Leonardo da Vinci interesting facts. Five unknown facts from the life of Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci little-known facts

Among the galaxy of other great and brilliant scientists, the star of Leonardo da Vinci, a man centuries ahead of his time, shines brightly. Even half a thousand years ago, he invented devices that were reinvented by his followers only in the 19th and 20th centuries, which speaks of the boundlessness of his imagination. However, Leonardo da Vinci succeeded in many endeavors, being not only an inventor, but also a brilliant architect, artist, sculptor, musician and writer.

Facts from the biography of Leonardo da Vinci

  • The father of the great scientist was a young notary, and his mother was a simple peasant woman.
  • The surname “da Vinci” simply means “from Vinci,” that is, from the town that bore that name.
  • Leonardo da Vinci's parents never married, but when he was only 3 years old, his father took him to be raised by his mother, whom Leonardo never saw again.
  • It was Leonardo da Vinci who created the most famous and expensive painting in the world, known as the Mona Lisa, or Mona Lisa ().
  • The scientist masterfully played the lyre, a very difficult musical instrument to master.
  • Leonardo da Vinci invented the first devices in human history for diving and breathing under water, that is, the prototypes of modern bathyscaphes and spacesuits.
  • Among his other inventions, which remained on paper, were also Submarine and a helicopter. Modern scientists have studied Leonardo's drawings and declared that the design is fully functional.
  • Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous, that is, a person who was equally good with both his right and left hands.
  • In 1483, da Vinci received his first commission in Milan - painting an altar from the Franciscan brotherhood Immaculate Conception. Three years later, the work was completed, and then the trial over payment for the work lasted another 25 years. As a result, he still received his payment, after a quarter of a century.
  • In order to correctly depict a person in paintings, Leonardo was actively involved in anatomy - the structure of the human body. To do this, he dismembered the bodies of dead people and made sketches from them. His anatomical drawings remained unknown to anyone for a long time. They were first published in the 19th century and made a huge contribution to the development of anatomy.
  • It was Leonardo da Vinci who first understood why the sky appears blue, stating that this is the color of the “illuminated layer of particles” between the Earth and the “heavenly blackness” ().
  • Da Vinci was also interested in engineering and was involved in the construction of canals.
  • Being an excellent geologist, he came to the conclusion that the age of the Earth is much older than the Bible allowed. The principle that makes it possible to determine the age of various layers of the earth's crust was later named after Leonardo da Vinci.
  • Leonardo da Vinci did not sign his paintings, but he always left short identification marks. There were a lot of such symbols, and not all of them are known even now.
  • Billionaire Bill Gates purchased Codex Leicester, a collection of works by Leonardo da Vinci, for $30 million in 1994. Since 2003 it has been on display at the Seattle Art Museum.
  • Observations of the Moon in the crescent phase led Leonardo da Vinci to one of the important scientific discoveries - he established that sunlight is reflected from the Earth and returns to the Moon in the form of secondary illumination ().
  • The scientist wrote his notes in a mirror manner, so it is impossible to read them without a mirror.
  • In December 2000, British parachutist Adrian Nicholas descended from a height of 3 kilometers from hot air balloon on a parachute made according to a sketch by Leonardo da Vinci.
  • Peru da Vinci has the longest list of synonyms in history for the male penis.
  • The scientist was never married, and in general he carefully hid his personal life from the public.
  • The term “golden ratio” was coined by Leonardo da Vinci. He also called it “divine proportion.”
  • For 13 years, Leonardo da Vinci held the honorary position of master of court feasts in Milan.
  • It has been reliably established that Leonardo da Vinci suffered from dyslexia, that is, a violation of the ability to read. This feature is caused by reduced activity of a certain area in the brain ().
  • Some believe that da Vinci was a vegetarian, but there is no reliable evidence for this.
  • Leonardo da Vinci, apparently, did not leave a single self-portrait that could be unambiguously attributed to him. Scientists have doubted that the famous self-portrait of Leonardo with sanguine, depicting him in old age, is such. But some believe that the famous Mona Lisa is like a self-portrait of the “female version” of the great painter.
  • At the age of 24, Leonardo da Vinci was put on trial for homosexuality, which was considered a crime in Italy at the time, but was acquitted and found not guilty.
  • Two years before his death, da Vinci lost his right arm and could not move without assistance.
  • The robot, created by NASA for work in outer space, was developed based on robot blueprints created by Leonardo da Vinci.
  • One day, a great scientist disappeared from public life for three whole years. To this day, no one knows where he was at that time or what he was doing.
  • Leonardo da Vinci had no education, he never learned to paint or create sculptures, and was not trained in science, but everything that he achieved, he achieved on his own.
  • Already in adulthood, da Vinci became a court advisor to the French king Francis I, who granted him an annual pension and an estate with vineyards. Later, the scientist noted in his notes that these years were the happiest of his life.
  • The cause of Leonardo da Vinci's death is unknown, but it is believed that he died as a result of a stroke.
  • Da Vinci's first grave was destroyed during the war between Catholics and Protestants. The remains of various people were mixed and buried in the garden. Archaeologist Arsene Houssay later identified the skeleton of Leonardo da Vinci from the description, and transferred it to a restored grave on the grounds of the Castle of Amboise.

Leonardo da Vinci was a talented artist, inventor and musician. Little is known from the secret life of Leonardo, and the dream of every historian is to discover one of the new facts about his life. There was an assumption that Leonardo was a messenger from another civilization, but so far, unfortunately, there is no confirmation of this.

Due to its secrecy during life, new ones are being discovered to this day. Interesting Facts from the life of Leonardo da Vinci and today we will talk about several of them.

Supernaturalism or advanced degree?

Leonardo da Vinci's discoveries are noted in 50 areas of knowledge and art. It took scientists 500 years to recognize the artist's messages. Man created projects that, when studied, are now used in many fields of science and technology and became clear to scientists only many years after the death of the inventor.

Three years of calm

Already at the age of 30, Leonardo da Vinci was a famous painter. None of those with whom Leonardo was in close contact knew about his whereabouts. It took scientists several centuries to come to the discovery of its absence. During his three years of absence, he was not depressed or withdrawn, but devoted this time to the mysterious mystery of the Monet Lisa.

Suspicion of homosexuality

While studying in Verrocchio's workshop, Leonardo was seen harassing same-sex members of the human race. This victim turned out to be a boy who posed for his work. During the trial, Leonardo was acquitted.

Leonardo is also a musician

Among other advantages, Leonardo masterfully handled the lyre. In the courtroom in Milan, the case was not of an artist and inventor, but of a musician.

Origin

Leonardo's parents were Piero da Vinci (a wealthy notary and at the same time a landowner) and Caterina (a woman of peasant origin). He was given a good education, but lacked regular classes in Greek and Latin.

Love for water

One of the interesting facts of Leonardo da Vinci is his love for water, thanks to which he created the rules for underwater diving and a device for this event with a breathing apparatus. His inventions were later used to create scuba diving equipment.

Explanation of the sky's blue

Leonardo was the first to identify and talk about why the sky is blue. The answer to this question is contained in his work “On Painting”. The reason for the color lies in the layer of illuminated air particles located in the interval from the Earth to blackness.

Experiments on corpses

Leonardo was the first among painters to use human corpses for scientific purposes to reliably identify the location and structure of the muscular system.

Age of the Earth

During the construction processes on the canals, Leonardo da Vinci noted that the age of the Earth is much greater than what is stated in the Bible. This fact was subsequently brought into geology as a theoretical principle for establishing the time interval in which the earth's layers were formed, giving it the name of the discoverer.

Ambidexterity

Leonardo was ambidextrous, meaning he could write with both hands equally. He also suffered from dyslexia, which manifests itself in impaired reading ability and a mirror method of spelling words. This disease is popularly called “word blindness,” which occurs due to decreased brain activity in one of the zones of the left hemisphere.

More inventions and projects

He left behind projects for a submarine, a propeller, a tank, a loom, a ball bearing, flying cars, a humanoid mechanism (robot), a self-propelled machine (car), a parachute, a bicycle, a searchlight, a multi-barreled gun, a lathe, a flush toilet, skis, scissors, arched bridges, automatic thread winding, watches, clockwork, glasses and much more.

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Leonardo da Vinci. His name itself has already become a household name. This is what they call a universal person, a genius, and simply a very talented person. It is not for nothing that he lived and worked during the Renaissance. He himself was a rebirth. Like a bright ray of light after the terrible and gray times of the Middle Ages. Much is known about the life of the famous artist, scientist, and inventor, but there are facts from his biography that may still surprise you.

Biography of da Vinci. Illness or gift?

Leonardo da Vinci suffered from dyslexia since childhood. This is a disease that interferes with the acquisition of reading and writing skills. The impairment is selective, so the overall ability to learn is preserved. It is unknown, but perhaps because of this illness, young Leonardo began to be deeply interested in human physiology and anatomy, and in the future he was very successful in these sciences.

Also, the great representative of art was ambidextrous. This concept refers to a person’s ability to function with both hands, for example, to write simultaneously with the left and right hand. Scientists have proven that such people have both the left and right hemispheres equally developed, so they can quickly find shortcuts to solutions.

Perhaps thanks to these physiological abnormalities, the young da Vinci turned into a legend.

Not everyone knows that the future artist and scientist played the lyre excellently. Once, during a court case in Milan, Leonardo da Vinci appeared in it as a musician, but not as an inventor or artist.

Leonardo da Vinci loved water very much. It was he who was the first to invent devices for scuba diving, developed detailed instructions by immersion. It is not surprising that his developments formed the basis for the invention of modern underwater equipment.

Heritage's Greatest Secrets

Of course, everyone knows the greatest and most mysterious work of Leonardo da Vinci - “La Gioconda”. Very little is known about the origins and composition of the painting itself. But there are a lot of theories and speculations about this. One suggestion is that the painting depicts Leonardo himself, and not the girl. There is also a theory as to why the Mona Lisa smiles. One answer: she knows about her pregnancy. According to the second version, while the painting was being painted, clowns and musicians performed in front of Gioconda to cheer up the model.

An interesting fact: using a new program, specialist scientists from the USA and the University of Amsterdam found out the composition of Gioconda’s smile: 83% happiness, 6% fear and 2% anger.

Leonardo da Vinci's range of interests was so diverse that world history He entered not only as a famous painter, but also as an excellent expert in anatomy, an inquisitive engineer and inventor, and most importantly, an outstanding scientist, far ahead of the time in which he lived.

His biography is filled with bright and significant events, and his discoveries are still relevant today, so let’s turn to his life and tell interesting facts about Leonardo da Vinci.

Birth

Leonardo spent the first years of his life here

Leonardo was born in the middle of April 1452 in the small Italian village of Anchiano. His father was a wealthy notary, and his mother was a simple peasant named Katerina. Being illegitimate, he did not experience difficulties, since in Italy at that time there was no distinction between children born into the family and out of wedlock.

Mother's image

When the boy was 3 years old, his father left Leonardo's mother Caterina and married a rich woman. He took Leonardo with him. Separation from his mother left its mark on all subsequent work and life of the outstanding master. For the rest of his life, the artist tried to recreate the image of his mother in his works.

Musician's talent

With the help of teachers, Leonardo easily mastered musical literacy and played the lyre superbly. Interestingly, when he appeared in court in Milan, he was listed in court records as a musician.

Education

His father had enough money for Leonardo to receive an excellent education at home, but the boy lacked thorough knowledge, especially in languages, Latin and Greek. In his youth, Leonardo more than made up for these gaps in education.

Range of interests

It is difficult to outline the range of interests of a passionate person. In addition to painting, he selflessly studied mathematics, natural science, anatomy, and biology. He constantly conducted experiments and tried to get to the bottom of things, questioning any knowledge of the past.

Rules of etiquette

Maybe his father, or maybe his stepmother, instilled in the boy the rules of etiquette, and Leonardo, among other advantages, skillfully mastered the art of serving.

Beginning of a painting career

One of the master’s first independent works was the painting “The Annunciation” around 1472. Even then he began to use oil paints, which was an innovation for painting at that time.

Madonna image

In 1478, Leonardo introduced everyone to his own workshop, where there were many sketches of the image of the Madonna. It was this image that he was fascinated with all his life, but many of the paintings were never completed.

The Mystery of Mona Lisa

For many decades, scientists have been struggling with the mysterious smile of Mona Lisa. There is even speculation that she is pregnant, and this secret makes her smile so mysteriously.

Many agree that while posing she was entertained by musicians and clowns, and Leonardo managed to capture that touching moment of the girl’s admiration for the skill of actors and musicians.

Modern technologies

The level of technological development in the 21st century helped Dutch scientists and their colleagues from the United States unravel the composition of the popularity of the mysterious smile of Mona Lisa. Using a special computer program, they found that it consists of 83% happiness, 9% is given to neglect, 6% indicates that the woman is afraid of something, and the remaining 2% is anger.

Self-portrait

There is also an opinion that Gioconda is not just a drawing of a beautiful woman, but a self-portrait of the master. Although it is doubtful that Leonardo’s famous anatomical drawing, supposedly written between 1512–1515, is a depiction of the scientist and painter in old age.

Perhaps, and many Italian scientists and bibliographers agree on this, this is just a sketch of the apostle’s head for Leonardo’s writing of “The Last Supper.”

Caricatures

In addition to serious canvases, the artist often painted comic caricatures exposing the vices and shortcomings of the then Italian society, and of course became the founder of the genre of caricature.

Water

Leonardo grew up and lived in Italy, so he loved the sea very much. Many of his researches and inventions are connected specifically with water element. Many of his developments formed the basis for modern types of equipment for underwater research.

The answer to the color of the sky

Many of us wonder why the sky is blue, but the Italian is the first person to explain this natural phenomenon in detail. You can read about this in his imperishable work “On Painting.” It was his definition that later found its way into natural history textbooks.

Heritage

The great Italian master left us in memory not only masterpieces of art, but also many inventions. In his notes, drawings of a self-propelled carriage, a submarine, aircraft were found, he invented a bearing, the first design of an underwater breathing apparatus, and even constructed a prototype of a tank.

Abilities and ailments

Scientists have now proven that creative people can use both their right and left hands equally. So, Leonardo da Vinci was ambidextrous. At the same time, he had dyslexia. This disease, popularly called “word blindness,” is associated with reading impairment.

Because of this, Leonardo made his notes mirrored, since there was reduced activity in a certain area of ​​​​the left hemisphere of the brain of an outstanding person.

Armament

Upon arrival in Milan in 1482, he wanted to enter the service of Ludovico Sforza to make weapons, but was refused. He wrote down all his ideas about weapons and sent them in letters to the king. He improved the mechanisms of existing weapons and came up with completely new types of weapons. For example, he was the first to come up with a model of a machine gun.

First order and trial

The artist received his first order for artistic painting of the altar in 1483, and worked on it for 3 years. But something else is interesting. After the order was completed, there were legal battles for 25 years because Leonardo was not paid for the work.

Anatomy

The artist was the first among the great painters to dismember human bodies in order to study their structure. In addition, his notes include detailed descriptions human organs and the structure of all muscles.

But we note that he did not dismember the corpses secretly, but had official permission from the authorities to do so.

Gossip

Perhaps, for the sake of today's European values, Lately Rumors spread that the great master was homosexual. There is no direct evidence of this, but Leonardo was accused of harassing boys who worked as models for him.

Necessary invention

We are already so accustomed to the things that surround us that we do not think about their origin. So, scissors in their modern form were designed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Vision

It is a known fact that at the end of his life his right hand was lost, but Leonardo may still have had problems with his vision. Maybe that’s why in his notes there appeared a drawing of a prototype of a contact lens, which appeared only in the 20th century.

Teacher

The great painter and scientist trained many talented students. But besides this, he was able to summarize his teaching experience and compiled several practical tips for training artists and sculptors.

Arch bridges

The idea to build bridges with arches belonged to Leonardo da Vinci, and today such a design is commonplace in the construction of bridge structures.

Moon

Another hobby of the scientist was the celestial bodies. Long observations of the Earth's satellite once led him to the great discovery that light from the Sun, falling on the Earth's surface, is reflected from it and returns to the Moon, illuminating it.

At the end of 200 the British amateur extreme species sports Andrian Nicholas, while in South Africa, descended from a height of 3 thousand meters on a parachute structure made according to the drawings of the great inventor. Note that Andrian did not jump from an airplane, but from a hot air balloon. And as you know, it was according to Leonardo’s notes that this aircraft was designed.

Linguistic abilities

Leonardo da Vinci loved to play with words from a young age, and his notes on the Arundel Code contain huge list synonyms for the word "penis".

Age of the Earth

During the development of the ideal city project, Leonardo took part in the construction of canals. It was this activity that allowed him to determine the time of formation of the geological layers of the Earth. This principle entered geological science under his name, and the scientist himself stated that the age of Mother Earth is much older than the church teaches, citing data from the Bible as proof.

Lost Legacy

In the photo: The place where Leonardo Da Vinci is buried

The great man, many centuries ahead of his time, died on May 2, 1519 at the castle of Clos-Lucé. Unfortunately, a large number of his creations and records have not survived, and only a small part of his painting masterpieces and scientific notes has reached us.

Memory

For more than one generation of people, the memory of this talented and purposeful person has been sacredly preserved. At the Rome airport named after him, there is a giant sculpture of a scientist, and Leonardo is holding a model of a helicopter in his hands.

Perhaps people like Leonardo are called “eccentrics” by their contemporaries, but without such eccentrics, many discoveries in various areas of human activity would simply be impossible.

The life of a purposeful and enthusiastic person is always full of many interesting events, and therefore there are enough facts from his biography for more than one book. We tried to provide the most interesting of them.

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General history

Leonardo da Vinci. Biography and interesting facts

Leonardo da Vinci is one of the greatest minds of all times. Inventor, engineer, scientist, philosopher, artist and sculptor - that's all about him. After his incredibly rich life of discoveries, research and creativity, we inherited a great many manuscripts, drawings, drawings and paintings.

Birth of a genius

The period of Leonardo da Vinci's life and work fell on the Renaissance. He was born near Florence in the family of a wealthy notary. As soon as the father noticed his son’s creative abilities, it was decided to send young Leonardo to study with the famous artist and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio (an example of his work - a copy of the monument to the condottiere Bartolomeo Colleoni - can be seen in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow).

Under the auspices of his teacher, Leonardo's talent develops at a rapid pace. Even then, da Vinci’s works reflected real human postures, gestures and facial expressions with amazing accuracy. It was at this time that such paintings as “The Annunciation” (approx. 1472) and “Benois Madonna” (1478) were born. In 1475, a landscape work was created in pencil, depicting the Arno Valley.

Having struck up a friendly relationship with the astronomer Paolo Toscanelli, who is the keeper of the library in Florence, the young man begins to show interest in science and technology.

Talented artist

Around 1482, a talented artist was invited to Milan to found an art academy. The Treatise on Perspective, written by Leonardo, became a natural teaching aid for students of the academy. The work revealed the secrets of depicting the human body, the features of capturing moving people on canvas, a selection of works on painting, and the secrets of conveying chiaroscuro.

Work at the academy and creativity during this period allowed Leonardo to reveal himself as a brilliant artist. In 1495 his famous “ last supper“, and the master does not give up his passion for painting throughout his life.

Leonardo da Vinci - soothsayer

In 1500, the talented artist left Milan and spent the rest of his life constantly moving. In Milan, Leonardo begins his engineering “creativity”. He works as a military engineer, architect and hydraulic engineer. It is to this period of his life that his numerous sketches on mechanics and engineering structures date back. With his genius, Leonardo covered almost all areas of science of that time - he approached everything with his characteristic creative approach and special vision of mechanisms.

Most notably, Leonardo was so talented and insightful that many of his works never came to fruition during the inventor's lifetime. Ahead of his time, da Vinci described in detail the design of a submarine and parachute, an armored combat vehicle, metallurgical furnaces, and a printing press.

Examples of Leonardo's engineering genius were: a pedometer and an odometer (an apparatus for measuring the distance traveled by a crew); a lathe equipped with a flywheel for measured rotation; impellers to prevent burning of meat on a spit; paper feeder in a printing press and much more.

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The Greatest Desire for Human Flight

Leonardo was especially interested in the question of man's ability to fly. Compared to his contemporaries, he was the only one who devoted long hours of thought and careful study to this problem. His notes and drawings reflect such significant features as the flight balance of forces of the device, the method of controlling it by modifying the wing geometry, and much more.

In his scientific research in the field of flight, da Vinci relied on studies of the features of bird flight: “a bird is an instrument operating according to mathematical laws, which can be made in human power, with all its movements, but not with as many capabilities.” Logically continuing this idea, the inventor set about creating an ornithopter - an airplane with wings, the flapping of which was controlled by a person. Later, realizing that human strength was not enough to achieve flight, it was decided that a special engine should be responsible for the power of flapping wings.

Exploring human capabilities, Leonardo introduced a number of useful and effective inventions that are still relevant today. Such inventions included controlling the movement of the pilot’s head with the tail unit - these days, this is exactly the way military helicopters aim their barreled weapons at the target. Folding stairs in aircraft are nothing more than modern landing gear, but about special form The body of the device in the form of a submarine is not worth mentioning.

In the fifteenth century, only two types of mechanical engines were known: wind and water. Leonardo found a way out of the situation - the engine was a mechanism with the highest power density, as in a catapult and crossbow - a drawn bow, or a spring. With the help of human strength and a drawn bow, the device will be able to be lifted into the air, and already during the flight only human muscular strength will be sufficient.

However, for a long time the ornithopter could not get into the air, since Leonardo’s assumptions were incorrect. Then the inventor began developing an aircraft with static wings, which would be controlled by moving some wing elements. Modern gliders, which were not flown until the end of the nineteenth century, have a similar flight system.

In addition to the ornithopter, da Vinci tried to create a device that was the prototype of a modern helicopter. It was supposed to be launched into the air, however, by manually unscrewing the propeller. However, Leonardo assumed that he would be able to lift the device off the ground, so the inventor also designed a device that assessed the roll of a helicopter - a prototype of the avihorizon, as well as a device for measuring wind strength (it is still used to this day at weather stations).

"Paradise of Mathematical Sciences"

As an engineer and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci especially valued the exact sciences: “he who condemns the highest precision of mathematics feeds on confusion and will never give up the tricks of the sophistical sciences, which give rise to endless chatter.” It was precise calculations that allowed Leonardo to create surprisingly correct calculations, many of which are still valid to this day. For example, he thought through the essence of a ball bearing, came up with the idea of ​​devices for converting rotational motion into translational motion and vice versa, and created a roller chain, which we can see today in bicycles and motorcycles. It was da Vinci who created the theoretical foundations of transmission mechanisms, on which classical engineering mechanics began to be based centuries later.

Anticipating the discoveries of Newton and Bernoulli, da Vinci studied hydraulics and tried to create a vacuum in inverted flasks placed in containers of water. In addition, Leonardo gave practical advice for the construction of dams and strengthening of river banks.

“There is no certainty in sciences where none of the mathematical sciences can be applied, and in that which has no connection with mathematics,” the great inventor believed. Many people, even those far from the exact sciences, know such a concept as the “golden ratio” - a harmonious proportional ratio of an object for the human eye, equal to 1.6180..... This value was familiar to Euclid, but he gave such a beautiful and accurate name Da Vinci is for her.

Creating weapons of the future

Despite Leonardo’s “peaceful” inventions, da Vinci was also developing weapons. His designs of catapults and serf crossbows are remarkable, but even in those years gunpowder was actively used, so it was necessary to create something fundamentally new. The inventor is engaged in strengthening fortress walls with gun platforms, creating guns that should be loaded from the breech, explosive bombs, and elongated projectiles with a powder accelerator.

His drawings also include more global “killing machines,” for example, an armored vehicle equipped with artillery, and an underwater mine, which should be placed in the bottom of a submarine. Such an underwater mine was used only in the 1860s in America during the war between the South and the North.

Man and the Universe

In addition to his favorite mechanics, da Vinci actively studied the structure of the human body and even practiced anatomy. Among his sketches, a huge number of drawings depict the structure of muscles, bones, and internal organs. Knowing that an inverted image is projected onto the retina of the eye, Leonardo designed a camera obscura to prove his hypothesis.

In the field of botany, Leonardo also distinguished himself by the amazing accuracy of his images - his sketches can be safely published in specialized textbooks. It was da Vinci who discovered the geo- and heliotropism of plants. The inventor was able to explain the colorful reflections of fat on water by the refraction of light, although this concept was still centuries away from being understood.

The inventor's genius extended beyond man, the earth and ways to create an aircraft. Leonardo understood perfectly well that our planet was not the only one in this Universe and, apparently, even planned to build an observatory: “Now think what our star looks like from such a great distance, and imagine how many stars can be between us on all sides in all the dark space."

Among other things, Leonardo reflected on the essence of inertia: “motion tends to be conserved, or moving bodies continue to move as long as the force of the mover, the initial impulse, continues to act in them. Nothing can move by itself; movement is caused by the action of something else. These others are served by strength.” This led to the logical conclusion that the creation of a “perpetual motion machine” is a utopia.

Leonardo da Vinci died in France, lonely, poor and disappointed. His contemporaries did not appreciate his work, and he himself did not try to somehow advertise himself. In those years, even Da Vinci’s paintings did not delight people, and, for example, the world-famous “La Gioconda” in our days calmly hung in the bathroom of some noble rich man.

Almost the crowning achievement in the numerous notes and notes of the genius Leonardo da Vinci asks himself the question: “Tell me, have you ever done anything?.. Has anything been done? Is it done? And if at that time the great mechanical engineer-artist could answer his own question with bitterness, now all of humanity can only admire and thank this amazing man. Not only several centuries later, but even today, people study the works of da Vinci, admiring how many of his inventions and ideas remain relevant to this day... and perhaps even ahead of our time.