Breaking the Da Vinci Code: Bringing Life to Machines Centuries Ahead of Their Time

Da Vinci’s machines were so uncanny it feels as though he glimpsed the future and left behind sketches of what he saw.

Tom Rizzo with Leonardo da Vinci's "tank" constructed by the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence from the polymath's instructions and drawings, created hundreds of years before the first actual tank. Courtesy of Tom Rizzo, Artisans of Florence

Imagine reading backwards in a forgotten dialect, piecing together Renaissance-era instructions, and then breathing life into machines first dreamed up 500 years ago.

That’s the work of three generations of Italian artisans who not only learned to read da Vinci’s “mirror” writing, but are now sharing his visions globally.

Born in Italy in 1452, da Vinci, famous for his Mona Lisa, was also a noted inventor, engineer, scientist, and anatomist.

One of the most curious legacies the Renaissance polymath left to the world was his notebooks, dotted with ideas and concepts for machines so uncanny it feels as though da Vinci glimpsed the future and left sketches as souvenirs.

The man sketched out ideas for modern machinery such as helicopters, tanks, robots, and bicycles centuries before they would become a normal part of life.

Leonardo da Vinci's self-propelled cart put together by the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence from the polymath's instructions and drawings hundreds of years before the first car—on display at the Redcliffe Museum in Queensland, Australia on Aug. 16, 2025. Daniel Y. Teng/The Epoch Times

Now, those creations are in Australia, on display for all to see.

The exhibits are arranged by the “Artisans of Florence,” a worldwide touring exhibitions company that works with the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci in Italy, who bring his sketches to life in stunning detail—alongside separate exhibitions of ancient Roman technology and Galileo’s discoveries.

Since 2004, the tour has reached more than 50 countries and more than 20 million people.

The Global Appeal of da Vinci

Director Tom Rizzo, based in Melbourne and travels the world with the exhibit, spoke about its impact.

“I’ve been astonished at the kind of response in countries that I wouldn’t expect there to be a big following of da Vinci places like China, Japan, Korea, yeah, and India,” he told The Epoch Times.

“There’s a huge knowledge of da Vinci worldwide, and I think it’s just his ability to innovate in so many—what we would call—disparate fields.

The machines have been built in Florence since the 1960s. Courtesy of Tom Rizzo, the Artisans of Florence

“The fact that he was an anatomist, an architect, a botanist, a military engineer, an aerospace engineer, a painter—the list goes on and on.”

There’s even something in Japan that Rizzo calls “da Vinci mania,” with exhibits drawing massive enthusiasm in high-end department stores.

After initially volunteering to help with one installation in Melbourne, Rizzo said he was left “absolutely fascinated.”

“I was fascinated because all of these sketches and images from the Renaissance, which I had assumed belonged to dozens or hundreds of Renaissance polymaths and artists, I realised they were all da Vinci’s,” he said.

“I was blown away by the breadth and scope of his work.”

Ahead of His Time, Quite Literally

So many of da Vinci’s visions are still a reality today.

“For him to come up with the precursor to the helicopter, the scuba suit, the hang glider—and for all of these things to be independently reinvented some hundreds of years later—is something that really sparks people’s interest,” Rizzo said.

“He was good at finding old technology and innovating it, and bringing it back into common use, like the Archimedes screw for pumping water. He’s even developed a spring-powered car and a bicycle as well.

Leonardo da Vinci's bicycle put together by the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence from the polymath's instructions and drawings that were created hundreds of years before the first actual bicycle—on display at the Redcliffe Museum in Queensland, Australia on Aug. 16, 2025. Daniel Y. Teng/The Epoch Times

“All these things kind of foreshadow modern inventions. His first bicycle is quite similar to a modern bike in dimension, unlike the penny farthing with a huge front wheel and a small back wheel.”

After da Vinci died in 1519, he left behind more than 2,000 technical drawings, which were then chopped and changed by an art dealer of the time and divided into themes.

A robot, as designed by Da Vinci. Courtesy of Tom Rizzo, the Artisans of Florence

The resultant jigsaw puzzle has served as a challenge for historians, since it means that one sketch for one machine could be in one book, while a sketch for another part of that same machine is in another.

“We need to have this universal knowledge of all of Da Vinci’s sketches and mechanisms so that we can re-piece them back together to recreate faithfully some of these machines,” Rizzo said.

Many pieces of modern machinery were inspired by Da Vinci's creations. Courtesy of Tom Rizzo, the Artisans of Florence

Cracking the da Vinci Code

Another challenge is da Vinci’s idiosyncratic “mirror script”—writing backwards from right to left.

“You would need a mirror to be able to easily read his works. Our artisans have been working with these documents for so long that they’re able to read it without a mirror,” Rizzo said.

The exhibit is exciting for young and old. Courtesy of Tom Rizzo, the Artisans of Florence

Fortunately, many of the artisans working on da Vinci’s machines are also Florence natives, a necessity when the archaic Florentine used by da Vinci is a distinct dialect.

Many of the terms featured in his Codex Atlanticus would be difficult to understand for those not from the region.

The endeavour was started by Carlo Niccolai, who decided to transform his workshop, and painstakingly worked with his son to begin building da Vinci’s machines with timber in the 1960s.

So how does a major European exhibit end up in smaller Australian museums outside of the big cities? Especially as post-modern and modern works dominate space in larger galleries and museums.

Leonardo da Vinci's hang glider put together by the Museum of Leonardo da Vinci in Florence from the polymath's instructions and drawings that were created hundreds of years before the first actual hang gliding contraption—on display at the Redcliffe Museum in Queensland, Australia on Aug. 16, 2025. Daniel Y. Teng/The Epoch Times

“We’ve made a special arrangement with the museum in Florence so that it can be earmarked for a remote and regional tour of Australia,” Rizzo said.

“We’ve been able to secure favourable economic conditions to make it available to as many venues as possible.

“We want this collection to be seen by as many people as we can, especially to remote and disadvantaged communities that would never get an opportunity otherwise, to have a world-class travelling exhibition come to their town or city.

“A lot of the locals may never have the capacity to travel to Florence to see it at the home museum. So this is really important to us as a part of our mission statement.”

The latest exhibit will be in Queensland’s Moreton Bay region north of Brisbane spread across four venues until Nov. 9. For those who are a bit time poor, the largest collections are located at the Redcliffe Museum and the Pine Rivers Heritage Museum.