The Codex Atlanticus is the largest collection extant of autograph folios by Leonardo da Vinci; it consists of more than 1,100 loose sheets, which were gathered together by the sculptor Pompeo Leoni at the end of the sixteenth century. Study of the codex presents the non-specialist with enormous difficulties due to the vast amount of information contained in it and the chaotic manner in which it has been arranged. On each folio Leonardo jotted down his thoughts, promemoria, notes on expenses, ideas for technical and mechanical solutions, observations of natural phenomena, sketches (varying from faces to landscapes), and draft outlines for treatises that were never completed.
As a consequence, it is arduous task not only to date the individual folios, but also to establish the sequence in which the notes were compiled. To make this wealth of material available to researchers in a more accessible form, the Museo Galileo has drawn up a pilot project that will harness the resources of the information and communications technology and the web to create a database of the information contained in the Codex Atlanticus. This database will be linked to related archives on the web containing other manuscripts by Leonardo, contemporary sources known to have been used by him, and bibliographies.

The database will be hosted on the Museo Galileo website www.museogalileo.it