Le fortificazioni di Piombino di Leonardo da Vinci: la riscoperta delle tracce dell’impianto rinascimentale attraverso il rilievo digitale e il disegno

The paper presents the general lines of research, still in progress, on Leonardo’s activity as a military architect in Piombino in Tuscany, in the early sixteenth century, employed first by Valentino and then by the Republic of Florence.Through the study of the historical documentation relating to the development of the Tuscan city and the scientific survey of the fortified structures that still remain, even if they are partially modified, an attempt was made to give a scientific foundation to the analysis of the numerous drawings by Leonardo that are mainly preserved in the collection of Code II of the National Library of Madrid. This research is based on the hypothesis of using modern digital surveying technologies to try to recognize, together with the analyzes conducted on historical-documentary sources and through the reliable archaeological analyzes and the analysis of the stratigraphies that the wall surfaces present, the portions that currently survive of what could have been the fortified system of the town in the early sixteenth century. These results were finally compared with Leonardo da Vinci’s drawings that illustrate the surveys and projects for the defenses of the Lordship of Piombino obtaining a number of interesting findings.