paralyzed , and on May 2, 1519 he died. All his work was left to Melzi, and was buried in
France.
His remains were lost during the French Revolution, when the coffins were taken apart; the nails
were turned into bullets; and the bodies were buried in common graves. It is in one of those
wholes in the French soil that the remains of Leonardo rests, among common men.
Contributions to Science
Leonardo was a genius, and a very complicated man. He had conflicting feeling towards his
fellow man. While he did not hate people, he saw them as inferior, and this is expressed in one of
his notes:
To be honest, when I see certain people pick up a book, I fully expect
they will smell each page throughly as some monkeys do, and eat
everything but the cover.
He was a humble man in actions, and he worked to serve those who had contracted him, but
frankly, he did not believe in the goodness of others. He wrote:
Many of our fellow men are not in fact even human. They are rather
to be looked upon only as consumers of food and producers of
excretion. The majority of them leave to the world after their death
a decaying body, no more.
With this in mind, his driving force must have been derived solely from his inquisitive soul, ever
in search of knowledge. His anatomical work was to find the reason for life. All his military
work was caused by his turbulent times, living with constant change of governments. His work on
the birds and on flight are probably a result of his attempts to escape a time which he did not very
much like, being commissioned to work that he was no longer interested in. The society in which
he lived welcomed his art works, and his architectural advances; however they were afraid of his
scientific studies. This caused him to be very secretive, and having suffered attacks from the
public on two occasions, he had good reason for his secrecy. The first time when he was a young
man, an accusation of homosexuality, which was dismissed on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Later in life, an accusation of heresy, which because of his friendship with the Pope was
dismissed. He was feared for his eccentric interests in dead bodies, spending the nights in
hospitals and morgues studying, and the days closed up working in secret so that others would not
steal his work, or attack him for doing it.
Leonardo managed to do a lot in his life and below I have outlined his greatest works. Now most
of our knowledge is derived from his manuscripts, and even though a great many of them were lost,
we have enough to form a somewhat clear picture of his life and his works.
Leonardo Studied/Discovered:
-The movement of water and streams.
-The movement of air and wind.
-Anatomical Studies: Thought his life, Leonardo was able to map virtually every part of the Human
body. He begun with the muscles and bones, and then moved on to the organs, including the brain,
eyes, heart, lungs, digestive system, and the unborn child.
-Birds and Flight patters.
-Discovers the law of Motion “for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction”.
-Botany. Leonardo begun to understand the parts of plants and how they worked.
-Optics of a mirror.
Leonardo invented:
-Submarine : a boat that could sink and rise out of the water.
-Skin Divers: Swimmers that could breath underwater with the use of bags with air, and long tubes
that would rise from the water. These men could attack enemy ships without being detected.
-Designs of a bridge to cross the Bosporus.
-The Helicopter, and a winged flight machine.
-The Locks and Levels canal system, now used in the Panama Canal.
-Tanks. An armored vehicle that could withstand cannon fire and clear the way for troops.
-Machine gun.
-Explosive projectiles. Changed the solid cannon balls so they would break into smaller pieces.
-Ballistics. Reshaped the cannon balls into the modern day “bullet” shape.
-Chain Links. He invented the modern day chain-link seen in bicycles.
-Spring-driven car.
-Flyer Spindle. A rope and tread making machine.
-Perpetual Motion Wheel. Although he knew that perpetual motion was impossible
mathematically, he designed a wheel that would turn for prolonged periods of time.
Leonardo’s Art:
-The Baptism of Christ
-Annunciation
-Adoration of the Magi (not completed)
-Virgin of the Rocks
-Statute of Francesco Sforza (not completed)
-portrait of Cecilia Gallerani
-Ceiling of the Sala delle Asse
-The Last Supper
-The Virgin and Child with St. Anne
-Battle of Anghiari (not completed)
-St Jerome (not completed)
-St John the Baptist
-Mona Lisa
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