Drawings of plants from Leonardo's notebooks, late 15th century.

The page contains drawings of plant of the genus 'viola' and of a method for fusing together lead sheets. Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer and inventor of the Renaisance period. He had a wide knowledge and understanding far beyond his times of most of the sciences, including biology, anatomy, physiology, hydrodynamics, mechanics and aeronautics. His notebooks, written in mirror writing, contain original remarks on all of these areas.