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Published Work Pages
He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.
Discovering Da Vinci
A living archive connecting five centuries of paintings, notebooks, cast profiles, and research — with the tools to see what Leonardo encoded inside his masterworks.
Leonardo's Notebooks
Over 7,200 surviving pages across 13 major manuscripts — anatomy, optics, engineering, flight, water, botany, and more. Browse by codex, subject, or era.
Viewer
Manuscript Viewer
Read passages side-by-side with folio reference, translation, footnotes, and commentary.
Open Viewer → HubNotebooks Hub
All codices, subjects, biography eras, and timeline in one place.
CodexCodex Atlanticus
1,119 pages — the largest collection. Engineering, maps, optics, geometry.
CodexCodex Leicester
72 pages on water, astronomy, and fossils. Owned by Bill Gates since 1994.
CodexCodex on Flight
18 pages of bird studies and flying machine designs, c. 1505.
SubjectAnatomy
Dissections, muscle studies, the skull, the fetus — 240+ anatomical drawings.
CodexMadrid Codices
Rediscovered in 1966. Mechanics, gear trains, and fortress architecture.
TreatiseTreatise on Painting
Melzi's 944-chapter compilation of Leonardo's artistic teachings.
TimelineBiography Eras
Leonardo's life in periods — Florence, Milan, Rome, France.
Masterworks & Cast
Paintings, drawings, and the people around Leonardo — patrons, pupils, rivals, and subjects.
Hub
Works Hub
40 published pages — 21 paintings, 19 drawings, with linked analysis.
CollectionPaintings
Mona Lisa, Last Supper, Virgin of the Rocks, and all attributed works.
CollectionDrawings
Vitruvian Man, anatomical studies, draperies, and mechanical sketches.
HubCast Hub
22 profiles — Leonardo's network of patrons, pupils, rivals, and contemporaries.
Deep DivesCast Deep Dives
Long-form profiles: Michelangelo rivalry, Salai, Melzi, patrons, workshop pupils.
VisualGallery
High-resolution images and side-by-side comparisons.
Learn Paths
Curated sequences through the site — 10 guided paths with 60+ deep-research sub-pages.
Path F
Science of Seeing
Linear perspective, aerial perspective, light & shadow, colour, proportion, perception.
Path GInventions
Automata, aeronautics, hydraulics, military engineering, optics, mechanical components.
Path HPaintings Catalog
All 20 attributed paintings — technical analysis, attribution debates, provenance.
Path ERenaissance World
The political, intellectual, and scientific world that shaped Leonardo.
Path JVisual Curriculum
The painting curriculum Leonardo never published — objects, subjects, setting, synthesis.
All PathsLearn Hub →
See all 10 guided paths from new visitor to advanced researcher.
Featured
Discovery
The Stereoscopic Discovery
The Mona Lisa and the Prado version may be the left and right eyes of history's first stereoscopic artwork.
Explore Discovery → New ProjectMona Lisa Restored
See La Gioconda as Leonardo intended. Our digital restoration removes 500 years of yellowed varnish.
View Restoration → Citizen ScienceLayered Reality Project
Leonardo painted 30+ invisible layers. Help us computationally separate them through crowdsourced photography and VR.
See the Research →Tools & Research
Tool
Stereoscopic Viewer
Interactive 3D comparison tool.
ToolMirror Tool
Bilateral symmetry analysis.
ToolTimeline
Leonardo's life, works, and world events.
ToolSearch Observatory
Full-text search across the archive.
HubResearch Hub
65+ deep-research source files.
InvestigationThe Column Mystery
Never trimmed, yet Raphael’s 1504 sketch shows full columns. 7 forensic streams, 3 theories.
HubSources
Citation library and source policy.
ReferenceGlossary
25 terms defined: sfumato, chiaroscuro, paragone, codex, and more — each with etymology and examples.
ExplorerQuote Explorer
75 authentic quotes from the codices — filterable by Science, Art, Nature, Philosophy, Self, and Wisdom.
EducationClassroom Resources
Lesson plans, hands-on activities, and curriculum guides for grades 9–12. Free to use and print.
InteractiveLeonardo's World Map
7 locations across Italy and France — click each to explore what Leonardo made, who he knew, and what happened there.
MetaSite Status
Build progress, page count, last update.