Digital experience of the work of vitruvius and leonardo

Abstract

On the celebrations for the 500th year since Leonardo da Vinci’s death, the city of Fano (I) organized an exhibition on the works of Leonardo to put in evidence the influence of the previous studies of Vitruvius, who left in Fano remarkable signs of his talent. Among the original drawings that were shown, some sheets showed the design of three machines originally described by Vitruvius and then re-interpreted by Leonardo: the water clockwork, the ballista and the odometer. The Authors realized a digital reconstruction of such works, with the aim to let the visitors of the exhibition understand the operation of the machines but also to study the differences in the concepts, to explore their feasibility and to assess their possible performance.