Milan and "Seashells"

For nearly two decades, Leonardo da Vinci served as a court artisan to Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan. The nearby Alps provided an ideal spot for da Vinci’s research on fossils and rock formations. A popular story tells the tale of a group of peasants who brought da Vinci a sack of “seashells” they had found in the mountains. Additionally, da Vinci often hiked and explored in surrounding mountains, recording his observations and furthering his radical but correct geological theories.