A special exhibition of 10 original drawings produced by Leonardo da Vinci will go on show at the National Gallery of Ireland on Wednesday.

The works come to Dublin from the Royal Collection owned as sovereign by Queen Elizabeth II.

This is the first time that da Vinci works from the Royal Collection have been put on display outside the UK.

They are all originals rather than facsimiles and will be mounted in a way that allows visitors to view the drawings up close.

The 10 represent a mix of the various styles and subjects of interest to da Vinci, who lived from 1452 to 1519.

They include anatomical drawings for which he is famous today, and images of cats, horses, lions and even a dragon.

The Royal Collection includes more than one million books, paintings, prints, furnishings and other items accumulated by the British royal family over the past 500 years, said Martin Clayton of the Royal Collection Trust, managers of the collection.

“It is a working collection not a museum collection,” Mr Clayton said.

The aim is to make the collection more accessible to the public by opening up the palaces and lending out the works.

The collection includes 600 pieces by da Vinci. In 2002, the trust began running short exhibitions of these works at venues across the UK.

Dublin is the first non-UK venue.

The drawings include examples of the artist’s interest in engineering, said Seán Rainbird, director of the National Gallery of Ireland.

In one, he draws the hoisting and heavy moving systems needed to cast a large equestrian monument.

In another he carries out a detailed study of a weir on the Arno river east of Florence, drawn to assist local officials who wanted to prevent flooding at the weir.

‘Hugely exciting’

The exhibition is “hugely exciting” said Anne Hodge, curator of prints and drawings at the National Gallery. “People are going to be blown away.”

President Michael D Higgins will officially launch the exhibition, Leonardo da Vinci: Ten Drawings from the Royal Collection, on Wednesday.

It is open to the public from Wednesday to July 17th. Admission is free but entry is by timed ticket which can be booked at www.nationalgallery.ie