Leonardo da Vinci, Pathfinder of Science

With such military and political ambitions in mind, Duke Ludovico now assigned Leonardo the task of reviewing Milan’s defenses. Again Leonardo submitted to Ludovico his plans fo...

Leonardo now plunged into a winter of great activity. Forced to draw from his savings, he had rejoined the guild of painters in October of 1503, and then applied for the commiss...

As his notes began to take shape and he thought of printing them, it was natural for the inventive Leonardo to design his own printing press. It is one of the earliest such desi...

Finally, Leonardo made a small wax model of the proposed statue and showed it to Ludovico. The nobleman was impressed by its originality. Most of the ideas contributed by other...

In the evenings at the castle there were discussions and music and here Leonardo again met his pupil and companion on the trip from Florence so many years ago—Atalante Migliorot...

Perhaps, thought Leonardo, his future lay in Milan. So he began collecting his countless drawings, diagrams of machines and instruments of war, his notes, his plans for canals a...

Thus Leonardo drifted farther and farther away from his painting. This, in itself, caused people to talk in the papal city. For he had earned fame as a painter, but his passion...

But Leonardo was not yet worrying about how to make himself a success. A young man of seventeen and still an apprentice of Verrochio, Leonardo continued to meet new friends with...

It is natural that, within the confines of these few pages, many facets of Leonardo’s extraordinary personality will be missing. That he was an artist, a man of letters, a poet...

Spring arrived again and with it came the first wild flowers and roses, the songs of the birds in the woods and the blossoming of the chestnut trees. The time for the double cel...