Leonardo da Vinci's robots
New mechanics and new automata found in codices

A book of 480 pages with 3D images and a model kit
Price: Euro 89,90 ISBN: 978-88-6048-009-5
Language: Italian/English
Where: all major bookstores (Italy) or :
buy the book on-line (via secure website)

An extraordinary and passionate voyage of the discovery of mysteries concealed in Leonardo da Vinci's drawings of the robot-car, the mechanical lion, the army of mechanical knights and hundreds of other machines. This book puts into practice Leonardo's approach, allowing images to explain rather than using written descriptions. In well over 800 unpublished illustrations of manuscripts, designs and three-dimensional images, the "visual language" is applied. From in-depth studies in mechanisms and historical research emerges a new approach defined as "a multimedia archaeology of da Vinci".



For the first time, it’s easy for anyone to build the incredible “car” Leonardo designed. This pack contains all the gears and wooden and metal parts needed to build the small-scale model (1:4) of this robot. Enjoy following the instructions that will reveal the hidden mystery of folio 812r of the Codex Atlanticus: an idea no one managed to understand in over 500 years!

Some texts from the book:

Intro> Da Vinci's archeology

Everyone has heard of Leonardo da Vinci, artist, scientist and incomparable genius. People say he invented almost everything: the airplane, the bicycle, the automobile. His magnificent paintings, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper are said to conceal esoteric mysteries. That's what is said and so it might seem.
But are we really certain?In fact, things are much more complicated and very different from the "picture" often describing them by simplistic methods which always take the same approach.

This book is for everyone, even those who are only aware of Leonardo as the possible inventor of the bicycle and want to learn more. These readers will soon discover that the true mysteries hidden in his drawings are entirely different and that what has been hidden from most people's eyes is more serious, intriguing, and more complex. Very few researchers have really "got inside" Leonardo and the books written about him that do contain serious and in-depth studies are difficult to find and read. Most of these do little more than present his drawings accompanied by words.

This volume is a new departure. We have tried to use a more accessible language, in addition, using over 800 previously unpublished illustrations - a "visual language" as Leonardo himself suggested - so that the images can "tell" the observer more and permit a faster understanding.

On the other hand, those who are more familiar with the Great Genius, and the fact that there are over 5000 manuscripts full of designs and drawings, know very well that the armored car and the helicopter are simply illusions "sold" to visitors at exhibitions and in superficial documentaries about da Vinci. In the following pages, you will find an innovative approach to his work, with research and communication that includes physical reconstructions and fresh new theories about some of the most mysterious and controversial subjects: the automobile, the mechanical lion and the robot knight. However, before discussing these three items, it will help us understand if we look at the background to his mechanics.

Following an introduction to the history and modern classification of robots, we shall deal with the basic elements - the grammar - of the mechanics Leonardo himself studied and used. With these tools, which are the same as those used for robots today, we shall examine new theories about the machine which have, for years, wrongly been thought of as Leonardo's automobile and we shall make the discovery that in fact it is something else. Our next subject is the famous, and lost, mechanical lion and its reconstruction: another first!

Finally, we shall confront the many mysteries buried in the four documents that are "supposed" to be hiding a mechanical soldier and which will reveal much more than the name "robot" as our title implies.The popular novel and film The Da Vinci Code tell of fantastic pursuits following trails of mysterious clues and codes in the hope of rediscovering lost items. Let us not forget that, while those stories are based on imaginary and often mistaken ideas, the mysteries and clues we are about to unravel, one step at a time, from Leonardo's manuscripts are real. A fact that makes this new approach extremely fascinating and exciting. In fact, we can call it "the multimedia version of da Vinci's archeology".
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Chapiter 2 >Leonardo's mechanics

In the winter 1964-65, two manuscripts by Leonardo were discovered on a shelf in the National Library in Madrid, Spain. In fact, the discovery was the result of a long search. The two treasures had been lost because of an error in the archives made over a century earlier. The two works had been in Spain since the 17th century, in the hands of a nobleman, Juan de Espina, who, on his death in 1642, had left them to the King of Spain. They were passed from the Royal Palace to the Royal Library, which later became the National Library.When they were published in 1974, the world - in particular the scientific world and the experts - was very excited about the previously unpublished source of da Vinci's material. This discovery again demonstrates how much more there is to learn about Leonardo. The two codices, which were given the names Madrid I and Madrid II, present us with almost 700 pages of new designs and notes by da Vinci on subjects such as architecture, geometry, music, mechanics, navigation and maps. It is an immeasurable value of history and culture. To make an economic comparison: if Bill Gates bought the Codex Hammer (a much smaller volume, 36 pages) for approximately a million dollars per page in 1994, the current value of the two Madrid codices would have a value of at least one billion dollars.The final pages of Madrid II have been universally recognized as being of fundamental importance, because they show the plan to cast the huge monument to Francesco Sforza. They demonstrate that Leonardo was prepared to make the largest single-pouring cast ever in history. He was stopped because the Duchy of Milan fell to French rule. Yet what has amazed even the most disinterested observers is Madrid I: hundreds of pages, perfectly drawn and laid out, dealing with mechanics in a way that makes many of the pages of the famous Codex Atlanticus seem like small sketches.The Codex Madrid I is a treatise on mechanics; but what is most important is that this is what Leonardo intended it to be, because we know it was not put together after his death (which is what happened with the miscellaneous contents of the Codex Atlanticus). It was in fact Leonardo himself who put it together and it has survived almost intact, except for 16 pages (8 sheets), which have been torn out and seem to have been lost. It can be called the first and most complete treatise in the history of Renaissance mechanics. None of Leonardo's contemporaries can compare with the descriptive, graphic and engineering abilities demonstrated here: their own works look "medieval" alongside the drawings of this Master, which remain unsurpassed even today. The care shown in setting out the pages and in the technical drawings of machinery indicates that Leonardo assembled this work with an idea to publish it. There are a number of examples that lead us to think that he may have planned a treatise on mechanics in four books or parts. Most likely, if Leonardo had completed it and had it printed it would have stimulated the development of mechanics to the extent that science would have advanced ahead at least 100 years. Unfortunately, however, nothing by "Leonardo the scientist" was either published or properly studied until the end of the 19th century. In fact, Leonardo never finished a single book for the public, nor took the trouble to have anything printed, either because he was too immersed in his studies or because it would have taken an enormous length of time to engrave his drawings on wooden printing blocks (xylography). Not to mention that in those days the printers were busy with books in a language that was often "incomprehensible" and which Leonardo himself criticized. In contrast, his designs are extremely clear and complete. Madrid I also includes plans based on ideas that are the foundation of all modern mechanics: the simple machines. .... (continue)

Chapter 3 > The self-propelling cart

Before analyzing folio 812r of the Codex Atlanticus in depth - i.e. the page on which the so-called “self-propelling cart” was discovered - it will be useful to see how many and what kinds of transport vehicles Leonardo may have designed, and why. It would be a mistake to approach one of da Vinci’s projects by examining only a single manuscript without knowing all the others. It would be making the same crucial error as that made by the organizers of inadequately prepared exhibitions when, for example, they present “Leonardo’s famous bicycle”, which they claim to have found on folio 133v of the Codex Atlanticus without considering that in fact the drawing is not one of da Vinci’s.

As well as scythed chariots and other types of war vehicles, Leonardo designed a number of carts and means of transport; the plans and clues are scattered throughout many of his drawings. The carts seem to belong to a single category: for heavy goods and not for passengers. Moreover, in the 15th century there was no need to make the kind of vehicle we know today. There were horses and oxen, which were efficient, quick and inexpensive. The problem was how to transport enormous objects like columns, bells or cannons. In designs Francesco di Giorgio Martini drew in 1470 there are many plans for mechanical carts for transporting heavy weights, obelisks and pillars...
.... (continue)

Chapter 3 > 2007: a fresh start

Errors of interpretation often occur and new discoveries make earlier ones obsolete, as the history of the self-propelled cart has demonstrated. Calvi, Canestrini, Galluzzi, Marinoni, Pedretti, Rosheim, Semenza, Taddei, Uccelli, Zanon and many others have tried and will continue to try to understand the mysteries of folio 812r. Each of these researchers has added or changed something in the attempt to discover Leonardo’s real intentions. One must learn from errors, but one must have the courage to leave one’s own ideas open to discussion and, if necessary, change one’s mind; one must always ask oneself new questions and try to correct one’s own previous conclusions.

From 2004 to 2006, after the wonderful co-operative efforts between Milan and Florence, the Leonardo3 laboratories produced several different models of the self-propelled cart in an attempt to find the definitive way of building each of the mechanisms and improving those that jammed. Unlike Mark Rosheim, who used a rather free interpretation to create a “modern” model, we took the historically accurate approach begun by Paolo Galluzzi and Carlo Pedretti. The patterns, gears and materials had to be those available to Leonardo in the 16th century. For that reason, every model was and is always compared with da Vinci’s mechanics and is restricted to the patterns, materials and technology of his day. Despite what we said and did in 2004, our experimental programmable steering mechanism never managed to work correctly. Experiment, which Leonardo considered essential to any kind of certainty, also failed to create the complex programmable directions that Rosheim had imagined, i.e. a ground-breaking way of using cams/petals. So, the second wheel had nothing to do with the directional wheel and, looking objectively at folio 812r, there is no trace of this suggestion. In that case, the system based on the second wheel must be a mirror image of the first one. To direct the cart on a certain course, whether straight or curved, it would be much easier to fix it in the desired position. This reassessment, the result of looking at the drawings and experimenting with numerous models, restored the air of eternal mystery to da Vinci’s designs and obliged us to ask ourselves another question: what if we were wrong?

Prolonged study of the original folio 812r at the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana proved to be a fount of inspiration... Could we take a new look at the drawing at the top of the page? Why couldn’t there be a spring there too? The shape of the mechanisms isn’t totally symmetrical. Is that because it was drawn in a hurry? Does the main drawing underneath give us any new clue to a device we have never yet considered? .... .... (continue)

Chapter 5 > Constructing the knight

During our studies of Leonardo’s robot we made a number of models to test our theories on how it might work. With regard to folio 1077 and the robot knight, even with the models it was difficult to surmise how to put the clockwork mechanism inside the robot because it did not work and it was unable to handle the force needed for the movements. However, the model of the planetary system discovered on 1022v did demonstrate the epicyclical trajectories of the planets. Finally, with regard to the robot soldier on folio 579, the small models proved that the idea was feasible and we went on to design and build a full-scale model. We divided the project between three teams dedicated respectively to the halberd, the armor and the mechanical pulley system before working as a single unit on the final assembly.

The halberd is an important detail. Even though it is not drawn on folio 576, it is fundamental to the soldier’s menacing appearance. We selected one of the many halberds designed by Leonardo himself, one of the most difficult to make. It is the first on the left at the top of folio a1r of the Codex Ashburnham. It is radially symmetrical and the blades in the center intersect nine times, which reminds us of Leonardo’s knots and the frescoes in the Sala delle Asse in the Sforza Castle. The halberd was made by hand from wrought iron and interweaving the central parts was extremely difficult. However, the result was excellent. Not only does the finished product look forbidding, yet elegant at the same time, the intersecting structure also makes it very strong. .... (continue)