Leonardo da Vinci's greatest lost fresco The Battle of Anghiari is spotlighted in a show in Florence opening on Tuesday .
The show will illustrate Leonardo's activities as he was working on the doomed work, from 1504 to 1508 .
Loans from around the world will show his innovative studies in anatomy, optics, mechanical engineering, geology, the movement of water and the flight of birds .
"This show illuminates the universal scope and systematic nature of Leonardo's mind," said former Florence museums superintendent Antonio Paolucci, who handed over to his successor Cristina Acidini on Monday. Two copies of the fabled wall painting, by anonymous painters, will feature at the exhibition in the Uffizi Gallery's Print Room. The paintings of the battle - one of the most imitated works of the Renaissance, despite its short life - are flanked by two copies of lost portrayals of Leda and the Swan and a raft of sketches by the master himself .
They have come from some of the world's top museums including the Louvre, the British Museum, the British Library, the Galleria dell'Accademia in Venice and Turin's Biblioteca Reale .
One of the stars of the 32-strong collection is a famous autographed manuscript showing how birds fly .
La Mente di Leonardo al Tempo della Battaglia di Anghiari (Leonardo's Mind At The Time Of The Battle Of Anghiari) runs at the Uffizi Gallery from October 3 to January 7, 2007 .
Organisers said the show will "probably" still be on when art experts "finally" unveil the remnants of the great fresco later this year .
Ultrasound scans revealed parts of Leonardo's masterpiece behind a Vasari fresco earlier this year .
Work to uncover them is proceeding tentatively, given the precarious state of the unfinished fresco, which was already crumbling in Leonardo's time .
The Uffizi show is the culmination of a wide-ranging series of exhibits in the Tuscan capital this year entitled La Mente di Leonardo, nel Laboratorio del Genio Universale (Leonardo's Mind, Inside The Laboratory Of The Universal Genius) .
The shows move to Japan's National Museum in Tokyo next year .
