Launched in 2017 with the aim of conducting advanced research into the vast repository of data and information contained in the Codex Atlanticus, housed at the Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, Leonardo//thek@-Codex Atlanticus was published on the web in March 2023, following six years of work by researchers, archivists, IT specialists and staff of the Museo Galileo.

Leonardo//thek@ 1.0 represented an unprecedented model of a digital library, which made it possible - thanks to a wide range of search methods and tools - to consult the images and the transcriptions of the 1,200 folios of the Codex Atlanticus in an immersive online experience. It also offered the opportunity to access the findings of over two centuries of research into the vast and chaotic ocean of data preserved within this exceptional cultural monument.

Leonardo//thek@ 1.0 represented the first step in an ambitious project: to reconstruct the state of Leonardo’s manuscripts before the disastrous intervention by Pompeo Leoni, the Aretine sculptor who, in the late 16th century, dismembered and mutilated many of Da Vinci’s notebooks and loose sheets, distributing them between two large albums, one of which, the Codex Atlanticus, is today preserved in the Ambrosiana Library, Milan, and the other in the Royal Library, Windsor.

The publication (Spring 2026) of Leonardo//thek@ 2.0 enables an integrated access to the resources of the Codex Atlanticus and the 600 Vincian sheets preserved in the Royal Library, which together represent one-third of Leonardo’s entire extant corpus of notes and drawings. This marks a fundamental development, heralding a new era of research into the artistic, scientific, and literary work of the Genius of Vinci. At the same time it facilitates a precise reconstruction of Leonardo's biography and provides access to the centuries-old tradition of studies on his surviving codices.

Leonardothek@ 2.0 provides tangible evidence of the fundamental contribution made by the most advanced methods of non-invasive analysis of historical documents, the intelligent use of information technology, and the internet.

It would have been impossible to bring this innovative project to completion without the decisive and valuable collaboration of the institutions that preserve the original Leonardian documents and promote ongoing research and documentation on Leonardo. Equally crucial was the constant encouragement and support from the Italian ministries of Culture and of University and Research, from the National Committee for the Celebration of the 500th Anniversary of Leonardo’s Death, and from the Commission for the National Edition of Leonardo da Vinci’s Manuscripts and Drawings.