Leonardo da Vinci's Codex Atlanticus drawings will be displayed in the United States for the first time in an exhibition opening this summer in Washington, D.C. Codex Atlanticus is the largest collection of Italian-language drawings and writings by the legendary polymath, spanning nearly 1,200 pages in 12 volumes.
Leonardo kept the Codex Atlanticus from 1478 to 1519, the year of his death, and it has been kept in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan since 1637.
A variety of subjects are included in the collection, such as botany, flight, mathematics, musical instruments, and weaponry. Engineers and designers found rich material for their work on its pages. Art historian and Leonardo expert Carlo Pedretti called the codex, which spans the artist's entire career, the most important of the master's manuscripts.
Some drawings in the exhibition may be linked to modern mechanisms, the organizers point out: Leonardo's study for an excavation machine served as inspiration for today's excavation machines; his project for a self-propelled cart echoes our autonomous vehicles; and his diving apparatus influenced underwater exploration.