Leonardo da Vinci

Described as the epitome of the “Renaissance Man”, this Florentine polymath made scientific and mechanical inventions that later became the icon of human ingenuity. His notebooks reveal a spirit of scientific inquiry and a mechanical inventiveness.

Leonardo was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. He conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing the parachute, the helicopter, an armoured fighting vehicle, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics and the double hull. Many of his concepts are now being developed into reality. Despite being more than several centuries old, his designs still mesmerizing the world with their operational capacity and originality.