Derecho

Leonardo da Vinci
Born: 15 April 1452 in Vinci (near Empolia), Italy
Died: 2 May 1519 in Cloux, Amboise, France

Leonardo da Vinci was educated in his father's house receiving the usualelementary education of reading, writing and arithmetic. In 1467 he became an apprentice learning painting, sculpture and acquiring technical and mechanical skills. He was accepted into the painters' guild inFlorence in 1472 but he continued to work as an apprentice until 1477. From that time he worked for himself in Florence as a painter. Already during this time he sketched pumps, military weapons andother machines.
Between 1482 and 1499 Leonardo was in the service of the Duke of Milan. He was described in a list of the Duke's staff as a painter and engineer of the duke.As well as completing sixpaintings during his time in the Duke's service he also advised on architecture, fortifications and military matters. He was also considered as a hydraulic and mechanical engineer.
During his time inMilan, Leonardo became interested in geometry. He read Leon Battista Alberti's books on architecture and Piero della Francesca's On Perspective in Painting. He illustrated Pacioli's Divinaproportione and he continued to work with Pacioli and is reported to have neglected his painting because he became so engrossed in geometry.
Leonardo studied Euclid and Pacioli's Suma and began his own geometryresearch, sometimes giving mechanical solutions. He gave several methods of squaring the circle, again using mechanical methods. He wrote a book, around this time, on the elementary theory ofmechanics which appeared in Milan around 1498.
Leonardo certainly realised the possibility of constructing a telescope and in Codex Atlanticus written in 1490 he talks of
... making glasses to see the Moonenlarged.
In a later work, Codex Arundul written about 1513, he says that
... in order to observe the nature of the planets, open the roof and bring the image of a single planet onto the base of...