Leonardo da Vinci was an artist and inventor who lived long ago in Italy. Da Vinci means from Vinci. Vinci is the village where he was born. He lived during a time in Italy called the Renaissance. He learned art in Florence. He learned in the workshop of an artist named Andrea del Verrocchio. He was a painter, a sculptor, an architect and an engineer. In 1482 he went to Milan. He went to work for the ruling family there. He loved nature. He explored the mountains near Milan.

Leonardo kept notebooks. They were filled with drawings and notes. The Codex Atlanticus is a collection of 1,119 sheets of his drawings and notes. The Codex Arundel is one of his notebooks. As of November 2026, it is kept at the British Library in London. He was left-handed. He wrote his notes backwards, in mirror writing. They read from right to left. He filled pages of his notebooks with ideas about water and rivers. He drew plans for new musical instruments.

Leonardo studied how birds fly. He drew designs for flying machines. Many of his flying machines were ornithopters. Ornithopters are machines with flapping wings. He designed a flying machine that worked like a helicopter. It was never built. He drew an idea for a parachute. People do not have enough muscle power and endurance to fly with flapping wings the way birds do. Some of his ideas, especially his flying machines, may not have worked in his lifetime.

Leonardo painted The Last Supper on a wall in Milan between 1494 and 1498. He finished very few paintings. He painted the Mona Lisa. It is famous for the sitter's smile. As of November 2026, it hangs in the Louvre museum in Paris. He moved to France. He spent the rest of his life there. The king of France gave him a manor house and an income. It was near the royal château at Amboise. The Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise was his last home.

Words to know

• Renaissance: a time
• workshop: art room
• notebooks: note books
• ornithopters: flapping machines