Everyone knows that Leonardo was a genius. But was he really a genius? Or did he just copy his work from another genius who lived many centuries earlier? I mean just look at the banner above. That has an ancient invention in it, that Leonardo did NOT invent. Now I am not trying to denigrate Leonardo in any way - but we have to be realistic. People in the 21st century are wondering if maybe Leonardo had some help? No. I personally believe the knowledge that Leonardo used, came from closer at hand. For some 600 years prior to the birth of Leonardo da Vinci, the Muslim Arabs had been translating and copying as many of the Greek and Latin classics that they could find, into Arabic. And I'm sure there were some Italian translators busy translating these books back into Italian. One ancient inventor whose inventions are the most similar to Leonardos, are those of Archimedes. The problem is that many of Leonardo's biographers insist that Leonardo never learnt to read and write Latin and Greek, and that he was NOT formally educated beyond the basics, purely because he was illegitimate. Leonardo could easily have taught himself. Most smart kids with lots of time on their hands, and looking for a challenge, could easily learn a language or two if they really wanted to. Just look at the banner above and tell me that those screws to carry water from the bottom to the top were something that Leonardo claims to have invented. He must have. After all this is a drawing from his notebooks. But those are called ARCHIMEDES SCREWS on account of the ancient engineer named Archimedes having inventing them more than 1500 years earlier. In the Greek language, these are called AUGERS. See diagram on the right. Leonardo also invented pulleys and levers as well as new war machines. He was quite well known through out Italy for those war machines. Below is a poster showing a good number of Leonardo's inventions. |
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