Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 in the small town of Anchiano, which was close to Vinci in Italy. He was the illegitimate son of a legal clerk and a peasant girl. Da Vinci was not merely an indication of his birthplace but was also his family’s surname.
Leonardo da Vinci is primarily known as an artist, but he was also one of the greatest scientific minds ever to have lived.
He was a gifted and inventor of machines, he understood key principle that would only be fully explained by Newton nearly two centuries later.
His drawing of a primitive airoplane, parachute and even type of helicopter anticipate discoveries hundreds of years away. He created complicated gears, pulleys, a mechanical saw, a coin making machine, a rope making machine, cranes, a centrifuge pump and many more.
Leonardo was also a scientist who studied anatomy; he studied the bodies of animals and people. He learned how many parts the human body works.
Leonardo’s early anatomical studies were rather unfocused, for he wished to explain every aspect of the human body – not just structural anatomy, but also conception and growth, the expression of the emotions, the nature of the senses and so on.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
