Bibliography
- Leonardo da Vinci
- How Leo's Perspective frame helped people
- Biograpy of Leonardo da Vinci
- Birthplace of Leonardo da Vinci
- A Gallery of Leo's Drawings
- A good Leonardo da Vinci Site
some of Leo's inventions and works of art
Leonardo's Family coat of Arms
Leonardo da Vinci was a very talented man. Other than his mathematical achievements, he also became a great inventor, astronomer, scientist and of coarse a painter. Besides having the great talent and potential for painting, geometry was his main love for life. Leonardo da Vinci was born on a Saturday morning April of 1452 about twenty miles outside of Florence. His education was acquired in his father’s house receiving the usual elementary education of reading, writing, and arithmetic. Then in 1467 he became an apprentice; learning painting, sculpture, and attained technical and mechanical skills. In 1472 and the age of 20, "Leanardo di Ser Pierro da Vinci dipintor" was accepted into the painters’ guild in Florence but he continued to work as an apprentice until 1477. This company was included in the Guild of Physicians and Apothecaries which was based at the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova. Not only did he use the band at the hospital to keep his savings, he then later performed his most productive anatomical dissections on patients who died on the premises. He kept himself busy at work on his "inventions". He fed off the fertile ground of a number of newly published books. He copied and substantially modified many weapons depicted in Roberto Valturio’s De Re Militari. He worked with mirrors, light and sources of power. Because of his extensive work and experiments many inventions came of it. To name a few of them would be things like the tank, the parachute, the helicopter, the long crossbow, and drew extensive drawings of pumps and other war machines. During 1482 and 1499 Leonardo was in the service of the Duke of Milan. He was described in a list of the duke’s staff as a painter and engineer of the duke. As well as completing six paintings during this time in the service he also advised on architecture, fortifications and military matters.