Codex Atlanticus

The Codex Atlanticus (Italian: Codice Atlantico ) denotes a bound collection of drawings, sketches and notes of the Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519 ).

Name

The name Codex Atlanticus received the manuscript for their large format atlas. Around 1780, the plant in a catalog of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana as " codice in forma atlantica " was recorded. The work now consists of 1,119 sheets in the format 64.5 x 43.5 cm and is in the inventory of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.

History

After Leonardo da Vinci's death, all his records passed into the hands of his pupil Francesco Melzi (around 1491/92 - 1570 ), who kept the documents. His son Orazio Melzi inherited the documents in 1570 and sold as individual sheets ' and the valuable material was scattered. The sculptor and art collector Pompeo Leoni (1533-1608) was able to acquire a large part of the records.

Leoni cut individual sheets pasted together other, which originally did not belong together. He summed up to six drawings on a page by either glued to a backing paper or mounted in a paper frame, similar to a mat, which made the viewing of the front and back of the original possible. As a result, contains this and later as the "Codex Atlanticus " designated work, work from a period of 40 years, from 1478 to 1518, the da Vinci comprises almost the entire artistic life, and had in the created by Leoni form a circumference of 481 leaves and ca. 60cm thickness.

After the death Leonis in 1608 the Codex came into the possession of Count Galeazzo Arconati, who gave him in 1637 the Ambrosian Library in Milan. In 1795 came the work, together with twelve other manuscripts of Leonardo as spoils of Napoleon in the library of the Institut de France in Paris, and returned in 1815, after the fall of Napoleon, the Biblioteca Ambrosiana back. 1938 created Alfredo Ravasco a book case made ​​of rock crystal and lapis lazuli for the storage of the Codex.

In the 1960s, the band was dismantled, restored and reorganized so that all drawings are mounted on a separate sheet today. Since the completion of the restoration in 1968 of the Codex consists of 1,119 sheets, which are bound in twelve volumes.