Born in 1452, Leonardo Da Vinci has become one of the most influential scientist of his time. He wasn’t just an inventor, but a painter, architect, engineer, and a mathematician. Throughout his life work he was able to advance what we knew about the natural world by using observation and his talent in art as his main tools. Da Vinci was born in 1452, to a wealthy legal notary and a peasant. He lived his first five years with his mom, then moved in with his father in a small house in Florence. At the age of fourteen he became an apprentice to the artist Andrea di Cione. In this workshop, Leonardo would have been exposed to several technical skills, including chemistry, leather working, carpentry, as well as artistic skill like painting and …show more content…
“When Leonardo defined perspective as ‘a function of the eye’ he set himself the task of systematic observations of matter ranging from the distant stars and their transmitted light to the terminations of the optic nerve in the bain. In this way were born extensive studies of the properties of light, optics and the anatomy of the eye, as well as his early interest in the anatomy of the brain. “Because Leonardo was such a talented artist, he was given permission to dissect human corpses at the Hospital of Santa Maria. This was a big deal at the time because the study of the human body was strictly prohibited. Combining his artistic skill and a sincere curiosity of the human body, Leonardo created over 240 detailed drawings and wrote over 12,000 words toward a treatise on anatomy. One of his studies included the human skeleton and its several mechanical functions. Although his work would’ve made a huge impact of medical science, which at the time was using centuries old medical philosophy , his work would end up not being published for another 50 years. Leonardo had a special way of writing his notes, so when he died, and left his work to be published by his heir Francesco Melzi, only a fraction of his work on anatomy was published by the time Melzi died 50 years