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The earth filled with water
Codex Leicester, Sheet 1B, folio 36r |
In 1452, when Leonardo was born, Italian Renaissance art was flourishing. Leonardo himself would create its best-known masterpiece. But he stood only on the threshold of the scientific revolution. Gravity was not yet well understood; the world was believed to be composed of concentric spheres of earth, water, air and fire; and the view still prevailed that the Earth occupied the center of the universe, with other astronomical bodies moving around it.
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While accepting much of this outlook, Leonardo believed strongly in direct study to learn how nature functions. A leading anatomist, brilliant inventor
and phenomenally acute observer, he took an interest
in everything on Earth, and even in the Moon, and related the range of particular cases he examined to general principles.
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River flowing into deep canal
Codex Leicester, Sheet 13B, folio 24r
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Mostly hidden away in his notebooks, Leonardo's brilliant ideas had little influence on the development
of science. Today, however, we can see that his observations and experiments foreshadowed not only techniques of modern science but some of its findings.
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©
1998 American Museum of Natural History.
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