Leonardo3
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Codex
Madrid
I,
folios
90v,
91r

Mechanical
lion

It is impossible to say which of the the hundreds of machines described in the over 6,000 surviving Da Vinci manuscripts were actually built by Leonardo. In fact, there is no trace of many of them in history other than in the notes of the Genius.

The most famous project of which we have solid testimonies is the Mechanical Lion. This animal-like automaton was built on the commission of Pope Leo X so that it would walk, causing great astonishment, before King Francis I of France.
The meaning of this work was deeply allegorical: in the city of Lyon, the Lion would gift the King with lilies, the symbol of Florence, the hometown of the Pope.

Play

There
came
to
Milan
the
King
of
France,
who
asked
Leonardo
to
do
a
bizarre
thing,
he
made
a
lion
that
walked
several
steps,
then
opened
its
breast
and
showed
it
all
full
of
lilies.


Giorgio
Vasari
(painter,
architect
and
historian)
L3 Collection
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