In 1420 Filippo Brunelleschi began what was to be one of the major undertakings of the Italian Renaissance: building the cupola for Florence’s Cathedral.

The hoists and the cranes he designed to raise and precisely position enormous loads, up to heights of almost a hundred metres above the ground, profoundly impressed the young Leonardo and other contemporary artist-engineers such as Mariano di Iacopo, Francesco di Giorgio, Buonaccorso Ghiberti and Giuliano da San Gallo. Theirs is the merit of having passed on, through their work notebooks, a perpetual record of these devices which represented a fundamental leap forward in the technology of building site machinery.

Leonardo dedicated much time and effort to the study of the multi-stage and complex production cycle of textile manufacturing, inventing machines for twisting and doubling thread, for spinning and for weaving. Some of his designs are timely suggestions for improvements directed at the partial or complete automation of the main phases of the manufacturing cycle, whereas others are daring forays towards factory and mass-production systems.

Fascinated by all the mechanical elements inside clocks which ensure the transmission of motion, Leonardo showed a particular interest in devices for the measurement of time. He performed what were almost anatomical dissections on them in a continual quest for solutions which could achieve ever-more sophisticated levels of automation.

In 1482, Leonardo left Florence for Milan. It was at the court of Ludovico il Moro that he displayed his lively interest in the techniques and the tools for waging war, concentrating on searching for solutions which could increase the precision of shots and the firepower, as well as the speed of loading firearms.

The Architecture and civil engineering section is currently in the planning phase.
It will be devoted to documenting Leonardo’s experience as an architect and urban planner at the court of François I in France.
This section will also house da Vinci’s studies for the construction of bridges for both civilian and military use. The Canal bridge with pound locks and the Quick-build bridge, already on show in this room, are two such samples.

 

 

 

 
Having undertaken the study of optics in order to resolve problems relating to pictorial representation, Leonardo was confronted with the numerous and heterogeneous theories of his predecessors, then opting for original ideas and independence from the dominant ideas of his time.
In his Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on painting), da Vinci devotes himself to the study of the various types of light and shadow; in the codices of the Institut de France he reports an incredible number of photometric experiments accompanied by acute observations on the reciprocal influences of shadows and colours.
The field in which Leonardo’s action assumes peculiar interest is that of the study of the phenomena of reflection and refraction he experiments with using flat and convex mirrors, he designs ingenious instruments with which he resolves problems of geometric optics and derives models which explain certain behaviour of light. He also performs interesting experiments with lenses and is one of the first people to use glass “lentils” to improve sight.

Water, a fundamental element in Leonardo’s geological concept as a tool of Nature’s activity, was often a central object of his studies from the earliest years of his stay in Lombardy. The scientist in him applied his knowledge of mechanics to the realization of works aimed at diverting, rectifying and regimenting water courses, as well as exploiting their hydraulic energy for milling or cottage industry. To this end he produced numerous cartographic surveys which, for the ways in which features are represented, are quite unique in the cultural environment of his time. 

Despite the fact that he had not received a thorough grounding in the principles of mathematics and geometry, it soon became clear to Leonardo that every rule on which we can gain insight through experimental observation needs a mathematical formula to accompany it.
He considered the study of geometry the theoretical structure behind scientific research and an indispensable tool for his activities as a painter and an architect.
The arrival in Milan of the mathematician Luca Pacioli in 1496 marked a major turning-point in Leonardo’s knowledge of mathematics, and he immediately began studying under him. At that time, Pacioli was working on the book De divina proportione, which was to be published in Venice in 1509. Leonardo drew a large number of illustrations of geometric solids for it, both the full versions, seen in perspective, and in the so-called ‘empty’ versions, in which only the linear structure is shown: from the simplest solids, such as the sphere, to very complex polyhedra.