Among the main research centers on Leonardo’s work in Italy, the Biblioteca Leonardiana has a collection of 22.000 texts by and about Leonardi da Vinci. Among these, there are duplicates of the entirety of Leonardo’s manuscripts, drawings and printed works, starting with the first edition of A Treatise on Painting (1651).

The establishment of the Biblioteca Leonardiana, in the early 1900s, is closely tied to the figure of Gustavo Uzielli, one of the most prominent experts on Leonardo da Vinci in the late 1800s. His efforts, along those of the Municipality of Vinci, to establish a Library dedicated to Leonardo in his hometown got realized in 1928, also thanks to the acquisition on the part of the Town of Vinci of the fund of Gustavo Uzielli’s private library dedicated to Leonardo. 

In the last decades, the Biblioteca Leonardiana has become a more and more affirmed center not only for the documents it holds, but also as a provider of bibliographical information through Bibliografia Internazionale Leonardiana (BIL), which systematically updates the bibliographic catalog of the works by and about Leonardo and includes thematic bibliographies, some of which are dedicated to Leonardo scholars. 

Thanks to the collaboration with important Italian and foreign Institutions, the Biblioteca Leonardiana has also curated one of the most innovative research tools available today to scholars and enthusiasts: the e.Leo portal, a portal through which it is possible to consult the almost totality of Leonardo’ corpus. The available functions allow not only to zoom in the pages, but also to search the texts and read the transcripts in the original language and in English. 

Open to the public every day for consultation and borrowing, the Library is also open upon reservation for school and group tours to see the duplicates of Leonardo’s manuscripts up close.