The earliest clear influence in the playing mechanism of the viola organista does not necessarily come from bowed instruments themselves. Rather, the hurdy-gurdy is a more concrete example of the method of sound generation that da Vinci was searching for. The hurdy-gurdy is an instrument similar to a violin, with a hand crank to vibrate the strings and keys to signify specific notes. While the instrument was depicted in various forms throughout the 12^th century, the first manuscript detailing how to divide the tuning into a diatonic scale was released in the 13^th century, titled the Quomodo Organistrum Construatur. The author of this piece is debated, as the person it is often attributed to, Odo of Cluny, died centuries before the volume was completed. Separate instruments including various combinations of wheel-cranks and keys were combined and refined in this document. These instruments were likely used for newly written polyphonic music in Catholic monasteries, including ones in Italy. One string was typically designated for drones, allowing for much easier creation of polyphonic parts, as the player did not need to actively play the string separately because of the unified hand-crank.

Severini, G. (2018, December 17). Organistrum / Symphonia keyboard in Santiago de Compostela cathedral. Retrieved from liuteriaseverini.it/index.php?…...

Hurdy-gurdy (Medieval). (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2019, from caslabs.case.edu/medren/mediev…

Hurdy-Gurdy [Digital image]. (2005, February 17). Retrieved from pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plik:Hur…

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Christopher Embry

The Verge and Foliet are the first escapements to be used to construct the first mechanical clocks. Using a notched wheel and a rod wih two plates, the rotational motion of the wheel can be controlled and regulated into small ticks. These escapements were used in all clocks until the pendulum was introduced, and da Vinci used these mechanisms in his own clockwork.

Associated Places

Dover Castle Clock
Salisbury Cathedral Clock
Dover Castle Clock Mechanism
Salisbury Cathedral Clock Mechanism
St. Mark's Clock

by Eric Liu

In 1296 the Florence Duomo began construction. Florentines desired a symbol to showcase the power and status of their city, and at this time there was no better way to do that than to create one of the largest and most immaculate cathedrals in the world. The duomo at its beginning had a Florentine Gothic style, until its reconstruction under Brunelleschi, when it transformed to more of a Renaissance style.

Source: Leonardo da Vinci in Florence: On the Lantern. (n.d.). Retrieved from erenow.net/biographies/leonard…...

Associated Places

The Florence Duomo

by Marissa White

Up until the 15th century, the most common medium for painting was tempura paint. Tempura paint dries very quickly, meaning artist using tempura could not easily blend colors. Tempura paintings have been found from about 3000 BC. on early Egyptian sarcophagi decorations, thus showing how long tempura had been the most common medium. This shows monumental the transition from tempura to oil paint truly was. Oil paint began to make its way to Europe in the 12th century but was not widely adopted until the 15th century. The appeal to oil paint was that it dried slowly which allowed artist to continually work the paint. This allowed for artist to blend the paints thus allowing for softened transitions between colors, and results in a more accurate depiction of shading. The technique spread to Italy in the late 1400's starting in Venice and by 1540 oil painting completely dominated as the most popular medium - tempura was no longer being used at all. Oil paints often only came in a few premade colors, there artists had to mix small amounts of colors to create more shades, often done on a wooden palette. The crescent shaped wooden palette that is typically a symbol of an art, is in reference to oil painters. 

Sources: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempera    

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_pain…

 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oil_pain…

Image retrieved from Wikimedia Commons:  commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

 

Associated Places

A Painter's Palette

by Cara McCormick

The wars in Lombardy were a series of struggles between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan, leading to the five major Italian territorial powers that make up the map of Italy until the Italian Wars (i.e., Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, and the Papacy). The wars ravaged the economy of Lombardy and weakened the power of Venice. The Peace of Lodi in 1454 brought 40 years of comparative peace to Northern Italy. This is the time of the Medici rule of Florence, first Cosimo de’ Medici, then Piero “the Gouty,” then Lorenzo Il Magnifico.  The death of Lorenzo marked the end of the Golden Age of Renaissance Florence. Both Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo Buonarroti were active (and tied to Lorenzo) during this period. In 1428, Venice acquired Brescia and Bergamo as a result of this struggle.

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No places have been associated with this event

by Dino Franco Felluga

  Leonardo da Vinci was born April 15, 1452 in Vinci, Italy. As a child he did not have any special formal education, but when he was a teenager his father recognized his artistic talent and arranged for him to be trained under the famous artist Andrea del Verrochio from Florence. From this apprenticeship he was introduced to many technical skills such as metal working, as well as improving his painting and sculpting techniques. Since he was a scientist, artist, and inventor among many other things, his knowledge of many disciplines gave him the title of a Renaissance Man. His most famous paintings are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, and he is also recognized for his study of human anatomy and his many inventions. He died at 67 in the year 1519. Image source: Wikimedia commons, listed as public domain in the United States because it is a photographic reproduction of a public domain work of art. 

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No places have been associated with this event

by Juliana Ilmain

The fall of Constantinople marked the end of the Byzantine Empire after ten centuries of war. The Ottoman Turks defeated felled the city and ended the European Middle Ages. 

The Byzantine Empire had been a bastion of Christian Europe facing Muslim Asia. The Ottoman Turks were expanding their empire and saw Constantinople as a center of the rival Christian faith and a symbol of imperial power. 

Constantinople had held off many attempts to destroy or capture it but was declining in power over the years. Mehmed II set out to take the city in the spring of 1453 and used the sea to gain access to the city. Initial attacks failed, but on May 29th, Mehmed launched attacks from the sea and the land simultaneously.  The Ottomans were finally able to overwhelm the defenses due to the use of gunpowder-powered cannons. After gaining access past the walls, the Ottomans killed the emperor and massacred the citizens. 

Mehmed rode a white horse down streets that ran with blood to Hagia Sophia, the city's famed cathedral. He used the cathedral as a mosque to say prayers of thanks for the victory. 

The fall of Constantinople was important because it was a watershed moment in military history. The city had defended itself with walls and ramparts since ancient times. These fortifications were used as the model of many later cities. The end of the Byzantine Empire marks the end of the Medieval period.  

Bunting, Tony. “Fall of Constantinople.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 22 May 2018, www.britannica.com/event/Fall-of-Constantinople-1453.

“Fall of Constantinople.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 2 May 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople.

Associated Places

Istanbul

by Lindsay Rubin

The Treaty of Lodi was the peace agreement between Milan, Naples, and Florence. It was signed in Lodi, Lombardy by Milan, Venice, and Florence. It ended the Wars in Lombardy.  The treaty established boundaries between Milanese and Venetian territories in northern Italy.  The balance of power was established and excluded the smaller states. A second agreement was signed August 30th in Venice. The purpose of this agreement was establishing principles of non-aggression.

The Treaty of Lodi was significant because it brought Milan and Naples into a definitive peace alliance with Florence. The treaty provided a new state system model and institutionalized a regional balance of power built on diplomacy.  However, the balance of power was disrupted in 1494 with the start of the Italian Wars.  

“Treaty of Lodi.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 24 Sept. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Lodi.

Associated Places

Lodi

by Lindsay Rubin

Paolo Uccello was an Italian painter who died just before the Renaissance. In one of his last paintings titled The Hunt in the Forest, we can see perspective beginning to appear in art. Uccello's piece also is a great example of how plants and trees were painted during the pre-Renaissance. His plants show variation and stand out from each other, but they still don't look like a real tree. Uccello's plants in the foreground also still maintain the symbolic look rather than the realistic look that would appear during the Renaissance.

Image from Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paolo_Uccello_The_Hunt_in_the_Forest.jpg. This image is under common domain and free use.

Associated Places

Paolo Uccello's The Hunt in the Forest

by Kayla Cole

Lorenzo de Medici, the grandson of Cosimo de Medici, came to power in 1469. Lorenzo is thought of as the most powerful patron of the Medici family and is remembered as the greatest patron in the history of Italy. Some of the talent Lorenzo sponsored as a patron includes Michelangelo Buonarroti and Leonardo da Vinci, two of the most famous people in history. Under Lorenzo's rule, Florence earned its reputation as the most beautiful city in Europe. Additionally, the economy of Florence prospered like never before. 

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No places have been associated with this event

by Mara Kossoff

"The Baptism of Christ" was commissioned to Verrochio by the monks of San Salvi, a church located in Florence. It is thought that the painting was worked on by Verrocchio, DaVinci, and possibly one other older artist. At the time it was very common for artist to paint the main figure and leave the secondary figures to their pupils. It is thought an older artist may have painted the dove and the hands for the appear to be less developed than the rest of the painting. DaVinci is known to have painted the left angel in the painting as well as Jesus' figure and parts of the background.  In the background it can be seen that DaVinci began to play with sunlight, mist and shadows giving the painting three-dimensional feel, while the parts of the background Verrocchio did, such as the trees, have more of a static feel. DaVinci used oil paint for his parts of the painting. Oil paints allowed DaVinci to create smoother transitions and gradients between his colors, creating a more realistic look. These smooth transitions can be seen in the shadows and shading of Verrocchio’s parts of the painting, such as the hair of the angel and the shading of Jesus’s body. Something unique DaVinci did was give his angel’s face emotion as well as have the angel be paying attention to the main event of the painting. At the time is was not common for secondary figures to display either of these things. Most secondary figures were depicted like Verrocchio’s angel, staring off bored into the distance. This is just another aspect displaying how ahead of his time DaVinci truly was.

Source: www.leonardodavinci.net/the-ba…;

image was found on Wikimedia commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

Associated Places

San Salvi

by Cara McCormick

The first of his drawings, Da Vinci sketched "La Valle dell'Arno" when he was 21. It is one of the first pieces to show a landscape without any religious symbols or human. With the Renaissance occurring at this time, it only goes to show how daring Da Vinci was in terms of separating the church from the artistic and scientific aspects of life. Instead, viewers see an approximately to scale scene of the Arno Valley and without any elements beings completely distorted to show how God may see the world. This was an essential development as maps at this time were influenced by artists' views and Da Vinci showed that not everything needed to have a relation to God or the church. Additionally, it encouraged the idea that scale can be shown in an image with human viewers in mind, thus there should be a direct relationship between the actual landscape and that drawn.

Source: “Landscape Drawing for Santa Maria Della Neve - by Leonardo Da Vinci.” Leonardodavinci.net, www.leonardodavinci.net/landscape-drawing-for-santa-maria-della-neve.jsp.

Associated Places

The First Work: "La Valle dell'Arno"
Florence, Italy

by Chloe Romero

  In recent times, X-rays have been done on the painting 'The Baptism of Christ' that reveal a completely different outline for the angel that DaVinci painted. This indicates DaVinci followed his own vision rather than his master's from very early on in his career (he was only in his early 20's at this time). Often times people say Davinci's angel stands out from the rest of the painting for it is significantly better, as it is far more realistic and detailed. After seeing DaVinci's detailed and far superior angel in their painting "The Baptism of Christ", Verrocchio became embarrassed and ashamed that his pupil was a better artist than him. It is said that after realizing this he vowed, out of shame, to give up painting for the rest of his life. This rang true, as "The Baptism of Christ" is Verrocchio's last known painting. He continued work as an artist but focused on drawing and sculptures. After this time Verrocchio completed some of his best works such as "The Doubting Thomas" located outside the OrsanMichele in Florence or the "Equestrian statue of Bartolomeo Colleoni" in Venice, Italy.

Sources:  www.leonardo-da-vinci.net/bapt…

Image was found on Wikipedia upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia…

 

Associated Places

Verrocchio's David

by Cara McCormick

Leonardo da Vinci demonstrated a thorough understanding of structural reciprocity not just through his arched bridge design, but also through his design of complex geometric structures that could form domes or roofs. He was one of the first scientists in the West to propose complex architectural designs composed of reciprocal structures that extended into three dimensional space. This was revolutionary for the time, as much of Western architecture was predicated upon hierarchical, rather than reciprocal, logic. In the Codex Atlanticus, da Vinci proposed a series of six designs of interconnected, reciprocal geometric shapes. Though the exact date of these designs is not identified, they most likely informed or went hand-in-hand with da Vinci’s work on the arched bridge. Both indicate that da Vinci was thinking about space in innovative ways that no engineers or architects had done before.

Sources:

Pugnale, A., & Sassone, M. (2014). Structural Reciprocity: Critical Overview and Promising Research/Design Issues. Nexus Network Journal, 16(1), 9-35. Retrieved May 16, 2019, from link.springer.com/article/10.1…

Taddei, M. (2006). [Unique edition of the Codex Atlanticus as a box. Made by Mario Taddei in the 2007]. Retrieved May 16, 2019, from www.mariotaddei.net_' onclick='void(0)'>commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…(27b).jpg

Photo, taken from Wikimedia Commons, is free to use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 License.

Associated Places

Leonardo da Vinci's Sketches of Structurally Reciprocal Designs

by Katherine Li

Within the time of the Renaissance, significant revolutionary developments in the applications, properties, and laws of universal sciences were sought and attempted to be explained.  As such, in specifically analyzing the mechanical properties of systems and the universal laws of motion, leading Renaissance man, Leonardo da Vinci, sought to investigate his fascination with motion by exploring the principle functionalities and fundamental qualities of moving apparatuses.  Believing that both machines and humans were systems designated to move, da Vinci experimentally evaluated physical phenomena and visually depicted his theoretical models within his prized and unpublished, Codex Atlanticus, the principal manuscript collections that pertain to his designed machines and mechanisms.  Within his investigations of motion, he was noted for investigating the frictional and angular properties of what Aristotle had once coined as “simple machines,” such as inclined planes, levers, screws, pulleys, axels, and wheels, but was notably distinct in further attempting to improve complex machines with his new understandings of the principles of motion.  By essentially deriving and comprehending Newton’s First Law of motion, with his exception being his ignorance regarding the properties of gravity, da Vinci was able to utilize his preliminary knowledge of torque, tension forces, and angular motion to reimagine and theoretically explore an improved and ideal catapult design. 

By the Renaissance era, catapults had already established themselves as one of the most valued weapons of the Eastern Hemisphere, and although gunpowder had become a new staple of warfare mechanics, da Vinci understood that this new substance was not completely reliable during his time and led him to attempt to innovatively explore his studies of motion while proposing innovative and improved designs for the previously created catapult.  Thus, after settling in Milan and working as a Renaissance defense contractor under his patron, Il Moro, da Vinci worked diligently in drafting mechanical military and designs that explored his idealized properties of complex technical processes, which included the catapult.  Da Vinci is known to have developed two designs, the single and double arm system, for his ideal catapult, each of which utilized what is referred to as the leaf-spring system to optimize the weapon’s accuracy and power.  Da Vinci’s new designs distinguishably improved the preceding catapults by incorporating a rotating drum rather than a bow and draw-string.  Regarding the motion of the launch arm, the systems were said to have increased rotational velocity and an optimization of angular momentum using bending leaf spring sections which would provide an overexerted physical force upon the release of the systems activation mechanism.  Arguably the most imperative aspect to the functionality of da Vinci’s catapult is the leaf spring system which is a pliable, flexible beam constructed though the layered stacking of sheets of metal or laminated wood.  When constructing these leaf springs, it is imperative that, as the layers are stacked, their length decreases linearly to improve the density of material in the beam’s center, making the edges of the leaf spring more flexible.  With this design, when assembled, the leaf spring apparatus can achieve greater curvature and thus more effective propellant power.

The primary distinction between the single and the double arm catapult designs is the incorporation of pawl and rachet system and worm gear system.  In analyzing the single arm catapult, the weapon’s pawl and rachet system would secure the launch arm to its lowered position by situating grooves of a flywheel to the arm’s tines while bending the singular leaf spring.  This was imperative in avoiding accidental ejections and unwanted injuries common with previously developed catapults.  Furthermore, the double arm system would use a winding, worm gear system that would rely on two leaf springs to create torsion tension while gradually positioning the throwing arm to a lowered position.  The use of two leaf arms unfolding outwards had the cumulative effect of distributing immense and significant power to the launch arm thereby applying a large centrifugal acceleration to the projectile relative to the rotating launch arm. 

 

With this illustrative depiction of utilizing rotational motion to optimize the launching mechanisms of the familiar catapult, da Vinci was said to have created the most effective and mechanically efficient catapult ever invented.  This system, if scaled correctly, was projected to fire objects to a range of approximately one quarter mile.  However, the design contained a plethora of disadvantages that prevented its ultimate creation.  For example, the construction of steel leaf springs would have been extremely cost inefficient due to the expensive nature of acquiring multiple steel plates less than a millimeter thick, mortars were simultaneously developed by da Vinci which created a greater force of impact to enemy armies and were more cost-effective, and the extreme velocity applied by the contorting leaf springs would have eventually decreased the structural rigidity of these springs and resulted in an eventual snapping that could have resulted in catapult operators’ deaths or significant injuries.  Nevertheless, da Vinci’s catapult continues to represent the culmination of his infatuation with investigating the physical properties of perpetual motion devices.

Sources:

Catapult Model: Leonardo da Vinci’s Catapult Model. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2019, from www.leonardodavincisinventions…...

Hucbald, H. (2007, April 14). A Leonardo da Vinci Leaf Spring Catapult. Retrieved May 6, 2019, from www.hucbald.ramst.ca/articles/…

Isaacson, W. (2018). Leonardo Da Vinci. New York: Simon & Schuster Paperbacks.

Leonardo Da Vinci's Life: Da Vinci’s Catapult. (n.d.). Retrieved May 6, 2019, from www.davincilife.com/catapult.h…

Moon, F. C. (2016). Machines of Leonardo Da Vinci and Franz Reuleaux: Kinematics of Machines from the Renaissance to the 20th century. Place of publication not identified: SPRINGER.

Associated Places

Milan

by Benjamin Koszyk

Da Vinci drew and developed many components of clocks, and some designs of entire clocks. These include a variety of gears and escapements, a very accurate three-dial clock for his time, and an alarm clock.

Associated Places

St. Mark's Clocktower
Da Vinci's "Clock at Chiaravalle"
Da Vinci Gear Designs
Worm Gear and Slide Crank
St. Mark's Clock

by Eric Liu

While da Vinci is known for designing a simple helicopter, he also made a sketch for a flotation device, better known today as a parachute. He stated "if a man has a tent made of linen of which the apertures [openings] have all been stopped up, and it be twelve braccia [about 23 feet] across and twelve in depth, he will be able to throw himself down from any great height without suffering any injury." The design consisted of sealed linen cloth around the sides of a pyramid with a square base. It differed from modern parachute designs, as these are typically rounded and include a harness. The notebook in which this sketch was included was dated 1483. Like many of his designs, it was likely never tested during his lifetime.

Source and Image Source:
Leonardo Da Vinci's Life. (n.d.). Retrieved May 11, 2019, from www.davincilife.com/davincis-p…

Associated Places

Parachute Design by da Vinci

by Nicole Geer

From 1484 to 1485, the Black Death swept through Milan, where Leonardo was living at the time. Several outbreaks occurred in a short period of time. The narrow and crowded city streets helped with the spread of disease, and in the end, about one third of Milan's population had been killed. It was this devastation that inspired da Vinci to make plans for a better city, and ideal city. Leonardo worked for several years to perfect the designs. The ideal city would have two levels. The lower level would feature a series of canals to be used for transportation of people & goods, it would also be used as a sewage system. The upper level would be the picturesque part of the city, with wide roads and extravagant buildings. Tradesmen and lower class workers would travel on the bottom level, while higher class gentlemen would be on the top roads. Though da Vinci's plans were a detailed and well thought out design for a more sanitary city, they were never put to use, as it would have required a complete rebuild of the city.

Sources: www.fastcompany.com/90163788/t…

www.da-vinci-inventions.com/id…

Photo Source: www.fastcompany.com/90163788/t…

Associated Places

Milan

by Allison Skadberg

Preserved notebooks and sections of the Codex Atlanticus provide various sketches of da Vinci’s concept for a keyboard that can imitate a bowed string instrument. As there were various iterations of the design, the instrument evolves over time. Originally utilizing a mechanized bow, the sketches evolved to include a foot-pedal that controlled wheels to play the strings and ended with a system that would lower individual strings onto an automatic belt in order to make sound. In all, six pages across various manuscripts would be dedicated to the instrument, although none contained enough detail for craftsmen to build a working model from the drawings alone.

The Organista would never be made by da Vinci, as many of these drawings are incomplete. An early sketch of the instrument that utilized a mechanized bow did not show how that bow would be affixed to the instrument. Some drawings included double strings attached to each key (as opposed to the typical one per key), likely to increase the volume of the instrument. Ultimately, da Vinci’s drawings were rather difficult to decipher when attempting to envision a singular model of the device.

Raccolta Vinciana. (n.d.). Retrieved May 14, 2019, from bibdig.museogalileo.it/Teca/PD…...

Da Vinci, L. (2011, March 16). Viola organista [Digital image]. Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

Associated Places

Viola Organista Sketches from the Codex Atlanticus

by Christopher Embry

On June 24, 1490, Leonardo da Vinci had dinner with another artist, Giacomo Andrea, to discuss the "Vitruvian Man". Andrea showed da Vinci his sketches, which would provide a foundation for da Vinci's drawing. Some time after, da Vinci finished his own famous sketch, illustrating the perfects proportions of the human body. This sketch also has many religious and mathematical implications. 

Source: Isaacson, Walter. “Vitruvian Man”. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster, 2017.

Photo Source: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

Associated Places

Pavia, Italy
Inspirations for the Vitruvian Man
da Vinci's Vitruvian Man

by Alexa Lahey

Da Vinci's initial works contained too abstract ideas and could not be cast into bronze with a single pour, retendering them incompletable. In his first two main designs, he had a horse rearing up over a fallen foe (Hanson, 2012). Although the fallen foe aided with the stability of the horse, it prohibited a single pour casting. His third design significantly differed from the other two, as it did not contain the fallen foe and was in a frozen trot with two suspended legs (Hanson, 2012). By 1490, Da Vinci began more intense work on the monument and completed a 24-foot clay model of a more detailed version of his third design by 1493, which sat in the Cortile Vecchio of the Castello at Milan (Grierson, 1959). Before Da Vinci’s attempt with his clay horse, no one had created such an equestrian statue with two suspended legs. One suspended leg, as in the Colleoni monument, poses a great challenge with stabilizing the center of gravity; having two suspended legs further heightens this challenge. 

To account for the instability of the statue with two airborne legs and to protect it against several environmental factors, Da Vinci had an intricate structure of the horse. He designed the inside of the horse to have a steel “skeletal structure,” essentially trusses within the horse, and thick metal walls (Ahl, 1995, p. 136). Even though such framing led to other problems, it miraculously maintains the structure of the horse. Such a comprehensive design stands as a feat for the 1400s and 1500s. 

Ahl, D. (1995). Leonardo da Vinci's Sforza monument horse: The art and the engineering. Bethlehem [Pa.]: London; Cranbury, NJ: Lehigh University Press; Associated University Presses.

Grierson, P. (1959). ERCOLE D'ESTE AND LEONARDO DA VINCI'S EQUESTRIAN STATUE OF FRANCESCO SFORZA. Italian Studies, 14(1), 40-48.

Hanson, E. J. (2012). Inventing the sculptor: Leonardo da Vinci and the persistence of myth (Doctoral dissertation, Washington University) [Abstract]. All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs),765. doi: doi.org/10.7936/K7PN93MQ

Associated Places

Cortile Vecchio of the Castello at Milan

by Juliana Sarisky

In 1494 Luca Pacioli (a Franciscan monk and geometer) traveled to Venice to publish Summa de arithmetica, geometria, proportioni et proportionalita, which had the goal of being a comprehensive summary of mathematical knowledge at the time. Almost none of the mathematics featured was Pacioli’s original work, but he did give credit to those who produced the results he mentioned, which included thinkers like Euclid, Boethius, Sacrobosco, and Fibonacci . It had a completely summary of Euclid’s Elements and it studied games of chance (Pacioli presented an attempt at a solution to a problem in this subject which was later deemed incorrect). A revolutionary aspect of this text is that it was published in Italian (the vernacular), not Latin.  The publishing of this work also established Pacioli’s name in the academic and intellectual communities at the time, most definitely catching the attention of da Vinci (who bought a copy as soon as it was published). It is reasonable to speculate that da Vinci recruited Pacioli to the Milan court because he was so impressed by this work.

Sources

Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018.

“Luca Pacioli.” Luca Pacioli (1445-1517), School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Pacioli.html.

The image source is Wikimedia Commons, and it is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1924.

Associated Places

Venice, Italy

by Garrett Mulcahy

The Second Italian War began when King Louis XII of France pressed his claim on the thrones of Milan and Naples. Louis had a claim to the thrones through his paternal grandmother and in 1499, he invaded Italy. He took Milan, Genoa, and Naples. 

When Duke Lodovico Sforza was overthrown, Leonardo da Vinci fled Milan with his assistant and friend to Venice. In Venice he was employed as a military architect and engineer. He designed methods of defending the city from naval attack. 

Louis was driven out of Naples in 1503 by Spain after a defeat at Cerignola. The battle of Cerignola was the first battle in history won by gunpowder small arms.

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Italian Wars.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Mar. 2016, www.britannica.com/event/Italian-Wars.

“Italian War of 1499–1504.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 3 Feb. 2019, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_War_of_1499%E2%80%931504.

Associated Places

Naples
Milan
Genoa
Cerignola

by Lindsay Rubin

Da Vinci’s Last Supper was commissioned by Duke Ludovico Sforza for the refectory, a room used for communal meals, of the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. In early 1494, Sforza had become the official Duke of Milan and he wanted to enhance his stature as well as create a mausoleum for himself and his family, so he commissioned da Vinci, a famous artist at the time, to paint this popular religious scene on the wall of this monastery.

Sources:

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. (June 21, 2012). Retrieved from www.italianrenaissance.org/a-c…

Issacson, W. (2017). The Last Supper. In Issacson, W, Leonardo da Vinci. (pp. 273-292). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster

Image Source:

Da Vinci, L. (1495). Study for the last supper. [Sketch]. Retrieved from www.leonardodavinci.net/study-…

Associated Places

Santa Maria delle Grazie
Sketches of the Last Supper

by Leila Yanni

After arriving in Milan in 1496, Pacioli formed a very close connection with da Vinci in which he tutored da Vinci in mathematics. The two men had a deep friendship that transcended their mathematical endeavors; their notebooks include comments to one another like “Well Leonardo, you can do more of this on your own” and “learn the multiplication of roots from Maestro Luca." They also shared the task of providing entertainment to the Court of Milan; their entertainments included brainteasers, magic tricks, and riddles. Mathematically speaking, the duo shared a deep interest in geometric shapes. Pacioli successfully taught da Vinci the works of Euclid’s Elements and less successfully taught him arithmetic techniques like multiplying squares and square roots.  During this time, da Vinci created several sketches of polyhedra that would be featured in Pacioli’s publication De Divina Proportione. In 1499 the French invaded Milan and the pair was forced to flee the city, eventually settling in Florence (where they lived together).

Sources

“Leonardo Da Vinci.” Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519), School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Leonardo.html.

Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018.

“Luca Pacioli.” Luca Pacioli (1445-1517), School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Pacioli.html.

The image source is Wikimedia Commons, and it is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1924.

Associated Places

Ritratto di Luca Pacioli
Florence, Italy
Milan, Italy

by Garrett Mulcahy

Three years after the painting’s commission, Last Supper was completed. A digital reconstruction of what the painting might have looked like when it was finished reveals rich colors and captivating details that are barely visible today. da Vinci’s use of perspective in this painting is ingenious, and he was able to effectively use many new Renaissance techniques to create a vibrant and impactful masterpiece.

               The central vanishing point of the painting is directly behind Jesus’s head, drawing the viewer towards the main subject of the painting. Close examination reveals that da Vinci actually hammered a nail into the center of the wall and cut thin incisions radiating out that guided his painting lines and helped his accuracy. However, the perspective is not perfect because the painting is so large that it appears different depending on the viewer’s vantage point as the viewer is closer to some parts of the painting than others. To remedy this issue, da Vinci applied complex perspective, using a mix of natural and artificial perspective, as well as optical tricks to minimize distortion. He designed the painting so that the perspective appears perfect when viewed from a door in the right wall, where the monks entered the refectory. He then created an artificial ideal vantage point 30 feet from the wall, at eye level with Jesus, again emphasizing Jesus as the focus of the painting. In the painting, da Vinci used the table to hide the lines where the floor hits the back and side walls, and he painted a cornice that hides the fact that the ceiling doesn’t extend all the way above the table. This effective use of optical tricks and complex perspective shows “his mastery of complex rules of natural and artificial perspective, but it also shows his flexibility at fudging those rules when necessary” (Issacson p. 281).

               da Vinci also used newer painting ideas to create his masterpiece. Standard linear perspective had been well studied at the time, but “Leonardo’s most important contribution to the study of perspective was to broaden the concept to include not just linear perspective...but also ways of conveying depth through changes in color and clarity” (Issacson p. 274). Da Vinci included three windows in the back of the painting that look out into the far distance of a mountain range, and one can clearly see the blurriness and blueness of the mountains as a fantastic example of his aerial perspective. One can also see the impressive blue gradient of the sky, sfumato that adds to the realism of the painting. The windows extend the three dimensional space seemingly into infinity, contrasting the flatness of many previous paintings.

Jesus and the disciples surrounding him possess incredibly expressive emotion and vibrant, rippling movement. da Vinci continuously studied how to portray emotions using body language and gestures, believing that “‘a picture of human figures ought to be done in such a way as that the viewer may easily recognize, by means of their attitudes, the intentions of their minds’” (Issacson p. 282). Through his intensive human studies and detailed portrayal of his figures’ emotions, he uses the Renaissance concepts of naturalism and humanism to pay homage to the complexity of the human form and mind. da Vinci’s choice to not include any gold halos or gold background also helps focus on the human forms of the figures through its removal of anagogic space.

Finally, da Vinci incorporated the revolutionary concept of involving the viewer in the painting by adjusting the lighting in the painting – the light appears to come from an actual window high on the left wall of the refectory, which blends reality and imagination and involves the viewer in the painting.

               While da Vinci used many of these new and complex techniques, he also referenced past versions of The Last Supper through his decision to put all of the figures on the back side of the table. He was certainly capable of painting people on both sides of the table, but putting them all on one side maintains this tradition and does not shock viewers with its boldness. At the same time as he is referencing the past, he incorporates new ideas as the figure placement also allows the viewer to clearly see Jesus and each disciple’s face, body, and movements, emphasizing their emotions as da Vinci wanted and adding to the effect of the viewer being included in the painting.

Sources:

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper. (June 21, 2012). Retrieved from www.italianrenaissance.org/a-c…

Issacson, W. (2017). The Last Supper. In Issacson, W, Leonardo da Vinci. (pp. 273-292). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster

Image Sources:

Bando, K. (2016). Digital Reconstruction of The Last Supper. [Image]. Retrieved from www.leonardoresearch.com/The%2…

The Last Supper Perspective (n.d.) Retrieved from www.leonardodavinci.net/the-la…

Associated Places

Digital Reconstruction of the Last Supper
Perspective Lines in the Last Supper

by Leila Yanni

In response to threats from the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples, Duke Ludovico Sforza of Milan invited France and Spain into Italy to protect Milan. The First Italian War began when Charles VIII, the French King, invaded Italy in 1494 in response to Sforza's request for aid. He took Naples but was driven out by Spain after Italy and Spain created an alliance against him. 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Italian Wars.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Mar. 2016, www.britannica.com/event/Italian-Wars.

Associated Places

Naples
Milan
Cerignola

by Lindsay Rubin

In the late 1400s, Leonardo da Vinci created his aerial screw drawing in his notebook. Because da Vinci was so observant of nature and his surroundings, it is believed this design was partly based on his observations of the spinning of maple seeds as they fall to the ground. It also closely resembled Archimedes' screw used for irrigation purposes in 200 BC. This screw was used to move water from a canal or other water source to an area of higher ground. In order to power the aerial screw, four men, standing on the platform, are required to push the four wooden shafts in a circular motion. Da Vinci believed this would generate enough force to lift the machine into the air. He intended for the aerial screw to be made of reed, linen, and wire. Although he never created a physical model of this design, we now know that da Vinci's aerial screw would be too heavy to be lifted into the air. The force generated by the four men is not strong enough to overcome the strong pull of gravity from this heavy device. 

The aerial screw design is interesting because it contains no elements that resemble birds. Da Vinci realized wings enable birds to fly but wings are not required for flight. Ahead in his understanding of aerodynamics, da Vinci realized flight occurs due to the compression of air. He used this principle in his aerial screw design, which relies on the circular motion of the device compressing the air below and causing the top portion to lift.

Image Source:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

Text Sources:

Capra, F. (2014). Learning from Leonardo: Decoding the notebooks of a genius.San Franciso: BK, Berrett-Koehler.

Foley, W. (1976). From da Vinci to the present—a review of airscrew theory for helicopters, propellers, windmills and engines.Paper presented at AIAA 9^thFluid and Plasma Dynamics Conference, San Diego, CA.

Giacomelli, R. (1930). The aerodynamics of Leonardo da Vinci. The Journal of the Royal Aeronautical Society, 34(240), 1016-1038.

The Helicopter. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.leonardodavincisinventions….

Leonardo da Vinci: The aerial screw. (2017). Retrieved from www.elenco.com/wp-content/uplo….

Associated Places

Institut de France
Leonardo da Vinci's Aerial Screw

by Ali Jeffries

Leonardo da Vinci was a proficient engineer as well as artist, and among his designs was a bridge entirely supported by the parabolic arch underneath it. His notebook includes two illustrations of this arched bridge. He specified that the bridge, which would span the Golden Horn connecting Galata to Istanbul, would be 600 braccia long, which is equivalent to 366 m or 1200 ft; 400 braccia spanned the inlet itself, with 100 braccia over the land on either side. At its highest point, the arch would rise 70 braccia, or 43 m, above the water. While da Vinci was correct in asserting that a parabolic shape would offer extraordinarily strong support, the exact mathematical techniques required to build a bridge of this design were not developed until centuries later. These sketches, found in Manuscript L, are currently located at the Institut de France in Paris.

Sources:

Atalay, B. (2013, January 22). LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 2. “A Bridge for the Sultan”. Retrieved May 11, 2019, from blog.nationalgeographic.org/20…...

Books, Maps and Calligraphic documents in the Topkapi Museum. (n.d.). Retrieved May 12, 2019, from kilyos.ee.bilkent.edu.tr/~hist…

C. (2011, April 10). Bridge built using Leonardo da Vinci's design for a self supporting bridge.Retrieved May 12, 2019, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil… (Originally photographed 2011, April 10)

The image is from Wikimedia Commons and taken by user Cntrading. It is used with the Free Art License.

Associated Places

Florence
Galata and the Golden Horn
Istanbul
Sketches of Arched Bridge

by Katherine Li

While in Florence around 1502 or 1503, Leonardo da Vinci pursued a position as a scientist and engineer in the court of Sultan Beyazid II of Istanbul. To showcase his innovative ideas, he sent a “cover letter” to the Sultan proposing four projects: a windmill, a hydraulic pump, a bridge connecting Galata to Istanbul, and a suspension bridge across the Bosporus connecting Turkey and Asia. The bridge connecting Galata to Istanbul across the Golden Horn was da Vinci’s first formal proposal for a self-supporting arched bridge. As proposed, the bridge would be the longest single span bridge at the time and self supporting due to the parabolic shape of the arches underneath it. The sultan rejected this radical proposal and da Vinci’s design remained unused. The connection between this letter and da Vinci's sketches of the arched bridge design was established in 1952, as the letter, stored in the Istanbul National Archives, had been mislabeled and misattributed. The letter is now on display in the Topkapi museum in Istanbul.

Sources:

Atalay, B. (2013, January 22). LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 2. “A Bridge for the Sultan”. Retrieved May 11, 2019, from blog.nationalgeographic.org/20…...

Erik Cleves, K. (2014, April 8). [Galata]. Retrieved May 11, 2019, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…(13971741453).jpg

The image was taken by Erik Cleves Kristensen and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license. It is provided through Wikimedia Commons.

Associated Places

Florence
Galata and the Golden Horn
Istanbul
Leonardo da Vinci's Letter to Sultan Beyazid II

by Katherine Li

Under the service of Pope Alexander VI’s son, Cesare Borgia, Leonardo Da Vinci was named “General Architect and Engineer”. The Pope wanted a paper visual of the land newly acquired by the Roman armies and wished to improve upon their defense. Thus, Da Vinci joined the troops in Imola and began his expedition there. The map created is believed to be one of the first geometric maps. This differed from medieval maps as it displayed no symbols of religion and displayed the world as accurately as possible according to measurements. However, one can see there are 8 lines protruding from the center of the map, which represent the winds, and within those sections, the map is further divided into 8 more sections. Historians believe this increased accuracy, as Leonardo created the map based on this viewing and measurements from the Palazzo Comunale, in the center of town, and did not have grid lines. What is also impressive is that not only were military details included, such as nearby towns and their distance, but so were older parts of the town. One theory is that Da Vinci based his map on an older map from 1473, thus the details were simply added from it. As far as historians know, this is the oldest map preserved of a town that still exists.

Source: “Leonardo Da Vinci (Vinci 1452-Amboise 1519) - A Map of Imola.” Royal Collection Trust, rct.uk/collection/912284/anbspmap-of-imola.

Associated Places

Imola, Italy
The First Geometric Map

by Chloe Romero

In 1503, Leonardo da Vinci was given a commission to create a portrait of Francesco del Giocondo's wife, Lisa Gherardini. He began work this year, and continued working on it until his death in 1519. It is believed that an assitant also painted the Mona Lisa del Prado in conjunction with the original, copying the original painting. 

Associated Places

Florence (Firenze)
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1519)

by Brendan Murphy

This map was supposedly created when the Da Vinci was still in service of Cesare Borgia. Yet there is evidence that there was little military purpose. While the locations all have names, the rivers are detailed with names as well. Many believe that Da Vinci created the map to build a canal from Florence to the sea. Using the map created, one could plan a dam for Lake Chiana, allowing the canal to be used even during the dry season. Due to this fact, the map seems to serve a more commercial purpose. Alas, it could also be used for transporting soldiers and equipment as well. As the canal was never made, the purpose of the map, or the canal, is not truly known.

Sources:

“Map of Tuscany and the Chiana Valley.” Web Gallery of Art, wga.hu/html_m/l/leonardo/13maps/2tuscany.html.

“A Map of the Valdichiana.” Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/912278/a-map-of-the-valdichiana.

Associated Places

Florence, Italy
Map of Valdichiana Valley

by Chloe Romero

Leda and the Swan is a painting completed by Leonardo da Vinci in 1508. The completed work of art displays highly detailed images of plants. The plants da Vinci draws are unlike most of those seen in other artists paintings prior to this time. The Pre-Renaissance era of art marked a time when plants were shown as being distinct from each other but only slightly. Da Vinci was one of the first to portray plants in a very organic lifelike manner. In preparation for painting Leda and the Swan, Leonardo completed many studies and sketches of plants that then lead him to write down his observations in his notebooks. The original Leda and the Swan was lost but has since been recreated and now is displayed in the Uffizi.

image from Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leda_Melzi_Uffizi.jpg and within the public domain and fair use.

Associated Places

Leda and the Swan

by Kayla Cole

The Mona Lisa had a very large effect on daVinci's contemporaries, especially Raphael. It can be seen in numerous Raphael paintings that he took large inspirtion from the portrait. His "Yound Woman with a Unicorn" is exremetly similar to the Mona Lisa, with folded hands, three quarter tilt, and mysterious smile. However, he also drew an early version of the Mona Lisa, as noticible differences between the sketch and the final product are evident. 

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Brendan Murphy

Leonardo da Vinci created designs for mortars that improved upon the current military technology.  Cannons of the day shot large, solid spheres. To increase the efficiency of the mortar, da Vinci designed projectiles that contained mini gunpowder shots. The shots were packed into petal-shaped iron pieces that formed a ball. The cannonball was loaded into the mortar and fired. da Vinci designed more effective projectiles including shells that exploded upon impact or scattered projectiles over an area. His drawing shows a front mortar firing bombs that explode on impact into a cloud of metal shrapnel. The back mortar loaded with stones or small-caliber iron balls that are fired at the enemy like grape-shot. One of his earlier designs was a mortar mounted on a boat for naval combat. His designs are thought to be the precursor to machine guns.   

Associated Places

Designs for Gun-Barrels & Mortars
Mortars Firing into a Fortress
Mortar for Fragmentation Bombs

by Lindsay Rubin

As an artist, da Vinci’s interest in geometry was rooted in the subject's application to aesthetics. It is for this reason that da Vinci was more invested in learning the “continuous” mathematics of shape as opposed to the “discrete” math of arithmetic. Since da Vinci viewed shapes as continuous, he found himself especially interested in the transformations of one shape to another. One can find evidence of this interest in da Vinci’s sketches of elevated polyhedra, where a polyhedron essentially explodes into another one. da Vinci also explored this idea of transformation in the plane through the task of squaring the circle, which is the task of creating a square with the same area as a given circle. His notebooks show a fixation with the task, eventually displaying 169 ways to do the procedure. In 1505 da Vinci set out to make a publication on the transformation of shapes; unfortunately, this publication never came to fruition, but this idea remained an obsession of him throughout the rest of his life.

Source

Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018. 

The image is from Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain. 

Associated Places

Elevated Icosidodecahedron

by Garrett Mulcahy

While working on his painting Leda and the Swan, Leonardo created several sketches of plants, such as A star-of-Bethlehem and other plants (c.1506-12), in order to better represent them within his painting.  Sketches These sketches show a high level of detail that later carries into his art and pays close attention to the form and structure of plants and how that can change for each one. These sketches have been collected and held on to by the Windsor Castle Royal Collection since the 17th Century.

Image from Wikimedia Commons, commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Leonardo_da_vinci,_Star_of_Bethlehem_and_other_plants.jpg. This image is under public domain and free use.

Associated Places

Windsor Castle Royal Collection

by Kayla Cole

With the discovery of the Americas, new world maps had to be drawn and with the knowledge that the Earth is not flat, many cartographers struggled with the representing the continents as they physically were. Da Vinci took a new approach of making 2, 4-leaf clovers next to each other to create the map. For many, this was a revolutionary idea. The Arctic was shown as a sea and the Antarctic was shown as a continent, concepts that were newly discovered at that time as well. Additionally, Da Vinci was the first to use the word America. Most of his depiction was based on information from Amerigo Vespucci. Still, there were some in accuracies in the map as Da Vinci had not perfected the perspective needed. Europe is enlarged to a great degree. Da Vinci’s approach was a step in the right direction however, as the rectangular map was extremely inaccurate at that time, and even today.

Sources:

Chepkemoi, Joyce. “What Was Leonardo's World Map?” WorldAtlas, 5 June 2017, worldatlas.com/articles/what-was-leonardo-s-world-map.html.

“Leonardo Da Vinci's Mappamundi.” ODT Maps, www.odtmaps.com/behind_the_maps/amundi-map-details.asp.

Associated Places

World Map

by Chloe Romero

In this year Luca Pacioli and Leonardo da Vinci’s joint work De Divina Proportione was published in Venice; this text focused on the role of proportions and ratios in architecture, art, anatomy, and math. Pacioli provided the mathematical content (again, most of his work was unoriginal) and da Vinci provided sixty illustrations of geometric figures. Each geometric figure was depicted in two ways: solid faces and then solid edges. The solid face representation was more typical of the time but was disadvantageous in the fact that it was difficult to get a sense of the whole shape. The other approach is the solid edge approach, in which each of the edges are emphasized and the sides are left “see through.” This was a novel approach to geometric representation at the time, although it is debated whether da Vinci invented this representation. It is also a possibility that he was sketching wooden figures of these shapes as constructed by Pacioli. In either case, da Vinci’s perfection of perspective certainly aided in the two-dimensional representation of these shapes. It is important to note that these geometric figures were the only sketches of da Vinci that were published during his lifetime.  

Sources

Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2018.

“Luca Pacioli.” Luca Pacioli (1445-1517), School of Mathematics and Statistics, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Pacioli.html.

The image source is Wikimedia Commons, and it is in the public domain in the United States because it was published (or registered with the U.S. Copyright Office) before January 1, 1924.

Associated Places

Solid Edge Icosahedron
Solid Face Icosahedron
Venice, Italy

by Garrett Mulcahy

The Codex Leicester, later renamed the Codex Hammer, was one of da Vinci's many scientific journals. It was published in 1510 and its contence mainly focused on his ideas on water and the moon.  An interesting note about this text is the "mirror image" style it is written in, meaning that it should be read from right to left, appearing normally in its reflection.  The Codex als holds the record for the second largest price tag, purchased by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million dollars, making the manuscript also the only of da Vinci's journals to be privatly owned.

Associated Places

The Uffizi Galleries
Sketch of the Eastern Hemisphere of the Moon
the da Vinci Glow

by Corinne Evans

Leonardo da Vinci began his studies of the heart, specifically looking at the flow of blood through the aorta and closure of the aortic valve.  Da Vinci first noted in his studies that it was the heart that was the center of circulation, not the liver which was the belief at the time produced by anatomist Galen, whom da Vinci studied from. With this information, da Vinci continued to look deeper in the mechanics of the heart and wrote detailed descriptions of the blood flow. Da Vinci used his work with fluid dynamics and fluid drag in 1510 to help him describe the closure of the aortic valve in the heart.  In his notes, he wrote about how the blood pushed through the valve circles back around in dilated trunk of the aorta, currently known at the sinuses of Valsalva, to close the valves. An interesting point to make is that sinuses of Valsalva are named after Antonio Valsalva, who “discovered” them in the 1700s.

Originally, people believed the valve closed by blood back flowing into the aorta once the heart relaxes, pushing the valve closed. But Leonardo argued by saying “This would be impossible, because if the blood beats against the valves of the heart while they are wrinkled and folded, the blood that presses from above would press down and crumple the membrane.” He then devised an ingenious way to prove them wrong. Da Vinci used sculpting skills to create a glass heart model. Using water and grass seed in the model, he could visualize the flow around that valve. Unfortunately, like most of da Vinci’s work, his heart studies were not published at the time. His theory of the blood flow forming spiraling eddies to close the valves was not rediscovered or confirmed until 450 years later around 1960 by Brian Bellhouse at Oxford University.

Sources and Picture from:

 Isaacson, W. (2017). Leonardo da Vinci. New York: Simon and Schuster

Associated Places

Oxford University

by Christina Hetisimer

Although he was not the first to propose the concept, Copernicus is considered the father of the heliocentric model of the universe, claiming that the sun was the center of the universe rather than the sun.  This discovery was highly controversial, and Copernicus therefore published his work on his deathbed in fear of retribution from the church.  Along with this theory, he also incorrectly claimed that stars are immovable and Earth orbited in a sphere, however, his ideas were still revolutionary.  His ideas were also built upon by future scientists such as Brahe and Kepler who were able to mathematically fix some of Capernicus' miskates such as the distance of stars from Earth and the shape of a plant's orbital.  Similar to the invention of the telescope, Copernicus published his work after da Vinci's death, meaning the theories da Vinci made on the mood originated with the assumption that the Earth was the center of the universe.

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Corinne Evans

Returning to Florence, Da Vinci devised a scheme that would make the city more efficient. The main idea was straightening the Arno, likely to make it more geometrically pleasing to work with. He also added that there would be five total main streets, three running perpendicularly over the river and two running parallel to it. This would make the flow of traffic much more efficient and less confusing as there would be no twist and turns. The city limits would be bordered by a wall in the shape of a 11-sided polygon. On the bottom there are 9 names for the 9 gates Da Vinci added on this map, each at a different street and wall intersection except for one. When taking into account all of the different projects Da Vinci did in his lifetime, one may say that this project connected to his idea of a two-level city. This would only increase efficiency along the main streets. Alas, like many other Da Vinci ideas, this idealized city was never built.

Source: “A Schematised Plan of Florence.” Royal Collection Trust, www.rct.uk/collection/912681/a-schematised-plan-of-florence.

Associated Places

Florence, Italy

by Chloe Romero

In 1517, Leonardo was asked to design a new palace in France, where he had moved shortly after the fall of Sforza in 1499. The palace that he designed was vast and extravagant, and it had several similarities to the ideal city that he had designed years before. The palace would sit alongside a river, which would allow for a small network of canals to be constructed. The designs included two large, square-shaped palaces and enough smaller buildings around them to make a small village. Unfortunately, in 1519, Leonardo da Vinci passed away, and though his designs were mostly complete, they were abandoned. Because of this, many of his plans for the palace were lost over time, and extensive research has been done to try to recover the missing pieces of his design.

Source and Photo Source: www.leonardo-da-vinci.net/romo…

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Allison Skadberg

German engineer Hans Heyden creates the first working approximation of the viola organista, the Geigenwerk, paving the way for a category of instrument called the “sostenente piano,” signifying a keyboard instrument that produces a sustained sound (as opposed to the percussive voice of a concert piano). The Geigenwerk deviated significantly from the viola organista, but the primary concept behind both is very similar. The Geigenwerk had forty-four keys and five foot-pedals, used to activate the internal wheels that bowed the stings. The creation of this instrument allowed for the spirit of the viola organista to return to Italy, as a Medici prince would purchase a Geigenwerk in the sixteenth century.

Many German craftsmen begin to take da Vinci’s designs, along with the Geigenwerk, as inspiration for their own instruments. The clavichord, a common piano-esque instrument used for composing at the time, was too quiet for public performance and many designers wanted to broaden the available dynamic range as well. Variations of the sostenente piano would continue to be produced as one-off creations until roughly the nineteenth century.

Apel, W. L. (1969). Harvard Dictionary of Music. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press.

Badura-Skoda, E. (2017). The Eighteenth-century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons: From Scarlatti to Beethoven. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Geigenwerk Praetorius [Digital image]. (2014, October 19). Retrieved from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Christopher Embry

During these centuries, the mathematical understanding of geometry and space expanded from the plane to n-dimensional Euclidean space and non-Euclidean space. Although none of Euclid’s Elements was deemed incorrect, during the 17^th century mathematicians Desargues and Pascal realized that Euclidean geometry was a special instance a more general type of geometry: projective geometry. However, the work of these two mathematicians was not given much attention until the 19^th century when their works were rediscovered independently by geometers of that time. Further, the 19^th century saw a greater expansion and generalization in the understanding of geometry: the works of Gauss, Riemann, and others developed ideas like the manifold (objects that behave locally like Euclidean space) and curved spaces. Likewise, instead of working in the plane mathematicians were concerned with the aforementioned generalized spaces. More importantly, these new conceptions of space became well-established in standard mathematical instruction by the end of the 19^th century.   

Sources

Kline, Morris. “Projective Geometry.” Scientific American, vol. 192, no. 1, 1955, pp. 80–86., doi:10.1038/scientificamerican0155-80.

Shearer, Rhonda Roland. “Chaos Theory and Fractal Geometry: Their Potential Impact on the Future of Art.” Leonardo, vol. 25, no. 2, 1992, pp. 143–152., doi:10.2307/1575702.

The image is from Wikimedia Commons and in the public domain. 

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Garrett Mulcahy

Despite the common belief that Galileo was the originator of the telescope, it was actually first patented in 1608 by German-Dutch lensmaker Hans Lippershey, though it would not be called a "telescope" for three years, until which it was called a "Dutch Perspective Glass".  Its design involved a concave eyepiece aligned with a convex objective lens that was capable of magnifying objects by a magnitude of three.  Although Lippershey was the first to patnent his design, there is little information proving he was the origional inventor and the Instrument was greatly improved, however, a year later by Galileo, who was able to design a telescope capable of a magnification of 20 times.  This date is particularly significant since da Vinci's obvservations on the moon were made a century before the invention of the telescope.  His discoveries reguarding the moon's surface and illumination were made without any magnification or ability to see the surface with any clarity.

Associated Places

Museo Galileo

by Corinne Evans

After making vast improvments in the telescope in 1609, Galileo was able to make detailed observations of various planets as well as the moon.  One such observation was that the moon was not the perfect spherical surface society assumed it to be, but rather was made up of various valleys, plains, and moutains much like the Earth's surface.  This gave further insight into da Vinci's observations on the various dark spots scattered throughout the moon's surface.  These discoveries were particularly radical since the moon, like the planets, were through to be perfect celestial beings and the thought of them containing imperfections would have been highly controversial.

Associated Places

Museo Galileo
Sketch of the Eastern Hemisphere of the Moon

by Corinne Evans

The first clock that utilizes the pendulum is attributed to Huygens in 1656. This increased the accuracy of clocks from 15 minutes per day to 15 secinds per day. This led to the development of the 'seconds pendulum' which became a standard 0.994-meter long pendulum used in all quality clocks.

Associated Places

Riefler Prescision Regulator Clock
Galileo's Villa - Galileo's Escapement
Riefler Prescision Regulator Clock
Galileo's Escapement
St. Mark's Clock

by Eric Liu

Sebastien Lenormand is considered to be the first person to make a fully functioning parachute (or at least the first one that was well documented). He jumped from the top of the tower within the Montpellier Observatory in France and safely landed. This parachute was 14 feet. This mechanism was intended to be a portable fire escape, allowing people to escape buring buildings. The jump is recorded to have occured in December of 1783.

Source: Britannica, T. E. (2019, January 01). Louis-Sebastien Lenormand. Retrieved from www.britannica.com/biography/L…

Image Scorce: Louis-Sébastien Lenormand. (2019, February 05). Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louis-Sébastien_Lenormand

Associated Places

Montpellier Observatory

by Nicole Geer

In 1863, French scholar and writer, Gustave de Ponton D'Amecourt, coined the name "helicopter" based off the Greek words "helikos" (helix) and "pteron" (wing).  Ponton D'Amecourt had the privilege of studying mathematics, Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin. Gabriel de La Landelle and Ponton D'Amecourt worked together to create a steam boiler engine prototype made of aluminum, so he had a personal connection with helicopters in addition to creating the name. The coining of the name "helicopter" is important as it has not been altered since its initial formation, and it has made it easier for us to look back and locate information about helicopters now. 

Text sources:

Bellis, M. (2019). History of the helicopter. Retrieved from www.thoughtco.com/history-of-t….

Ponton D'Amecourt, Gustave. (2013). Retrieved from www.europeana.eu/portal/en/rec….

Image Source:

www.famille-damecourt.com/post…’Amécourt-%281825-1888%292

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Ali Jeffries

Igor Sikorsky is considered to be the "father of helicopters" due to his major contributions that occurred between 1909 and 1944. His work began in 1909 when he created his first helicopter prototype that utilized a pair of rotors placed on the same axis that rotate in opposite directions; however, this model was unsuccessful. It wasn't until 1939 that Sikorsky made his first significant helicopter contribution. This was the year that he first tested his VS-300 helicopter, which was the first practical helicopter made in the U.S.  This was also the first helicopter in the world to perfect the single main rotor and tail rotor that is seen in most helicopters today.  By 1941, this helicopter was able to fly for slightly over 1 hour and achieved full cyclic-pitch. Sikorsky used his VS-300 design to help create the R-4 helicopter in 1942. By 1944, the R-4 became the first helicopter to ever be mass produced. The R-4 contained some similar properties as the VS-300 including a steel framework and fabric-covered fuselage. Some of the improvements found in the R-4 were a fully-enclosed cabin and dual controls for the two pilots. The invention of the R-4 was a very important step in accelerating the development of the modern helicopter. It also helped transform warfare and the notion of speed and movement as they were used by the United States and Great Britain during the end of World War II. 

Text Sources:

Bellis, M. (2019). History of the helicopter. Retrieved from www.thoughtco.com/history-of-t….

Boyne, W. J. (2019). Helicopter. Retrieved from www.britannica.com/technology/….

Johnston, S. P. (2019). Igor Sikorsky. Retrieved from www.britannica.com/biography/I…;

Sikorsky R-4. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.aviastar.org/helicopters_e…;

VS-300 Helicopter. (n.d.). Retrieved from sikorskyarchives.com/VS-300_He….

Image Source:

www.indiatoday.in/education-to…...

Associated Places

Igor Sikorsky's VS-300 Helicopter

by Ali Jeffries

On August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre. The ensuing media frenzy was unparalleled for any sort of art theft, and the hysteria bred all sorts of conspiracy theories. One prominent theory was that it was stolen by rogue modernist artists, trying to destroy the old world order and imposing their own. This line of thinking actually led to the arrest of Pable Picasso as a suspect, but he was never convicted. 

The painting was actually stolen by Vincenzo Perugia, who had briefly worked at the Louvre. Wearing a worker's smock, he hid in the museum until after it had closed, took the painting out of the frame, and hid it in a closet. The next morning, he hid it under his smock, and walked right out with it. He kept it in a hidden compartment of a trunk in his house for the next two years. 

Britannica, The Editors of Encyclopaedia. “Mona Lisa.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 4 Apr. 2019, www.britannica.com/topic/Mona-Lisa-painting.

Associated Places

Louvre Museum (Paris, France)
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1519)

by Brendan Murphy

In 1912, Boris Yuryev created a helicopter that contained, for the first time, a tail rotor in addition to a single main rotor. It is assumed Yuryev had a stronger understanding of aerodynamics than most inventors at the time as he was a pupil of a famous aerodynamicist, N. Ye. Zhukovskii. The introduction of the tail rotor was significant as it helped combat the torque from the main rotor. Based on Newton's third law of motion, if the main rotor is moving in a counterclockwise direction, then the fuselage (body of the helicopter) will move in a clockwise direction. The tail rotor prevents the helicopter from spinning in a circle and also helps improve directional control.

After his tail rotor contribution, Yuryev continued to help improve the design of the helicopter. Yuryev was a leading researcher at the Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) in Moscow for almost 30 years. His work specifically focused on the development of propellers and helicopters. By the end of his work, he was the Lieutenant-General of Aviation Engineering Sciences and was elected an Academician of the Academy of Sciences of the U.S.S.R.

Text Sources:

Soviet Helicopter. (1959). Retrieved from www.flightglobal.com/FlightPDF…;

Valavanis, K. P. (2007). Advances in unmanned aerial vehicles: state of the art and the road to autonomy.Berlin: Springer.

Image Source:

vanhornaviation.com/products/2…

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Ali Jeffries

After keeping it in his house for 2 years, Perugia contacted a Florentine art dealer, hoping to sell the painting in Florence. After coming into contact, the dealer manged to convince Perugia to leave the painting with him, and called the police on him. He was arrested at his house half an hour later. His official reasoning was that he mistakenly believed that Napoleon had stolen it from the people of Italy. For the crime, he served a relatively light sentence of eight months. 

Associated Places

Florence (Firenze)
Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1519)

by Brendan Murphy

 "The Baptism of Christ", originally commissioned by the monks of San Salvi in 1472, stayed at San Salvi until 1730. While at San Salvi, it survived the 1529 Siege of Florence in which half of the Church was destroyed. Today San Salvi houses a different famous painting, Andrea del Sarto's Last Supper. In 1730 'The Baptism of Christ' was taken to another monastery in Florence, the Santa Verdiana where it stayed for 80 years. In 1808, during Napoleons rule, he repurposed the monastery to become a slaughterhouse which resulted in the painting being moved again, this time to The Florentine Galleries. In 1919 the painting moved to its current home, the Uffizi, meaning this year is the 100th anniversary of the painting being at the Uffizi (and the 544th anniversary of the finishing of the painting). It is located in room 35 of the Uffizi Gallery, along with ‘The Annunciation’' another famous painting by Verrocchio and DaVinci. 

Sources: www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/verr…

translate.google.com/translate…

Image from Wikimedia: commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

 

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Cara McCormick

Multiple people throughout history, including Leonardo da Vinci, have designed parachutes. The modern parachute was not patented until 1920. This version included a ripcord, a folding parachute, and a harness. According to Google Patents, this was filed under patent number US1340423A. The inventor is listed as Floyd Smith. The patent has since expired, and this is a common framework for parachutes in use today.

Sources: 
Leonardo Da Vinci's Life. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.davincilife.com/davincis-p…
US1340423A - Parachute. (n.d.). Retrieved from patents.google.com/patent/US13…

Image Source:
US1340423A - Parachute. (n.d.). Retrieved from patents.google.com/patent/US13…

Associated Places

Modern Parachute Patent

by Nicole Geer

This modern clock uses an electronic oscillator controlled by a quartz crystal to keep time. Because of the very percise fequency of the crystal oscillator, these clocks are at least an order of magnitude more accurate than mechanical clocks.

Associated Places

Bell Telephone Laboratories
Suwa Seikosha (Sieko Epson) Corporation
Early Bell Labs Crystal Oscillators
Sieko Quartz-Astron

by Eric Liu

The Mona Lisa went on a tour of the Us between November 1962 and March 1963. It was shown at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the National Gallery of Art in DC and was displayed for 1 week in each location. The  week in the MET drew over 1 million visitors despite bad weather, and its time in DC brought 600 thousand visitors to the National Gallery of Art. This accounted for more than 50% of the normal yearly visitors to the DC museum. 

Associated Places

Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci (1503-1519)

by Brendan Murphy

Almost 500 years after da Vinci's death, July 1969, Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon. This scientific marvel would have stunned even a genius such as da Vinci. Despite his numerous inventions and insights on the moon, among other subjects, he lived in a time were mirrors were the newest technology, therefore, something as major as walking on the moon would have seemed like a myth.  

Works Cited:

Dunbar, B. (2015, February 19). July 20, 1969: One Giant Leap For Mankind. Retrieved from www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apo…

Associated Places

No places have been associated with this event

by Corinne Evans

Although da Vinci’s geometric sketches did not cause radical changes in mathematics, modern mathematicians and artists alike take inspiration from his geometric figures and interest in the transformation of shapes. George Hart is a professor recently retired from SUNY Stony Brook whose research was heavily inspired by da Vinci’s polyhedra sketches; by integrating the fields of math, computer science, and art he developed a computer program that synthesized new hybrid polyhedra. Likewise, several artists have been inspired by da Vinci’s thoughts on the transition of shapes. For example, sculptor Charles Perry created structures that depict abstract shapes underdoing transformation.

Sources

Shearer, Rhonda Roland. “Chaos Theory and Fractal Geometry: Their Potential Impact on the Future of Art.” Leonardo, vol. 25, no. 2, 1992, pp. 143–152., doi:10.2307/1575702.

Perry, Charles O. “On the Edge of Science: The Role of the Artists Intuition in Science.” Leonardo, vol. 25, no. 3/4, 1992, pp. 249–252., doi:10.2307/1575845.

Peterson, Ivars. “Polyhedron Man.” Science News, vol. 160, no. 25/26, 2001, pp. 396–398., doi:10.2307/4012851.

The image is taken from the following article "Polyhedron Man" that is listed above.

Associated Places

Eclipse
Combination of Polyhedra
SUNY Stony Brook
Hyatt Regency Hotel, San Francisco

by Garrett Mulcahy

               With a painting that was subject to so much damage yet by such a renowned artist as da Vinci, it is not surprising that many restorations have been attempted. More than six were attempted between 1700 and 1900, with the most recent and extensive taking place in 1977. Before this attempt, prior restorations usually painted over da Vinci’s work, but this resulted in a buildup of paint and distortion of the figures and details. In 1977, Milan decided to use modern technology such as microscopic photographs, core samples, infrared reflectoscopy, and sonar to remove added layers of paint and reveal da Vinci’s original work. This restoration took more than 38,000 hours and resulted in a painting where 42.5% of da Vinci’s work has been preserved. In the Last Supper today, one can see that the tiny paint flakes that have chipped off throughout the entire painting sadly make it appear extremely faded and blurry.

               While historians desperately want to prevent any future damage to da Vinci’s masterpiece, they also understand the cultural importance of it being open for viewing, instead of paranoidly hidden away – after all, art is meant to be seen. Today, travelers in Milan can go to Santa Maria delle Grazie to see The Last Supper, albeit with some restrictions – visitors can only remain in front of the painting for 15 minutes, and a maximum of 30 people are allowed into the refectory at a time to minimize overcrowding. Visitors must pass through an air-lock system that helps purify them and keep pollution from reaching the painting, and air quality monitors and air filters are also installed to monitor the painting.

               da Vinci’s great painting reveals his personality of constantly trying to discover new ideas and experimenting in all areas of life, yet the fact remains that he was only human and of course failed occasionally. His painting was “innovative in its heart and too innovative in its methods. The conception was brilliant but the execution flawed” (Issacson p. 292). The remains of The Last Supper exemplify Renaissance painting principles and show how da Vinci’s mastery of these techniques allowed him to go beyond the limits of art to create movement, emotion, and realism.

Sources:

Harris, B. & Zucker, S. (n.d.) The Last Supper. Retrieved from www.khanacademy.org/humanities…

The Last Supper – by Leonardo da Vinci. (2011). Retrieved from www.leonardodavinci.net/the-la…

Image Source:

Da Vinci, L. (1498) The Last Supper. [Painting] Retrieved from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last…(Leonardo)

Associated Places

Current State of the Last Supper

by Leila Yanni

Adrian Nicholas was a British skydiver. As Leonardo da Vinci's design for the parachute was never tested, Nicholas wanted to confirm the theory. Katarina Ollikainen (his girlfriend) constructed a prototype based off of Leonardo da Vinci's sketch, even utilizing only period accurate tools and materials.  The parachute was in the shape of a 24 ft by 24 ft square-based pyramid. The four sides were to be covered in sealed linen. Against the skeptisism from experts, Nicholas attempted the jump from a hot-air balloon at almost 10,000 feet. The only fear was with the landing, with the concern that the 187 pound device would crush him. Because of this, he allowed himself to fall with da Vinci's parachute until he reached about 2000 feet, then cut himself free and deployed a modern parachute for the landing. He commented that the da Vinci device had a smoother ride than modern day parachutes. Also interesting: after being thrown away, the device floated to the ground, only sustaining minor damages on impact. A quote from Nicholas was "It took one of the greatest minds who ever lived to design it, but it took 500 years to find a man with a brain small enough to actually go and fly it."

Sources and Image Source:
Leonardo Da Vinci's Life. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.davincilife.com/davincis-p…
Adrian Nicholas Proves Da Vinci Chute Works. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.dropzone.com/articles/news…...
Orton, D. C. (2004, March 29). Parachute. Retrieved from www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/featur…

Associated Places

Mpumalanga province of South Africa
Parachute Design by da Vinci
Model of Leonardo da Vinci's Parachute

by Nicole Geer

Vebjørn Sand, a contemporary Norwegian artist, became interested in da Vinci’s designs for a self-supporting arched bridge in 1996. Through a partnership with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA), Sand was able to build a da Vinci bridge for pedestrians and bikers crossing Highway E18  in the municipality of Ås, Norway. This was possible only because of the NPRA’s historic receptiveness to projects that combine art with functionality in public space. The design is slightly modified; while da Vinci’s original design only had one parabola, the bridge in Ås is supported by three parabolic arches. The parabolic structures are suited to this design by distributing weight to the wide metal pillar abutments at the base. The bridge is made of laminated wood reinforced with steel, rather than the stone that da Vinci had originally proposed. Construction of the 330 foot long bridge by the Moelven Group lasted approximately 5 years, from 1996 to 2001. The bridge was opened to the public in November of 2001 by Queen Sonja of Norway.

Sources:

Atalay, B. (2013, February 3). LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 3. “Vebjørn Sand and Variations on a Theme by Leonardo”. Retrieved May 13, 2019, from blog.nationalgeographic.org/20…

Nash, E. P. (2001, December 9). TRAVEL ADVISORY; After 500 Years, Leonardo Gets His Bridge. The New York Times. Retrieved May 13, 2019, from www.nytimes.com/2001/12/09/tra…...

Skari, Bent, ed. (2010). Statens vegvesen: Akershus 1990–2000 (PDF). Oslo, Norway: Statens vegvesen. p. 214. ISBN 82-994614-2-1. Retrieved 22 November 2016.

[Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project Bottom View]. (2015, December 4). Retrieved May 12, 2019, from www.dezeen.com/2015/12/04/a-z-…

Photo is taken from the Dezeen article, cited above. The photo was obtained using the image search website Broer, which searches for open source photos.

Associated Places

Ås Municipality, Norway
Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Bridge in Ås, Norway

by Katherine Li

Between 1997 and 2001, Norwegian painter and artist Vebjørn Sand formed a partnership with the Norwegian Public Roads Administration to build what became known as the Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Bridge. Based on Leonardo da Vinci's arched bridge design originally intended for the Golden Horn of present day Istanbul, Sand's pedestrian bridge was built over European route E18 in Ås, Norway. The Vebjørn Sand da Vinci Bridge is smaller version of da Vinci's parabolic arch design which used a wider base to more effectively distribute force, a principle which da Vinci discovered centuries before its common use.

 

This bridge also launched the Oslo Leonardo Bridge Project. The project aims to build da Vinci footbridges all around the world using local resources, and Sand hopes to use the bridge as "a logo for all nations" according to the Wall Street Journal.

 

 

Sources:

 

Morris, Jan. “Spanning Past and Present.” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 5 Nov. 2005, www.wsj.com/articles/SB113113585415688626.

 

Nash, Eric P. “After 500 Years, Leonardo Gets His Bridge.” New York Times, vol. 151, no. 51962, 2001, p. 3.

 

Wikimedia Foundation. “Vebjørn Sand Da Vinci Project.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 31 Jan. 2018, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vebj%C3%B8rn_Sand_Da_Vinci_Project.

 

This image by Åsmund Ødegård (Flickr) is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license (creativecommons.org/licenses/b…), via Wikimedia Commons. commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

Associated Places

Ås, Norway

by Emily Maneke

In 2002, Italy released a set of Euros to establish a new national currency. Leonardo's "Vitruvian Man" is the subject for the 1 Euro coin. The "Vitruvian Man" coin displays a sense of Italian pride in da Vinci. It also alludes to the fact that the Renaissance occured in Italy. The 1 Euro Coin was voted "Most Beautiful" in the collection. The beauty of the "Vitruvian Man" is still evident in today's culture. 

Source: 
“Italy Started Using The Euro on January 1st 2002.” Italian - Euro Coin Sets, EuroCoins, www.eurocoins.co.uk/italy.html.

Photo Source: colnect.com/en/coins/coin/7540…...

Associated Places

da Vinci's Vitruvian Man

by Alexa Lahey

While Leonardo da Vinci’s bridge design has never been implemented on the scale he imagined, key concepts in his design live on in many modern-day architectural marvels, including the Sydney Harbor Bridge and the Lupu Bridge pictured here. The Lupu Bridge in Shanghai, opened in 2003, spans the Huangpu River. It is built with a tied-arch design, meaning that both ends are “tied” by the deck, which lessens the horizontal force of the arches on the bases. The bridge is also a through arch bridge, meaning that some of the arch was below the deck, while the rest of the arch is above the deck. The parabolic shape, as proposed by da Vinci in his notebook, remains especially advantageous because it equally distributes weight along the entire length. With the tied deck, this allows for the bridge to support enormous amounts of weight even in non-ideal ground conditions, such as the soft soil in Shanghai. Besides facilitating transportation, the bridge also serves as a tourist attraction; visitors can climb to the top of the arch for panoramic views of the city.

Sources:

Atalay, B. (2013, February 3). LEONARDO’S BRIDGE: Part 3. “Vebjørn Sand and Variations on a Theme by Leonardo”. Retrieved May 13, 2019, from blog.nationalgeographic.org/20…

[Bridge of Lupu over the Huangpu river in Shanghai (China)]. (2012, August 5). Retrieved May 15, 2019, from commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fil…

The Lupu Bridge, Shanghai, China. (n.d.). Retrieved May 15, 2019, from www.iabse.org/IABSE/associatio…

Tied-Arch Bridge Facts, History, and Examples. (2019). Retrieved May 15, 2019, from www.historyofbridges.com/facts…

Associated Places

Shanghai

by Katherine Li

After the successful jump by Adrian Nicholas of a parachute based on da Vinci's sketch, the natural next step is a successful landing with the device. Oliver Vietti-Teppa set out to achieve this. His version of the device was of the same four triangular-sided pyramid shape. Each side was an equilateral triangle that was about 23 feet long. It also did not have a wooden frame, as he was worried about the complications from the extra weight. He utilized a modern fabric to improve upon the Nicholas version. He began in a helicopter hovering over 2000 feet in the air. He wore a modern chute as a back-up, but he was able to land safely without it. He was credited as the first successful landing of a parachute mimicking da Vinci's design.

Sources and Image Source:
Parachute - by Leonardo Da Vinci. (n.d.). Retrieved from www.leonardodavinci.net/parach…
Simpson, A. (2008, April 28). Leonardo da Vinci parachute from 1485 finally has successful landing. Retrieved from www.telegraph.co.uk/news/19050…...

Associated Places

Parachute Design by da Vinci

by Nicole Geer