Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian prodigy, and was regarded as the Renaissance Man.

He displayed various skills in numerous areas of study. His paintings such as the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper are very famous around the world. However, he was also renowned as a brilliant engineer, scientist, and inventor besides being gifted in the arts. His areas of study included aeronautics, anatomy, astronomy, botany, cartography, civil engineering, chemistry, geology, hydrodynamics, mathematics, mechanical engineering, psychics, optics, pyrotechnics, and zoology. Leonardo da Vinci was significant to Renaissance thinking, because of his advanced knowledge in engineering, science and art, and as an inventor. Da Vinci was a talented engineer. For instance, he utilized levers, pulleys, and wheels to create machines. One machine was called the hydraulic machine which utilized the force of water to be carried out safer and more efficiently out of mines and through mountain tunnels. Also by utilizing the basic tools in machines, he made designs in mills and factories: machines and engines that could be generated by water power, making function easier and efficient. War machines, such as the first tank, were powered by two men inside the tank cranking shafts. Another invention was the enormous crossbow, which proved to be almost a success in war machines. One of his most popular early works, 'The Adoration of the Magi,' was painted in 1481 for the Monastery of San Donato a Scopeto as an altar piece. It was never finished due to his departure for Milan, where he offered his services to Duke Ludovico il Moro. He worked on the Duomo in Milan and the Duomo and Castle in pavia; and painted the Madonna of the Rocks and the Last Supper at this time. He also set up festivals for the Duke and claimed to be an expert in military engineering and arms. In 1499 Ludovico il Moro fled Milan ahead of invading French troops. The Gascon bowmen of Louis XII used Leonardo's model for the equestrian statue of Francesco Sforza for target practice. Soon afterwards, Leonardo left Milan inspite of the evident good-will of the French authorities. During the next few years, Leonardo wandered from Mantua, in the court of Isabella d'Este; Venice, where he was consultant for architectural matters from 1495 to 1499; to Florence; before becoming military engineer for Cesare Borgia between 1502 and 1503. He was imprisoned twice for same-sexual misconduct. In April, 1476 he was accused of sodomy with a 17- year-old named Jacopo Saltarelli. Leonardo's father refused to help, but his uncle enlisted the aid of

Bernardo di Simone Cortigiani, an influential Florentine, to have the charges dismissed, after Leonardo spent two months in jail. At one point later in life, Leonardo adopted a ten-year old boy named Salai; their twenty-five year relationship was anything but typical of fathers and sons. Among Leonardo's notes is a long-running list of items stolen from him by the mischievous Salai. When Leonardo died, he left a bequest for Salai, but he left his drawings, papers, and notes to his final companion: a young nobleman named Francesco Melzi. The death of Pope Alexander VI changed the fortunes of Duke Valentino, and Leonardo returned to Florence in 1503, remaining there until 1506. The Florentine Republic commissioned him to execute a large fresco of the battle of Anghiari for one of the walls of the Sala del Gran Consiglio in the Palazzo della Signioria facing a fresco by Michelangelo, one of his rivals. Leonardo experimented with a new technique of fresco, which deteriorated quickly and eventually was lost. It was in Florence that Leonardo had his greatest following, and it was during his years there that he painted such classics as the Mona Lisa. In 1506 Leonardo obtained temporary leave from the Florentine Republic in order to return to Milan, where he was to finish certain projects which he had left incomplete due to his earlier hasty departure. In Milan he once again came into contact with the French, who repeatedly asked the Florentine Republic to extend Leonardo's leave. Between 1507 and 1508 Leonardo visited Florence to settle his father's estate. He then spent many years in Milan with the title of 'peintre et ingenieur ordinarie'. He devoted much of his time to scientific studies and to the engineering projects such as the channeling of the course of the Adda river. The return of the Sforza family in 1512 forced Leonardo to leave Milan once again. From 1513 to 1516 he was in Rome at the Palazzo Belvedere under the protection of Giuliano dei Medici, the brother of Pope Leo X. Here Leonardo came into contact with Michelangelo and Raphael; both younger, and both rivals. After the death of Giuliano dei Medici, Leonardo accepted an invitation from his French friends and moved to the castle of Cloux near Amboise, where he stayed with his faithful pupil Melzi. Leonardo died on May 2, 1519, and was buried in the cloister of San Fiorentino in Amboise.

Leonardo Da Vinci, an artist, scientist, inventor, mathematician, engineer, and architect, was among the first great thinkers to apply the scientific method to his philosophies. He performed detailed experiments, in particular on the nature of frictional forces, from which he made observations and followed up by making theories which lead to new experiments. His work at the end of the 1400's preceded that of Newton by nearly 200 years. Leonardo was also very brilliant in observing science and art. In his journal, he kept diagrams and sketches of the human body, including anatomical proportions, muscles, bones, and organs. He also researched pregnancies, and the fetus developing in the womb of the mother. Nature was also another passion in science, and he observed countless animals and plants in their environment. He studied the flight of birds, and learned about wind and air motion. In art, he was very talented in finding the right light sources, making three dimensional images from a two dimensional surface. He utilized perspective in all of his pieces, which made them more appealing. His famous pieces include The Lady with an Ermine, Mona Lisa, and The Virgin of the Rocks. Numerous self-portraits and countless sketches were made, and were extremely detailed and exquisite. As an inventor, da Vinci was a marvel. He created a machine that ground up convex lenses, and bridges. The first diving suit was his idea, which had contained water proof pigskin as the suit, and a bamboo stick for breathing tubes. One of his most influential was the first flying machines such as the helicopter, and parachutes and hang gliders based on a bats wing structure. The first bowed keyboard instrument was the first to ever be devised, called the viola organista. Rotors and a looping bow powered the machine, as well as its strings. Leonardo was significant to history because his brilliances led to modern works in the future. Without his contributions, these pieces would not have ever existed. He pushed the limits of observation and created ideas that were works of a genius. Thanks to him, history and humanity as we know it, have been highly influenced to change.