The scanner

Leonardo’s Codex Atlanticus was digitalized directly in the vaults of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan with one of the world’s top scanner machines.

It is a “DRS 5070 Book” system produced by Metis System, an Italian company with headquarters in Rome, which took charge of the planning, production and management applications.

The “DRS 5070 Book” system is characterized by a new and convenient scanning format with superior features: quality, productivity, ergonomics, reliability, compactness, solidity, duration and economy.

The digitalization project

The choice of the 50x70cm format was not by chance, but reflected the need to manage, with a single acquisition system, the greatest possible number of original documents, of which only a small part of these exist in a standard format (A3, A2, A1…).

The 50x70cm format instead guarantees wide-ranging coverage that is close to the actual reproduction needs of an extensive and varied heritage, such as, for example, that of a library or historic archive. The DRS 5070 is a further evolution of the technologies implemented with success in Metis systems and was designed to answer a primary requirement of the sector: the digital “non-invasive” reproduction of the highest quality of books, drawings, maps and parchments.

Leonardo in high definition

Some of the innovative features of the 5070 system include: the possibility, by using a dedicated optional accessory, of purchasing books with limited access; the possibility of working without a lens; superior operating speed; a LCD touch screen (optional) to control the system; a highly automated tilting surface able to take original document of over 25 cm thickness (above the average offer); as well as the perfectly zenith vision and optical screen adopted permit the highest precision, resolution and colour fidelity, maintaining extremely rapid acquisition times.

By including the automatic tilting surface, high productivity is possible in full respect of the original documents. Finally the SynchroLight illumination system is completely free of IR/UV emission that may damage the original works.