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.

Leonardo da Vinci grew up in a small Tuscan town in the lower valley of the Arno River where he was able to explore the many fossil-containing caves at the foothills of the Alps. This laid the groundwork for his later studies and radical conclusions on the natural process of rock and fossil formation.