
Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Codex Atlanticus” Now Online - pseudolus
https://mymodernmet.com/leonardo-da-vinci-codex-atlanticus/
======
punnerud
Example of too much design and JS, cluttering up the value of the content.
Here is the 10 first images with higher resolution. Increment the number to
get the rest: [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-1.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-1.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-2.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-2.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-3.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-3.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-4.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-4.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-5.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-5.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-6.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-6.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-7.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-7.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-8.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-8.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-9.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-9.jpg) [http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-10.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-10.jpg)

UPDATE: Threw together some simple HTML/JS for simple interaction:
[https://toogoodtogo-alerter.com/static/davinci.html](https://toogoodtogo-
alerter.com/static/davinci.html) (no analytics)

~~~
punnerud
UPDATE Nr2:

-All images to browse on Dropbox: [https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kf39feyjhqub1rq/AABsKUe3YB7Jxo4ub...](https://www.dropbox.com/sh/kf39feyjhqub1rq/AABsKUe3YB7Jxo4ubqz22Fl7a?dl=0)

-One big ZIP: [https://www.dropbox.com/s/82alw5mex6zqz6f/davinci-img.zip?dl...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/82alw5mex6zqz6f/davinci-img.zip?dl=0) (1,1GB before+after zip)

Thanks to opsecisameme for the wget trick

~~~
CamperBob2
I turned the .zip into a .PDF based on a simple alphabetical sort on the
filenames.

[https://www.dropbox.com/s/35xdelkimqc1k4i/codex_atlanticus.p...](https://www.dropbox.com/s/35xdelkimqc1k4i/codex_atlanticus.pdf?dl=0)

My guess is that the page ordering is pretty far out of whack, but at least
it's browsable and easily-archived now.

------
pseudolus
Link to the actual Codex Atlanticus itself:

[http://www.codex-atlanticus.it/#/](http://www.codex-atlanticus.it/#/) (scroll
to bottom right for link to English language version of site)

------
sjamaan
Some of these are awesome, cool enough to put up on my wall on canvas or so.
But for that something a bit more high-res than 2000x2000 would be nice. Does
anyone know of a higher res version?

~~~
apiudit
Resized some to 2x with great results:
[https://waifu2x.booru.pics/](https://waifu2x.booru.pics/)

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burtonator
Cool fact. All of this writing is in mirror image reverse writing so that no
one in contemporary times could read his notebooks.

He taught himself how to write in mirror image.

~~~
klyrs
This always baffles me. It's significantly less secure than rot13 (similar in
its idempotence) and it seems to me that any curious mind would identify the
letter shapes, notice that they're backwards, and soon work it out. Was this
actually a mystery, or was it merely a foil that would prevent comprehension
if somebody only got a glimpse?

~~~
whenchamenia
I suspect the latter, but most people take a while to puzzle it out. I got
good at reading upside down for some reason, and the skill still rewards me on
occasion.

~~~
klyrs
When I was in high school, I taught myself to write mirrored, and tortured
(which, in retrospect, was kinda flirting with...) an english teacher. The
teacher was annoyed/impressed/tolerant, and their approach was to read my
papers in the bathroom with the mirror. They were dismayed when I simply held
the paper up to the ceiling light.

To this day, I'm occasionally confounded by doors that have "HSUP" written on
clear glass -- it's actually a "PULL" but I read the "PUSH" and _smack_. Other
than that, I'm happy to have the skill. :P

------
mysterypie
It’s beautifully organized, but I want to ask about why they say it’s _”now”_
online? Weren’t these available online before (in a less organized way or in
lower res)? If not, why not? Was someone preventing copyright-free material
from being published?

~~~
GuiA
These were not available in their entirety online before.

That is because the only copy was held by the Ambrosian Library, and
presumably they have had other priorities than digitizing those 1200 pages.

------
BenoitEssiambre
A while back I read a text by DaVinci describing the process of drawing (if I
can find it I will add a link) and his description seemed to me almost like he
was describing how a ray tracer works.

This 3D sketch of his makes me think that if computers had existed, he could
easily have been the first to have coded a ray tracer:

[http://codex-atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-710.jpg](http://codex-
atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000R-710.jpg)

------
dmix
Looks like the app was built with Vue.js. [1]

The design is very "consultant"-y, which means over-engineered and focusing on
what looks "cool" over web usability. But looking at the website I believe it
was mean't to be deployed via touchscreen kiosks at the actual library/museum.
So the form factor makes more sense for that than consumption via web browsers
and search engines.

The keyboard controls are less than to be desired, you can't zoom in and go to
the next page without it reverting to the previous view and doing a big
transition. Which is not how most document viewers or image galleries work...

[1] [http://www.codex-atlanticus.it/#/Overview](http://www.codex-
atlanticus.it/#/Overview)

------
errantspark
Is there a torrent or something so that I can look at this in a reasonable
format?

~~~
opsecisameme
If you consider a bunch of JPGs reasonable, just

    
    
      wget http://codex-atlanticus.it/assets//1000/000{V,R}-{1..1118}.jpg

~~~
errantspark
Thank you for this!

    
    
        wget http://codex-atlanticus.it/assets//2000/000{V,R}-{1..1118}.jpg
    

for 2k x 2k res

I'm grabbing all of these, if people are interested I can make a torrent so we
don't slam their servers too much.

~~~
wumms
magnet:?xt=urn:btih:D69E07DD344D26ED13396141F6EA77A1DFC2348C&dn=codex-
atlanticus.it

~~~
rofrol
missing 527 verso, for example.

Read this
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19947001](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19947001)

~~~
wumms
000V-527.jpg and 000R-527.jpg are included. Is there a third file?

------
kbody
Anyone found a high-quality printed edition of these? I only found a couple
fragmented versions with questionable quality.

~~~
ignoranceprior
Yes. Go to
[http://www.leonardodigitale.com/index.php?lang=ENG](http://www.leonardodigitale.com/index.php?lang=ENG).
Flash must be enabled. Click on "Browse", choose "Codex Atlanticus" ( _not_
the Hoepli edition). Then for every page you read, it displays the text (in
Italian) from that page in the other "window".

Screenshots in action:
[https://i.imgur.com/HLhnEKQ.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/HLhnEKQ.jpg)
[https://i.imgur.com/gH81s52.jpg](https://i.imgur.com/gH81s52.jpg)

~~~
kbody
Thank you, although I'm looking for a high-quality printed reproduction/book,
not digital.

~~~
ignoranceprior
Oh, I thought you meant "printed" as opposed to "handwritten" or "cursive".
Oops.

------
master-litty
I dream of making something to this effect; A notebook full of your life's
deepest works. I'm sure many others feel the same way too.

I wish I could make more time.

------
burtonator
I really want there to be a couple pages with cat paw prints in ink walking
across the pages.

