IT and Culture: Michelangelo’s drawings now on iPad

A collection of writings and drawings by Renaissance great Michelangelo is now available on iPad thanks to a new app put together by the Vatican Library, the National Geographic Channel and Italian marketing firm Froggy, ANSA agency reports.

The digital version of Vatican Latin Codex 3211, made up of 111 parchments dating from 1534 to 1563, contains letters, essays, poems and sketches," the Vatican said. Among other things, the codex has the original versions of many poems later gathered into the painter and sculptor's famed verse collection, the Canzoniere. The compositions were written on single sheets of paper which were later compiled into a sort of note-book.

Anyone who downloads the application from Apple's app store can flick through the document digitally. There are also comments on the manuscript and a film telling the story of the Vatican Library as well as describing the treasures it contains.