The instructions in the manuscripts were clear enough to allow for an attempted reproduction of the ancient plastic by the professor's team.

"Leonardo created a material somewhere between natural and chemical plastic. Indeed, he had already synthesised a chemical very similar to acetone. But in his experiments he always used non-toxic, organic substances," Professor Vezzosi said.

"We used oil paint pigments and organic materials similar to those used by Leonardo, but you have to be patient and wait until each layer of colour dries completely. By adding vegetable fibres we got a hard and unbreakable final material."

In fact, some of the reproductions of Leonardo's plastics were very similar to Bakelite, the first entirely synthetic plastic patented in 1907 by Leo Baekeland, a Belgian chemist.