What Leonardo da Vinci device was a rotating crane designed to lift heavy loads?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a rotating crane for lifting and moving heavy loads.

His engineering studies include cranes with rotating structures, hoists, ropes, and counterweights. A rotating crane could lift a load and then swing it horizontally to a new position, reducing the need to drag heavy materials across the ground. Such machinery would have been useful in construction and military engineering.

Leonardo’s crane concepts built on older lifting technologies, especially the pulley, winch, and treadwheel. His contribution was often the combination and refinement of these mechanisms into compact, practical arrangements shown in detailed drawings.

The drawings should not be treated as evidence that every crane was built exactly as illustrated. Leonardo’s notebooks mix observations of existing machines with speculative designs and improvements. Their value lies in the mechanical principles they record and develop.