Leonardo’s experience as a military architect

Twentieth-century studies on Leonardo’s military architecture have highlighted characteristics of inventiveness and originality that can easily be understood, even by the general public. In particular, this applies to the more elaborate and finished drawings, such as those of the Codex Atlanticus, which show the functioning of complex war machinery and military engineering. Italian cultural interest of the last century for the genius of the Renaissance master produced the Milanese exhibition of 1939, organized by a large group of scholars of the time including Ignazio Calvi, who in 1943 published L’architettura militare di Leonardo da Vinci. Carlo Pedretti reinterpreted documents relating to some of Leonardo’s works with his publication on the French interventions in Romorantin and with documents relating to the visit to the Verruca fortress in the second Florentine period. For a comprehensive study of Leonardo’s architectural drawings of fortifications, we must wait until 1984 with the publication of Pietro Marani’s research. He demonstrates how Leonardo’s military experiences are linked to learning the skills of the art of war as part of the set of proficiencies that exalt the multifaceted genius of the Renaissance man .