Optical study, from Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, late 15th century.

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.