Il tempio dell'anima

The choice of the sheets of Windsor, with the addition of five sheets from other collections, is motivated by a chronological outline that allows offering a synthetic summary of the results achieved by Leonardo in almost thirty years of assiduous researches in the fields of anatomy and physiology. The selection moreover emphasizes how much of those researches must be ascribed to the influence exercised by the tradition of anatomy teaching from the Middle Ages up to the time of Leonardo, particularly in Bologna and with protagonists that range from Mondinus to Zerbi and from Achillini to Berengarius - an historical and cultural context of exceptional importance and complexity, that is skillfully introduced in the opening essay of Paola Salvi. [...] It is the first time also that these scientific studies are considered, compiling a catalogue, with particular attention to the relationship that they have with the artistic theories of Leonardo, above all as far as the principles of drawing applied to anatomy are concerned. For that reason the catalogue is meant not only as an updated instrument of consultation, but also as a guide dedicated to a wider public, in particular to the new generations of scholars to whom the occasion, more unique than rare, is now offered to approach scientific works that are also works of art.
"...Vinci - studying the human body as an anatomist - reaches in his drawings the light of the highest Style. It can well be understood - in front of these pages - how in truth in this world there is but a temple: the temple where our soul lives." Gabriele d'Annunzio.