vinci-codex-atlanticus/ }}

;Web

{{cite web |title=Codex Atlanticus |publisher=Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana |location=Milan, Lombardy |url=http://www.leonardo-ambrosiana.it/en/il-codice-atlantico/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181006054727/http://www.leonardo-ambrosiana.it/en/il-codice-atlantico/ |archive-date=October 6, 2018 |url-status=dead |ref={{sfnRef|Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana - A}} }}
{{cite web |title=Lab for the Restoration of Ancient Books and Manuscripts |publisher=Order of Basilian Monks in Italy |location=Grottaferrata, Metropolitan City of Rome Capital |url=https://www.abbaziagreca.it/en/activities/restoration.asp |ref={{sfnRef|Abbey of St. Mary of Grottaferrata}} |access-date=2020-07-18 |archive-date=2017-07-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170725045952/http://www.abbaziagreca.it/en/activities/restoration.asp |url-status=dead }}
{{cite web |last=Pedretti |first=Carlo |author-link=Carlo Pedretti |year=1998 |title=Introduction to Leonardo's Codex Arundel |publisher=British Library |location=London, England |url=http://www.bl.uk/ttp2/pdf/leonardopedretti1.pdf |access-date=2020-07-18 |archive-date=2019-12-07 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191207000740/http://www.bl.uk/ttp2/pdf/leonardopedretti1.pdf |url-status=dead }}
{{cite web |title=The Mystery of the Codex Atlanticus. Leonardo at the Ambrosiana |publisher=Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana |location=Milan, Lombardy |url=https://www.ambrosiana.it/en/partecipa/mostre-e-iniziative/the-mysteries-of-the-codex-atlanticus-leonardo-at-the-ambrosiana/ |ref={{sfnRef|Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana - B}} }}

External links

[http://codex-atlanticus.it/#/?lang=EN Browsable online archive of digitized images of the Codex Atlanticus]
[https://www.ambrosiana.it/en/discover/codex-atlanticus/ Codex Atlanticus, Pinacoteca Ambrosiana]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20150506221021/http://www.mariotaddei.net/Mario_Taddei_2008%20Leonardo%20da%20Vinci%20-%20Unique%20edition%20of%20the%20Da%20Vinci%20Codex%20Atlanticus.htm Reconstruction of the original Da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20200718053223/https://artsandculture.google.com/culturalinstitute/beta/exhibit/ten-key-facts-about-leonardo-da-vinci-s-codex-atlanticus/rwKy3jZHwWiyJA Codex Atlanticus, Google Arts and Culture]

Category:Codices by Leonardo da Vinci

Category:15th-century manuscripts

Category:Manuscripts in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana

Category:Scientific illuminated manuscripts