Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci, Research museum in Vinci, Italy
The Museo Ideale Leonardo da Vinci is a museum in the center of Vinci, Leonardo's hometown in Tuscany. It holds models built from Leonardo's drawings alongside thousands of original artworks, artifacts, and documentary materials covering his work as a painter, scientist, and inventor.
The museum was founded in 1993 in Leonardo's hometown, with support from UCLA and the Raccolta Vinciana research institution. It was set up specifically to document the full range of Leonardo's interests across art, science, and invention.
The museum's name refers to the "Imaginary Museum", a theory it puts into practice: a collection begun in 1972 that keeps growing. It gathers Leonardo memorabilia from the 16th century onward, from Dürer's 1506–8 Knots engravings after Leonardo's drawings to two autograph works by Marcel Duchamp and Buckminster Fuller's Dome of Arts and Ideas. A model of Il Battirolo, a beating device, stands on a raised platform with pulleys and cords.
The museum sits in central Vinci and is easy to reach on foot from the main square. Plan for a few hours to go through all the rooms without rushing.
The museum holds a rare collection of fingerprints taken from Leonardo's paintings and manuscripts, used to identify his authentic works. This type of anthropological research is unusual in art history and has helped settle questions about which pieces can be firmly attributed to him.
The community of curious travelers
AroundUs brings together thousands of curated places, local tips, and hidden gems, enriched daily by 93,255 contributors worldwide.
