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Codex Arundel, folio 1030 |
Leonardo's machines
Leonardo's output is the epitome of that extraordinary period of human history which was
the Italian Renaissance, a period of great cultural advances and of great projects.
Leonardo's output is the expression of the men and women of the time, of what they felt
and did, of the machines they built so that in turn they could build churches, palaces,
fortresses; machines for waging war, for work, for the manufacture and trade of all those
goods whose availability was of such great importance to the rulers and their courts.
However, more importantly, Leonardo's output bears witness to who and what he was - a man
who was shaped by the loveliest and most stimulating city of the time, Florence, and who
embarked upon his own path of research and drawing up of ideas and plans embracing a
multitude of sectors, ranging from hydraulics to mechanics, to flight, to anatomy and to
optics... We shall be taking a look at some of the most interesting ideas of all those
contained in the over 6,000 Leonardo's folios. Each of these ideas is epitomized by one of
the models housed in the Museum's "Leonardo da Vinci"
Gallery:
War Machines
Flying Machines
Work Machines
Water and Land Machines
Leonardo the Architect