The Renaissance or the age of awakening. It was an exhilarating period in the history of mankind. A time in which man looked inward and around him, questioned and dreamed, conjectured and created. An age in which science, technology and art not only came into their own, but also came to be intrinsically linked to form a fascinating whole. The drama was played out in several parts of the world, but the spark originated in Italy. What better place, then, to have a premier museum of science and technology?

The man who best symbolized the spirit of the age lives even today, in timeless paintings and brilliant inventions. What better name for such a museum than that of Leonardo da Vinci?

Welcome to the Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology, 21, via S Vittore, Milan, Italy, dedicated to applied and industrial arts.

Founded in 1947 by one Guido Ucelli di Nemi, an engineer, the museum is located at a site that is as unconventional as the mind of the man it has been named after. It is housed in three separate buildings, of which the main is the Monumental Building, a former Olivetan monastery constructed in the early sixteenth century. The other two are the Rail Transport Building, which reconstructs the environment of an art nouveau Railway Station, and the Air and Sea Transport Building, which has in it two spectacular pieces – a sailing ship named Ebe and the bridge of a transatlantic liner, christened Conte Biancamano.

Napoleon I converted the Monastery into barracks, and its tryst with the military continued years later, when it was heavily bombarded during the Second World War. Once it was singled out as the home of the proposed new museum, renovation work began in earnest, and took six years to complete. The walls of a viable Roman mausoleum, said to be that of Emperor Valentinian II, containing several graves, were unearthed during renovation work. The museum stretches over some 40,000 sq meters.

Fittingly, the museum was inaugurated on February 16th 1953 with a major exhibition on Leonardo da Vinci to mark the fifth centenary of the birth of the artist-engineer.

The Museum has a total of 28 sections, and the 15,000-odd pieces on display on its premises make it one of the most important science and technology museums of the world.

The Monumental Building, complete with cloisters, has several important sections, including the Computer Science section, where visitors can take in the history of computation, starting with a 17th-century abacus to a second-generation IBM computer, the Acoustics section with sound reproduction instruments ranging from Edison's phonograph to the most recent models, and the Print and Graphical Arts section which has wood presses, iron presses and cylinder machines. There is a section devoted to telephones, radio and television while a permanent Show of Recent Innovations puts on view new technological innovations, changed every six months.

The museum has a room dedicated to timekeepers, inaugurated as far back as in 1959. Unfortunately, this space fell into disrepair, as a result of which the wonderful exhibits in it were unavailable for public viewing for a number of years. This space has now been renovated, a Herculean task involving the creation of a new catalogue and a study of 500 years of the history of timekeeping.

Among the notable pieces on view is a reconstruction of the original workshop belonging Bartolomeo Antonio Bertolla, a famous seventeenth century watchmaker hailing from the Trente region. The magnificient ceiling of the original workshop was carefully taken apart and rebuilt inside the museum. The reconstructed workshop contains original drawings, tools, machines and workbenches.

Another piece of major importance is the reconstructed Astrario by Giovanni Dondi, The original Astrario was made during the middle of the fourteenth century and typifies the summit of time measurement in the Middle Ages. It was later destroyed. The reconstruction was carried out by Luigi Pippa in 1963 based on a manuscript preserved in the Episcopal Capitulary Library in Padova. The Astrario appears as a tower on a base of seven columns forming a château. It displays the movements of the sun, moon, and the five planets known at the time and has a real clock face, divided into 24 hours and in fractions of ten minutes. It also has a calendar wheel, which makes one rotation each year, showing the times of sunrise and sunset each day at Padova’s latitude, as well as the days of the week, the names of the saints and the dates of fixed holidays. The clock is based on the astronomical principles of Ptolemy which held that the immovable Earth was the centre of the universe.

Perhaps the most important part of the Museum is the gallery dedicated to the work of Leonardo da Vinci himself. It houses a great number of wooden machines and instrument models based on Leonardo's designs. These may be classified as war machines, flying machines, work machines, land and water machines and architectural innovations. They include a maquette of the ideal city, meticulously planned as per the concept of unity, and various types of scientific instruments relating to hydraulics, mechanics, flight, anatomy and optics. Under the war machines category can be seen items like the armoured car, a tortoise-shaped vehicle reinforced with metal plates and armed with guns, with an inner turret. The car was to be operated from inside by eight men turning cranks to move the wheels. Other pieces in this category are the Ogival projectiles, multiple cross-bow, automatic hull rammer, a scythed chariot and a machine for storming walls.

Under the category of flying machines comes the flying ship, a highly imaginative piece, equipped with flapping wings and helm. The pilots’ seats are located inside a shell-shaped vessel which also housed all the mechanisms (screws, nut screws and cranks) controlling two large bat-like wings. The Ariel Screw, which some consider to be the forerunner of the helicopter, the parachute, the anemometer, the glider with maneuverable wings are among other items in this section.

The work machines include a self-propelled car, an example of Leonardo’s fascination with propulsion, pile driver, drilling machine, a revolving crane, used to lift heavy loads and convey them across distances, the Archimedes Screw, the pulley system, fan and winged spindle.

The land and water machines category contains items like the paddle boat, drop bottom float, sluice gate hatch, floats for walking on water and a diving bell, which gives detailed descriptions of the outfit and equipment needed by a diver for various activities.

While many of these machines are not viable, it is the ideas and theories inherent in them that are fascinating – ideas that have been worked upon down the centuries to finally produce practical results.

The gallery has a group of working models of Leonardo’s machines, displayed alongside the static models. The curious visitor can operate them and marvel at the genius that was Leonardo.

The gallery also displays several frescoes from the fourteenth right up to the eighteenth centuries, including a reproduction of "The Last Supper". The original can be seen at the church of Santa Maria delle Grazie just 200 metres from the Museum.

From June to September, an English-speaking guide is available once a week for a free guided tour of the Musuem, particularly of the da Vinci Gallery.

The Leonardo da Vinci National Museum of Science and Technology is also an important center for educational activities and hosts meetings and conferences.

The Museum is open from Tuesday to Friday from 9.30 am to 5 pm, and on weekends, from 9.30 am to 6.30 pm. It is closed to the public on Mondays, while New Year’s Day and Christmas Day are holidays.

Various categories of tickets at different prices are available, ranging from the common adult/children/senior citizens categories to an unconventional grandfather-grandson combination. There are special prices for booking educational and tourist parties as well as school groups.

Special facilities are available for disabled visitors, who can contact the information desk for assistance. A canteen and coffee bar cater to the requirements of visitors.

Tourists are advised to note that there are restrictions on the use of photographs taken at the museum and the equipment used to do so.
here is a canteen and a coffee bar for the convenience of

The Museum can be reached by both bus and the underground transport system.