Leonardo da VinciMeet Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born on

April 15, 1452, in the small village of Vinci, in a region of

Italy called Tuscany. In his own lifetime and in the present

day, da Vinci continues to be universally considered as one of the, if not the most, influential thinker, engineer, mathematician, scientist, inventor and painter of all time.

Leonardo has often been described as the ultimate

Renaissance Man: a man of "unquenchable curiosity" and "feverishly inventive imagination.” Growing up, Leonardo da Vinci showed interest in the visual arts, mainly in the areas of sketching and painting. He began sketching and writing his ideas daily in notebooks. One of the forms of writing Leonardo practiced was called mirror writing.

Why Mirror Writing?Mirror writing is formed when someone is writing in the direction that is the reverse of the normal way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing. Mirror writing only appears normal if held in front of a mirror. Many of Leonardo’s personal notes and documents have been found to be mirror writing. There is no evidence as to why he did this. Some historians believe he did this to keep his inventions private or secret.

Why is Leonardo da Vinci so important?There are a series of people that have changed the world and have changed the way that we look at it. Leonardo da Vinci is one of those people. He painted some of the most recognizable paintings that have stood the test of time. Paintings like the Mona Lisa and sketches of human anatomy opened the door to a whole new world of possibilities where the imagination was the source of knowledge.

The Mona Lisa is arguably the most famous painting in the world. Its fame rests, in particular, with the smile. Some people believe that the mystery is because Leonardo shadowed the corners of the mouth and eyes.

Did you know it took Leonardo da Vinci ten years to paint Mona Lisa’s mouth?

Not only was Leonardo one of the greatest painters of all time, he was also a master of engineering. Leonardo’s scientific and technical drawings have captured people’s imaginations for centuries. Leonardo theorized and invented advanced technology. He was fascinated by the way things worked and he invented new machines that would test human limits, in particular flight. He was, perhaps, the first European interested in a practical solution to flight. Leonardo designed a series of mechanical devices, including parachutes, and studied the flight and structure of birds. Around 1485 he sketched detailed plans for a human-powered ornithopter (a wing-flapping device intended to fly). There is no evidence that he actually attempted to build such a device. The notion of a human-powered mechanical flight device, patterned after birds or bats, recurred again and again over the next four centuries. One of da Vinci’s most recognizable flying machines is the one that closely resembles a present day helicopter.

Leonardo da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” Leonardo da Vinci's understanding of the human body and mathematics was groundbreaking. Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man is a set of

mathematical rules about the math of the body. Leonardo saw a kind of mathematical perfection in the human form. The anatomically correct figure stands within the form of the circle and the proportions of the square. This is said to be one of the most iconic drawings in history. Leonardo was a fond enthusiast of the human body, and intensely studied mathematics and anatomy. The Vitruvian man is the perfect example of how math and the proportions of the human body can go hand in hand.

In this drawing, he corrected inconsistencies in Vitruvius’ measurements of the human figure, based on his own observations and measurements he had collected when studying life models.Through the precision of his own measurements, he created an image that is accepted as a true representation of Vitruvius’ findings, and a perfectly realistic image of the ideal proportions of the human figure. The belief that mathematical law governs everything in the universe goes back hundreds of years before Leonardo’s birth. All of Leonardo’s investigations regarding natural phenomena were carried out with a firm

belief in the mathematical principles underlying all forms.

Body Proportions and The Vitruvian ManIn measurement, body proportions are used to relate two or more measurements based on the body. Here are the

proportions according to Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man:

a palm is the width of four fingers a foot is the width of four palms the length of a man's foot is one-seventh of his height the length of a man's outspread arms (arm span) is equal to his

height the distance from the hairline to the bottom of the chin is one-tenth

of a man's height the distance from the top of the head to the bottom of the chin is

one-eighth of a man's height the distance from the bottom of the neck to the hairline is one-

sixth of a man's height the maximum width of the shoulders is a quarter of a man's height the distance from the middle of the chest to the top of the head is

a quarter of a man's height the distance from the elbow to the tip of the hand is a quarter of a

man's height the distance from the elbow to the armpit is one-eighth of a man's

height the length of the hand is one-tenth of a man's height the distance from the bottom of the chin to the nose is one-third of

the length of the head the distance from the hairline to the eyebrows is one- third of the

length of the face the length of the ear is one-third the length of the face

Literacy ConnectionsThe power of literacy can be an influential way to begin or supplement a student’s learning experience. To help introduce Leonardo da Vinci to your students or to end the lesson, here are

some engaging books for your class to enjoy.

Leonardo da VinciBy: Kathleen KrullGrade level: 4- 12Explores the scientific studies, experiments, and

observations of this world-renowned artist and scientist of the fifteenth century through a review of the writings, notes, and sketches left behind in his vast collection of notebooks.

Leonardo and the flying boy: a story about Leonardo Da VinciBy Laurence AnholtGrade level- Pre- Kindergarten- 4Zoro, pupil to the great Leonardo Da Vinci, finds that his master is building a mysterious flying machine, in a story based on a true event.

Da wild, da crazy, da VinciBy: Jon ScieszkaGrade level: 3-6In their latest time travel adventure, Fred, Joe, and Sam da Brooklyn meet Leonardo da Vinci and try to avoid becoming toilet scrubbers in the sixteenth- century Italian army.