New digital archive reconstructs Leonardo da Vinci manuscripts for the first time in four centuries

A new digital platform called Leonardotheka has launched, reuniting thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s manuscripts that were cut apart and dispersed more than 400 years ago. Overseen by Museo Galileo in Florence, the ten-year initiative brings together the Codex Atlanticus at the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan with around 550 sheets from the UK’s Royal Collection at Windsor, in partnership with the Royal Collection Trust, the Ambrosiana, and the Biblioteca Leonardiana in Vinci. The project reports 50 confirmed page reconstructions, including one that reunites Codex Atlanticus folio 399r with Windsor folio 912345r, linking a horse drawing with text about the Regisole equestrian monument in Pavia. The dispersal traces back to Pompeo Leoni, who cut and reorganized the folios after Leonardo’s death in 1519; the Codex Atlanticus was donated to the Ambrosiana in 1637 by Count Galeazzo Arconati, while the figurative album entered the Royal Collection around 1670, likely as a gift to King Charles II; funding is split roughly half from Italian ministries and half from Museo Galileo (largely via ticket revenue).

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