Leonardian Library

Among the main centres for leonardian studies in Italy, the Leonardian Library gathers to date over 16.500 works by and about Leonardo da Vinci, among which the duplicates of all his manuscripts and drawings and all the printed works starting with the first edition of A treatise on painting (1651).

The establishment of the Leonardian Library, in the early 1900s, is closely tied to the figure of Gustavo Uzielli, one of the most prominent experts on Leonardo da Vinci in the late 1800s. His efforts, along those of the Municipality of Vinci, to establish a Library dedicated to Leonardo in his hometown were realised in 1928, also thanks to the acquisition on the part of the Town of Vinci of the fund of Gustavo Uzielli’s private library dedicated to Leonardo.
   

In the last decades, the Leonardian Library has become a more and more established centre not only for the documents it keeps, but also as a provider of bibliographical information through the Bibliografia Internazionale Leonardiana (BIL), which systematically updates the bibliographic catalogue of the works by and about Leonardo and includes thematic bibliographies, some of which are dedicated to Leonardian scholars.

The Leonardian Library, in collaboration with important Italian and foreign institutes, has also curated one of the most innovative research tools available today to scholars and enthusiasts: the e.Leo portal, a portal through which you can consult thousands of pages of the Leonardo's codices. The available functions allow not only to zoom in on the pages, but also to search the texts and read the transcripts in the original language and in English.

Open to the public every day for consultation and borrowing, the Library is also open upon reservation for school and group tours giving the opportunity to see the duplicates of Leonardo’s manuscripts up close.