Leonardo Da Vinci comes to Exploration Place

Leonardo da Vinci’s genius is most clearly expressed in his designs for amazing machines to be used in every imaginable walk of life (from flight to war, to plumbing, to music, to mechanics, to engineering) and it is in the Codex Atlanticus, the largest and most precious codex of all, that the incredible and intriguing designs for all his machines are collected.

For the first time in history, the Codex Atlanticus will be accessible to the general public. Through the technology of high resolution digital photography, Exploration Place will be presenting the pages of the Codex Atlanticus on interactive stations, giving visitors the opportunity to discover Leonardo’s machines for themselves.

The exhibition will display not only a number of physical models that have never been seen before, but also the Codex Atlanticus itself, in digital interactive 3-D format. Visitors will be able to turn the pages and zoom in on the finer details - previous exhibitions provided only static reproductions of selected pages. Even looking at the original manuscripts themselves cannot compete with the immense possibilities of this new approach (in fact the premiere of this traveling exhibition took place at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, where the original manuscript is conserved).

The highlight of the exhibition is the integration of more than 50 interactive digital 3-D working models of the most intriguing machines. Visitors will be able to just click on Leonardo’s original design and the 3-D model will be displayed, allowing them to examine, see and even hear it working… but most important of all, finally understand the machines without the need to read any explanatory notes.

But there’s even more for visitors to experience, they can:

• View the never-seen-before physical re-construction of the “real” Ultimate Flying Machine of Leonardo.
• Be Leonardo – design machines in his virtual workshop.
• Uncover machines like the Multi-cannon Gunship and the Robot-Cart.
• See 20 design reproductions from the originals of the Master.
• Learn about the incredible Multi-Cannon Gunship, a naval battleship with 16 cannons.
• Explore the Automobile, a self-propelled robot for special effects.
• Review 20 reproductions of designs of Leonardo printed in the early 1900.
• Discover panels with 3-D reconstructions of Leonardo’s machines.

For more about Exploration Place, go to Exploration.org.