The Codex Atlanticus, held at the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, is the world’s largest collection of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci. Its 1,119 folios document the breadth of his interests, ranging from mechanics to architecture, hydraulics to flight, geometry to the study of nature.
A first milestone in the digital enhancement of the Codex Atlanticus dates back to 2009, when Mida Digit carried out the complete digitisation of the work. All the folios were captured directly in the vault of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana using a planetary scanner designed to digitise ancient books and documents without subjecting them to pressure or physical stress. The project captured writings, drawings, annotations and details of the paper at high resolution and encompassed the entire workflow, from handling the originals and image acquisition through to archiving.
More than a decade later, Haltadefinizione returned to the same folios, shifting the focus from their contents to the material structure of the paper. For Leonardo//thek@ 2.0, the watermarks of the Codex Atlanticus were digitised at ultra-high resolution. Formed during the paper-making process, these marks can provide information about the provenance of the paper and the relationships between different documents.
The images, captured at 800 ppi, combined transmitted-light photography, near-infrared reflectography and raking-light photography. The digitisation technique was calibrated to the characteristics of each folio, taking into account the thickness of the paper, the density of the inks, the presence of drawings and its state of conservation.
The watermark images can now be explored on Leonardo//thek@, the Museo Galileo research platform that brings together high-resolution files, transcriptions, indices and critical apparatus dedicated to Leonardo’s manuscripts. Their publication makes it possible to complement the study of the writings and drawings with an examination of their material characteristics.
The two campaigns explored different aspects of the Codex Atlanticus. The first digitised its contents, while the second analysed its physical support, opening up new avenues of research into the history of the paper.
