QUICK TAKES - Sept. 11, 2009

The entirety of Leonardo da Vinci’s 1,119-page Atlantic Codex is going on public display in Italy for the first time, in a series of 24 exhibits spanning six years.

The first exhibit of 45 drawings, “Fortresses, Bastions and Cannons,” opened Thursday at the Santa Maria delle Grazie church, which also holds Leonardo’s “The Last Supper,” and at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana, which has preserved the Codex since 1637.

The exhibit was made possible by a decision to unbind the drawings, work that was carried out by Benedictine nuns at the library who carefully melted the wax binding, said Alberto Rocca of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana.