In the second half of the 90s the news has been circulating that Leonardo DaVinciinside his Atlantic Codewould have created the design of the first bicycle model already in the sixteenth century, therefore 3 centuries before the invention of the bicycle. During a restoration of the code on sheet 133 a drawing has actually been found that seems to represent a primitive model of bicycle. In reality Leonardo did not invent the bicycle. Subsequent studies have in fact excluded this possibility and today there are basically two hypotheses: the first maintains that it is the work of some of his apprentice while the second one – also supported by the art historian Carlo Pedretti – is that it is a historical fake probably made between 1967 and 1974.
The Atlantic Codex and its restoration
The Atlantic Code (Codex Atlanticus) is the largest collection of texts and drawings by Leonardo da Vinci, currently preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. Inside the Codex there are also annotations and images created by his students. After the death of the master these sheets – all of different sizes and shapes – passed from hand to hand, until in the sixteenth century Pompey Lions decided to glue them together all up larger sheetsso as to give uniformity to the work. Some of these facades remained glued to the support for a long time and, therefore, impossible to consult.
At least until the end of the 60s, when it was decided to restore the workunsticking the sheets and allowing each one to be analyzed both front and back. On one of these pages, sheet 133, however, a strange drawing was noticed that, for all intents and purposes, resembled that of a bicycle.
The characteristics of Leonardo’s bicycle
To analyze the technical characteristics of the bicycle, we take as our main source the description of Augusto Marinoni, one of the most authoritative scholars of Leonardo.
The wheels They have eight spokes and were drawn with a compass which, however, opened slightly when turning. saddle It has three support points, two on the rear wheel hub and one on the frame, and pedals They are longer than the wheels. The handlebar It is connected to the front wheel hub by two curved rods, making it impossible to steer, and the chassis it is limited to a horizontal rod joined by means of forks (not very visible) to the two hubs. What has attracted most attention to this design, however, is the presence of a chain with two cogwheelsThese are made of wood and do not have pointed teeth like today’s ones but square ones, therefore compatible with other drawings by Leonardo reported in the Madrid codex on sheet 10r.
Apart from this, the bicycle drawn in the Atlantic Codex it probably wouldn’t work: the frame would probably flex under the pressure of the pedals, it would be impossible to steer and there are doubts as to the actual functioning of the (non) toothed chain wheels. For all these reasons it is now believed not only that this object was never actually built but also that the entire design was made with a childish trait And coarse and therefore not directly attributable to Leonardo da Vinci.
At this point there is only one thing left to understand: who designed it?
The real author of “Leonardo’s bicycle”
Answering this question is far from simple and, as anticipated, there are mainly two hypotheses: one that supports the involvement of some student by Leonardothe second one which involves the falsification in recent times, during the restoration of the Atlantic Codex.
The student’s hypothesis
The first hypothesis is brought forward precisely by Augustus Marinoni which holds one of Leonardo’s students responsible. Specifically, the student would have copied another drawing by the Master, now lost – perhaps inaccurately – and therefore a sketch was actually already made at the time very first idea of bicycle even if, as anticipated, it doesn’t work.
The hypothesis of the fake
The second hypothesis is the most popular at the moment and supported, among others, also by Carlo Pedretti, art historian and professor at the University of California at Los Angeles. According to his statements, the first time he analyzed the codex in 1961 – when the restoration had not yet been completed and the pages were still glued – he noticed that when held up to the light the sheet showed geometric signs formed by circles and lines, like those in the image below:
If there had been a design for a bicycle from the very beginning it would have been immediately identified, but this was not the case and the drawing appeared only during the restoration, when the pages were detached. Furthermore it seems that the pastel used is different from any other used in the code and, therefore, after Leonardo’s time. This allowed him to argue that, probably, the drawing is nothing more than a historical fakemade at a later time (probably between 1967 and 1974) starting from the geometric sketches already present.
In this case the hand of the forger remains unknown, much less his motivations, even if according to the writer and journalist Curzio Malapartethe answer could be linked to an attempt to attribute to the bicycle an Italian paternity which, as history teaches us, is in reality French.
