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

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

Swivel crane

Luigi Boldetti

1966

Among the pieces of construction site machinery probably designed by Brunelleschi for the construction works for the Florence Cathedral dome, and drawn by Leonardo, we also find the swivel crane, reconstructed in 1966 by the engineer Boldetti.

Consisting of a fixed base and a rotating vertical mast, the crane is powered by two teams of workers: the first, on a platform situated halfway up, has the task of maneuvering a wheel with radial handles connected to a system of pulleys, making it possible to raise the load. The other team, on a platform at the top, at the center of the horizontal crosspiece, actuates a “reversing” screw for shifting the load transversely, again by means of a wheel with radial handles.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Material
Carved wood, wrought iron, cotton rope, granite
Measures
Width: 101 cm, Length: 72 cm, Depth: 43.5 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 105 v
Inventory number
Object Record No.: 00000024
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 19 September 2025, 11:52

Rotating central-fulcrum crane for the cathedral lantern

Made by
Università di Firenze, Facoltà di Ingegneria, Dipartimento di Meccanica e Tecnologie industriali

2004

Designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, but put into use only after his death in 1446, this crane was used for the construction works for the lantern of the Florence Cathedral’s dome. The machine was mounted on a circular, rotating platform and positioned at the center of the eye of the dome, that is, inside the perimeter upon which the walls of the lantern were to be erected. As the walling gradually mounted in height, the platform was raised by means of screws. In order to lift and horizontally shift the marble blocks, the crane made use of an arm that could swivel 360°, with a system composed of two endless screws, driven by two wooden disks acting as screw bolts. A second version of this crane was also developed, reproduced in 1:2 scale, which can be viewed in the Hall of the Podesta in the Castle of the Counts Guidi.

Technical informations

Type of exhibit
Model
Material
Wood, iron, marble
Measures
Width: 100 cm, Length: 83 cm, Diameter: 47 cm
Storage location
Relationship with the original work
Source: Leonardo da Vinci, Codex Atlanticus, f. 808 v
Location
Museo Leonardiano, Palazzina Uzielli, first floor

Related exhibits

Last update: 19 September 2025, 11:56

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