Codex Atlanticus
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The Codex Atlanticus is an important, twelve-volume, bound set of drawings and writings by Leonardo da Vinci, the largest such set; its name indicates its atlas-like breadth. It comprises 1,119 pages dating from 1478 to 1519, the contents covering a great variety of subjects, from flight to weaponry to instruments and from mathematics to botany. This codex was gathered by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni, son of Leone Leoni, in the late 16th c., although Leoni dismembered some Leonardo notebooks in its formation. It is currently preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, Milan.
The codex was restored and rebound, 1968-1972. In April 2006, Carmen Bambach of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York discovered an extensive invasion of molds of various colors, including black, red, and purple, along with swelling of pages. Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, then the head of the Ambrosian Library, now head of the pontifical Council for Culture at the Vatican, alerted the Italian conservation institute, the Opificio delle Pietre Dure, in Florence. Four of their restorers, Garbriele Coccolini, Cecilia Frosinini, Letizia Montalbano, and Roberto Boddi, have performed "minimum emergency restoration to try to limit the damage and prevent it getting worse," according to Frosinini. Boddi suggested that exposure to air over the years for visiting scholars is at least partly to blame. Even the paper's cellulose and glue is affected.
Restoration is expected to be long and costly, the steps including drying, cleaning, spore removal and analysis, and treatment, and then preservation "in different conditions," according to Ms. Frosinini, to prevent recontamination. As of December 2007, when news of the mold was published, there are no funds available (the Florence conservators travelled at their own expense), although appeals have begun. Don F. Braschi of the library (per litt. 24.i.08) states that separate fund raising by the library has not begun, but mentions the Ambrosiana Foundation of Washington, D.C. as a recognized support organization.
[edit] References
- AP via N.Y. Times story of mold damage and history
- Codex Atlanticus by Leonardo Da Vinci is being damaged by mould by Richard Owen in The Times, December 22, 2007
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