Leonardo's Codex Leicester Returns to Florence in 2018 Exhibition at Uffizi

The Codex Leicester, a 72-page manuscript by Leonardo da Vinci created between 1504 and 1508 in Florence, will return to the city for a temporary exhibition at the Aula Magliabechiana of the Uffizi Galleries from October 29, 2018, to January 20, 2019. Curated by Paolo Galluzzi, director of the Museo Galileo, and organized by the Uffizi Galleries and the Museo Galileo with support from Fondazione CR Firenze, the show is titled "Il Codice Leicester di Leonardo da Vinci. L'Acqua Microscopio della Natura." It serves as a preview of the 2019 celebrations marking 500 years since Leonardo's death. The manuscript, owned by Microsoft founder Bill Gates since 1994, was previously exhibited in Florence in 1982 as the Codex Hammer, attracting over 400,000 visitors. This edition features additional autograph drawings from Italian and foreign institutions and a new multimedia tool called Codescope, allowing visitors to digitally browse the pages. The exhibition explores Leonardo's pioneering studies on water, hydraulics, and hydrodynamics, principles later codified centuries after his time. The Codex Leicester was inherited by Leonardo's pupil Francesco Melzi after his death in 1519, then passed through owners including sculptor Guglielmo della Porta, painter Giuseppe Ghezzi, and Thomas Coke, Earl of Leicester, before being acquired by Armand Hammer in 1980 and then by Gates.