AVATARES DE LOS MANUSCRITOS MATRITENSES DE LEONARDO DA VINCI
Avatars of the Madrid Manuscripts by Leonardo Da Vinci

Summary/Abstract: Leonardo da Vinci’s autograph writings and drawings followed a complex fortune until they reached the present day. One of the links in the chain of transmission of the Vincian writings was their arrival in the hands of the Italian sculptor Pompeo Leoni, who settled in Spain. The will of this sculptor clears up any doubts about the presence of an important Vincian collection in Spain, although the description of it in the different wills of the Leoni family does not allow us to fully identify each of the codices that have come down to us. In this article a proposal is made for identification with three levels of certainty based on this notarial description. Among those identified with certainty is the miscellaneous collection now in the Windsor Collection. Less certain is the identification of the Codex Atlanticus, in the Biblioteca Ambrosiana. Finally, the provenance of the Madrid I and II Codices can be described as enigmatic, since, although it is known that the collector Juan de Espina bequeathed them to the King of Spain, there is no documentary reference to how they were acquired.

• Details
• Contents