Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex: A Journey Through Hidden Treasure in Buenos Aires

It is the heart of the Faculty of Agronomy and Veterinary Medicine of the University of Buenos Aires. There, the sun, nature and the large green spaces of the property contrast with an intimate and underground atmosphere, between medieval and renaissance.

As if you were visiting the very library of Leonardo DeVincithe doors of a basement that houses the Arata library open, a space with oak furniture, just like his mentor, the chemist, pharmacist and doctor, kept it Pedro Narciso Arata (1849-1922), who was the first rector of the said house of studies between 1903 and 1911.

Next to 15 thousand volumes They are distributed on the shelves of this humanist library which reflects the multiple interests of its creator, as if mirroring the polymata spirit of the Florentine genius. “Arata went to primary school and part of secondary school in Italy. For him, Da Vinci was a tutelary figure, a synthesis of Italian culture. And as a good bibliophile, he collected the works of scholars on the work of Leonardo,” he says. GlobeLiveMedia Culture the agronomist Diego Medanlibrary curator and book author pedro Arata: A journey to the foundations of Argentina.

The first facsimile editions, made in Italy, that existed on the Leonardo legacy – which celebrates this May 2 the 500th anniversary of his death – rest in the Arata Library. On a wide wooden table you can see the imposing Atlantic Codex (Atlantic Codex), an atlas of 65 x 44 cm that includes doce cuadernillos y 1119 folios that aglutinan los conocimientos de Da Vinci en campos tan disímiles como la mecánica, geography, botánica, escultura, pintura, quimica e incluye estudios para algunas de sus grandes obras como there worship of the magiamong other topics.

Library science graduate vanessa feels, handles the pages of this codex with great care, access to which was closed to the public for nearly half a century. “A few years after the death of Mario Pedro in 1961 (the son of Arata who bequeathed and cataloged the collection of books), the level of order and cleanliness of the copies dropped a lot. The library remained closed and only the The requirement has been maintained that its content is separate from the faculty’s central library,” says Medan.

It was not until 2005 that the improvement and optimal classification of all library material began, thanks to the financial support of the Faculty of Agronomy and the Program for Latin American Libraries and Archives administered by the Harvard University through a fund from the Andrew W Mellon Foundation.

Thus, it was possible to remodel the building where the library operates today and where the 14,522 books of the collection were subjected to the conservation process and 1,490 volumes were cleaned page by page. “In this library two things come together, that of an old and historical fund with a university library, each with its different types of services”, indicates the graduate Laura Martinodirector of the central library of the Faculty of Agronomy and who was in charge during the valorization process which ended ten years ago.

A large cabinet, protected by glass doors, guards the work of Da Vinci, illuminated by dim lights and where humidifiers maintain the optimal environment for the preservation of specimens dating back several centuries. This library too has an 1893 facsimile edition of Ashburnham Codexwhere the Florentine genius studied the flight of birds – starting from the optimal mechanics – as well as he also deepened considerations on the air, its force and its weight.

Another of Leonardo’s most iconic anatomical studies, was printed in the Windsor Codextwo dated volumes in facsimile editions of 1901, which also contain the figure studies for the famous painting The Virgin of the Rocks and the wall of The last meal.

No more Leonardo work? Yes, other reproductions that reached the Agronomía neighborhood were the Forster (with studies in geometry, physics, hydraulics and architecture), the Trivulziano -of military and religious architecture and caricatural drawings, of which the facsimile edition dates from 1891- and the Arundel, with sketches and annotations on optics, mathematics and geometry. “It is a closed collection, in which we do not seek to complete with other volumes, with the exception of the books which belonged to Pedro Arata and his ex libris identifies him as such”, completes Martino.

Therefore, codices such as the Leicester or the Madrid are not part of the collection of this library. “One of the questions we asked came from the staff of the University of San Martín, when they were investigating the machines that Leonardo had made to reproduce them,” explains the director. From this academic exchange, the sample was designed Da Vinci, the workshop of genius and its manuscripts, at the Faculty of Agronomycarried out in October 2015 and where the UNSAM authorities ceded their facsimile version of the Madrid Codex.

Access to the Arata library is not for everyone, you must first fill out a form on its website, then the credentials of the researcher or student in question will be verified by email . If approved, specific visiting hours are combined with library authorities. “Of course, the researcher does not enter the premises, the copies (only two at a time) are brought to an adjoining office. People who go to Arata already know what they are going to look for and why”, concludes- he. Marcela Pandiellovice-director of the same.

arata pearls

In addition to Vince’s work, the collection of the Arata Library includes six incunabula. One of them is a volume of Letters from Marsilio Ficino to Florencepublished in Nuremberg on February 24, 1497 with annotations by the English astrologer Richard Harvey.

Another object of great value is a facsimile reproduction of the contract of association formed between Isidore Niepce and Daguerre, the basal stone of photography. And there are also two volumes of one Chiquitano Dictionarymanuscript, found in the Church of the Holy Heart in the province of Chiquitos (Bolivia), published in 1767 and acquired in 1883 by Arata.

Other important themes of Arata are philosophy, physics, alchemy and even astrology and the occult, since in the library some 70 works on the subject have been published since the beginning of the 17th century. Examples? A copy of the Principia Mathematica (Isaac Newton1739), arcani theater (of the doctor Lodovic Locatelli, 1644) or Underground physicsGerman psychic and alchemist Johann Joachim Becher (1738).

The library’s online catalog includes images of the covers of works published before 1830. For more information, the email is [email protected]

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