Codex Atlanticus
This Codex contains a number of drawings, most of which can be dated in the period 1480 to 1518. Various themes are touched on, from mathematics to geometry, astronomy, botany, zoology and the military arts. Today it consists of twelve leather-bound volumes, comprising 1,119 supports which gather together pages of different sizes. The name "Codex Atlanticus" derives from the fact that originally all the sheets were contained in a single large-sized volume, rather like an atlas in fact. The Codex Atlanticus was created around the end of the sixteenth century by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni who - in a disastrous operation - dismembered the original Leonardo manuscripts which had came into his possession: many drawings were cut in order to separate all the scientific and technical drawings, today contained in the Codex, from the naturalistic and anatomical ones, many of which are today part of the Royal Windsor collection.