Leonardo, the Man and the Writer

Abstract

Leonardo da Vinci, the five-hundredth anniversary of whose birth has recently been celebrated, was one of the most learned and versatile men that ever lived. Indeed, there is hardly a branch of knowledge which he did not seriously pursue and hardly a human attainment in which he did not excel. He was a supreme painter, an accomplished sculptor, architect, and musician, an eminent mathematician, physicist, geologist, anatomist, engineer, botanist, astronomer, and geographer, a profound critic and philosopher, and a distinguished author. He led the way in the method of investigating problems connected with the laws of gravitation, the earth's rotation, the circulation of blood, the undulatory theory of light and heat, the motion of waves, the classification of plants, navigation and canalization, the construction of fortifications, pontoons, bridges, locks, scaling ladders, cannons, and mortars. He conceived the aeroplane and submarine, and he invented, among other things, the camera obscura, the wheel-barrow, paddle wheels, a stone saw, and a rope-making machine.