THE SELF TAUGHT GENIUS OF LEONARDO DA VINCI
Leonardo da Vinci became one of the most renowned painters and engineers in history despite being born out of wedlock, the son of a Florentine notary and his peasant mother, and growing up with sixteen half-siblings from his parents' respective families.
One would think that a man who created concepts that led to innovations like the armored tank, the machine gun, and the parachute must have attended a prestigious university or undergone extensive scientific training. Surprisingly little formal education did da Vinci have, though. Da Vinci's father saw his son's potential and made arrangements for him to spend his teenage years working in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop. He started his lifetime artistic career shortly after he was hired as an apprentice to the master painter and sculptor. But da Vinci didn't have a lot of formal math training. He only briefly attended a nearby abacus school to study commercial arithmetic in addition to learning the fundamentals of reading, writing, and math.
It is noteworthy that da Vinci did not acquire advanced mathematics or formal scientific training until he was older than forty. He eventually received academic instruction in mathematics in the 1490s as a middle-aged man, studying under a friend of his named Luca Pacioli. While continuing to accept art commissions and work on his well-known painting Mona Lisa, da Vinci delved deeper into scientific research in the early 1500s, during his final years in Florence.
His studies included detailed machine designs, bird flight observations, and in-depth anatomy analysis through human dissection. As an engineer, da Vinci researched and created numerous tools and apparatuses, which are described in detail in his more than 5,000-page manuscripts. His journals exemplify his inventive mind with creations such as hydraulic pumps, a steam cannon, reversible crank mechanisms, and musical instruments.
Da Vinci conducted ground-breaking research, but his lack of formal Latin and mathematical training caused his work to be disregarded by his contemporaries. Instead of using experiments or theoretical models, his empirical approach depended on accurate description and observation. Da Vinci's scientific approaches were very different from those of later thinkers such as Galileo and Newton.
He was a Renaissance man who blended science and art, using his training as an artist to notice and document details with amazing accuracy. Da Vinci had to rely on experience, observation, and experimentation in the absence of formal training, and he explored the world with an insatiable curiosity.
