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FOR VISITORS:

  • On Friday, October 31, the museum site at the Conti Guidi’s Castle will close at 6.00 p.m. for the set-up of the evening event. The ticket office will close at 5.15 p.m.

Studies of the cranium

Paola Salvi, Made by
Moreno Vezzoli

2016

Leonardo studied the bone structure of the cranium, drawing it with extreme care and precision. Inside the window, the wax models reproduce exactly the marvelous drawings Leonardo made, allowing us to appreciate the morphology of the cranium, both internally and externally.

In the cranium to the right, two small, crossed metal segments identify the exact point where Leonardo positions the so-called “common sense”. This is the point at which the emotions (sensorial impressions) deriving from all the senses were believed to converge. Here resides the “soul”, and here is the seat of judgment, assisted by imagination and memory.

In the cranium to the left, cut in half and separated, we see the frontal part where the ocular orbits and nasal cavity stand out. In particular, we can observe the structure of the bone tissue in the jaw and distinguish some teeth and their roots.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 19058 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Last update: 24 June 2025, 10:07

Studies of the upper limb in pronation-supination

Paola Salvi, Made by
Moreno Vezzoli

2016

Leonardo studied the upper limbs and their functional possibilities all throughout his life. In particular, he analyzed the instruments making their movement possible: bones, muscles, and joints. The two wax models inside the display case reproduce the movements of pronation and supination of the arm, which allow the palm of the hand to turn upward or downward.

In the anatomical model positioned farther up, the two bones that form the forearm, the radius and the ulna, are parallel: in fact, the arm is in supination. In the second model, farther down, the two bones cross, becoming oblique, and here the arm is in pronation.
The muscles responsible for the rotation of the hand, the biceps and the round pronator, are painted soft red. Leonardo was among the first to analyze the relationships between the bone components, going even so far as to point out the shortening of the arm in the pronation phase, a discovery only recently confirmed.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 19000 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 14 October 2025, 11:25

Situs viscerum in a female body

Annaklara Galli

2016

Leonardo approached the study of anatomy for the purpose of being able to better portray the human body. Quite soon, however, his curiosity and his spirit of observation led him to investigating the inside of what he himself referred to as the marvelous machine of the body.

It was in Florence, in the early 1500s, that the artist dissected various bodies at the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, advancing his own hypotheses, proceeding by comparison and formulating theories connecting the form and function of the various organs.
This sculpture in ceroplastics was made by creating a bas-relief model on a sheet of plexiglass, representing the internal organs of a female body. We can make out the uterus, kidneys, liver, spleen, and heart, with its blood vessels, organized in an ensemble view that is defined officially in anatomy as the situs viscerum (the site of the viscera).
The work is completed by two outer shells representing the front and back of the body, in accordance with a special drafting technique allowing transparency, often utilized by Leonardo, in which the outline of the body allows us to view the internal organization of the viscera.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Wax sculpture
Measures
Height: 67.5 cm; Width: 35 cm.
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Windsor Collection, f. RL 12281
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 24 June 2025, 09:48

Anchor Escapement for Clock

Luigi Boldetti

1963

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Carved wood, cotton rope, iron, brass
Measures
Width: 25 cm, Height: 35.5 cm, Depth: 23 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 964 r
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 09:20

Wheel and pinion with helical teeth

Fausto Colombo, Giorgio Valentini, Giovanni Sacchi

1983

In this design, Leonardo uses a pair of wheels with helical teeth to transmit motion between non-parallel shafts. In his notes on the drawing, he states that helical-profile teeth last longer than ordinary ones because their contact surface is greater. The system can also be used as a speed reducer.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Swiss pine wood
Measures
Width: 75 cm, Length: 75 cm, Depth: 75 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 1103 r
Inventory number
Object Record No.: 00000083
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 12:08

Crank-operated thread-twisting machine

Luigi Boldetti

1969

This machine was designed by Leonardo to automate the operation of twisting thread. This is the phase coming after the doubling of the thread, where the textile fibers are twisted to give more resistance to the thread.

The innovative device, probably conceived for work at home, was to function without the spinner’s having to feed the machine by hand, and without accumulation of thread on the bobbin. The large wheel, driven by the crank, is connected by a belt to a shaft on which the reel of doubled thread is fixed. When this thread passes through another small wheel, it is twisted and then wraps around the larger bobbin.
To provide a uniform distribution of the spun thread, the bobbin also performs a back-and-forth movement owing to an ingenious system for transforming the rotary motion of the principal wheel into alternating motion.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Partially turned carved wood, iron, wool thread, and leather
Measures
Width: 74.5 cm, Length: 100 cm, Depth: 55 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Madrid Codex I, f. 65 v
Inventory number
Object Record No.: 00000029
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 09:03

The model features a mechanism applicable to machines designed for lifting and lowering heavy loads, capable of converting rotary motion into linear motion.

By turning a crank, the toothed wheel engages with the vertical rack, causing it to move up or down. At one end of the rack, a hook is attached to secure the load.

This device resembles a jack, a tool commonly used to lift two-wheeled vehicles in order to replace a wheel.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Carved Swiss pine wood
Measures
Width: 75 cm, Length: 75 cm, Depth: 75 cm.
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 998 r
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 24 June 2025, 10:52

The film recounts Leonardo’s experience at the construction site of the Florence Cathedral dome, a milestone in the development of the Vinci Genius as an engineer and in the history of technology in general.

This remarkable endeavor took place within the context of 15th-century Florence, a city that proudly displayed its economic prosperity, supported by the so-called Arti, the guilds of Florentine trades, through culture, art, and architecture.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Video
Storage location
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 17 September 2025, 12:04

Clock mechanism

Made by
IBM Italia

1952

Leonardo devoted great interest to the study of mechanical clocks and their components, in search of a device capable of accurately scanning time. This model replicates the mechanism regulating the descending speed of the weight inside a clock, a device that Leonardo and his contemporaries called the tempo, literally, “time.” Today this device is referred to as the escapement.

The descending weights communicate movement to two identical orders of toothed wheels and pinions, which transmit their movement to the gears of the escapement situated in the upper part of the device. Here a movable rod balance wheel in the form of a sector of a circle alternately meshes with the teeth of the system of pegged wheels, allowing them to advance intermittently, to mark the passage of time. Leonardo also used the flywheel as a regulator: a rotating axle fitted with vanes in order to make use of air resistance.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Carved wood, cotton rope, iron, brass
Measures
Width: 110.5 cm, Length: 35.5 cm, Depth: 45 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 964 r
Inventory number
Object Record No.: 00000007
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 09:17

Jack

Made by
IBM Italia

1952

The model of this mechanism, inspired by a drawing from the Codex Atlanticus, consists of a gear wheel which, when operated by a crank inserted into a drum, engages a vertical rack, allowing it to move up or down.

By converting rotational motion into linear motion, this device greatly facilitates the lifting of a weight from the ground.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Collection
Material
Painted carved wood
Measures
Width: 111 cm, Length: 40 cm, Depth: 33 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 998 r
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, second floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 22 September 2025, 09:37

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