The complete Leonardo, in one place
Every surviving notebook, codex, manuscript and sheet — scattered across a dozen institutions in seven countries for five centuries — gathered here as a single library. Grouped by kind, each links to its own page.
Codice Atlantico
The largest single collection of Leonardo's papers — 1,119 leaves spanning 1478–1519. A vast compendium of mechanics, mathematics, astronomy, botany, flight, weaponry and architecture, assembled by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni and held at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan.
Codice Arundel
A bound miscellany of some 280 leaves gathered after Leonardo's death, ranging from c.1480 to 1518. Rich in physics, geometry, optics and the behaviour of water; named for the Earl of Arundel and now in the British Library.
Codice Forster I
A pocket notebook (Victoria & Albert Museum) on hydraulic machines and the measurement of solids — Leonardo's studies of moving earth and water, with geometry, from the early 1490s.
Codice Forster II
Two small notebooks bound together (V&A) on the theory of proportion, light and shade, and weights — reflections from Leonardo's years in Milan.
Codice Forster III
A pocket notebook (V&A) of miscellaneous notes from Milan around 1490–93 — anatomy, hydraulics, architecture, costume and aphorisms jotted on the move.
Codice di Madrid I
Rediscovered in Madrid in 1965, a treatise on theoretical and applied mechanics — gears, springs, clocks and machine elements — among the finest of all Renaissance engineering manuscripts (Biblioteca Nacional de España).
Codice di Madrid II
The companion Madrid codex: geometry, the casting of the colossal Sforza equestrian monument, fortification and cartography, including Leonardo's survey of the Arno valley (Biblioteca Nacional de España).
Codice Urbinate lat. 1270
The Codex Urbinas — Leonardo's thoughts on painting, compiled posthumously by his pupil Francesco Melzi into the celebrated Trattato della pittura, the foundation of his artistic theory (Vatican Library).
Codice Leicester
A focused study of water, rock and the cosmos written c.1508–10 — including Leonardo's explanation of the pale light of the moon. The only codex in private hands, owned by Bill Gates.
Codice Trivulziano
An early notebook (c.1487–90) filled with the Latin vocabulary lists Leonardo set himself to learn, alongside studies of architecture and ecclesiastical buildings (Castello Sforzesco, Milan).
Codice sul volo degli uccelli
A small 1505 codex devoted to the flight of birds and the design of a flying machine — Leonardo's analysis of wings, air and balance (Biblioteca Reale, Turin).
Manoscritto A
Notebook A (c.1490–92): painting and perspective, mechanics and the movement of water — among Leonardo's earliest sustained notebooks.
Manoscritto B
Notebook B (c.1487–90): architecture, ideal cities, military engines and the famous flying machines — including the aerial screw and the ornithopter.
Manoscritto C
Notebook C (1490–91): a sustained investigation of light and shadow, and how illumination falls upon bodies.
Manoscritto D
Notebook D (c.1508–09): the anatomy and optics of the eye and the nature of vision.
Manoscritto E
Notebook E (1513–14): flight, the mechanics of weights, geometry, water and painting from Leonardo's late Roman years.
Manoscritto F
Notebook F (1508): water, optics, astronomy and geology — observations of the physical world.
Manoscritto G
Notebook G (c.1510–15): botany and the growth of plants, mechanics and geometry from Leonardo's final years.
Manoscritto H
Notebook H (1493–94): a tiny pocketbook of fables, bestiary notes, water studies and fortifications.
Manoscritto I
Notebook I (c.1497–1505): geometry, and studies of grammar and language.
Manoscritto K
Notebook K (1503–08): geometry after Euclid, the movement of water, and flight.
Manoscritto L
Notebook L (1497–1504): fortification, architecture and the Sforza horse, with notes from the Cesare Borgia campaigns.
Manoscritto M
Notebook M (c.1495–1500): Euclidean geometry, mechanics and the germination of seeds.
Ashburnham I
Leaves once cut from Notebook A by Count Libri and later restored — architecture and related studies, reunited with the Paris manuscripts.
Ashburnham II
Leaves once cut from Notebook B and later restored — military and architectural studies, reunited with the Paris manuscripts.
Collezione di Windsor
The Royal Collection's incomparable trove of Leonardo's drawings — the anatomical studies, horses, maps, grotesques and apocalyptic deluges — the summit of his draughtsmanship (Royal Collection Trust, Windsor).
Disegni di Torino
A small group of sheets at the Biblioteca Reale, Turin, including the red-chalk drawing long revered as Leonardo's self-portrait.
Disegni dell'Ambrosiana
Individual sheets held at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, gathered from across Leonardo's career.
Disegni degli Uffizi
Drawings in the Gabinetto dei Disegni e delle Stampe of the Uffizi, Florence — including some of his earliest landscape studies.
Collezioni Americane
Leonardo sheets dispersed among American museums and collections, brought together here in one place.
Disegni dell'Accademia
The Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice holds celebrated sheets including the Vitruvian Man — the proportions of the human body.