Leonardo da Vinci was an artist and inventor who lived long ago in Italy. He was born near the town of Vinci in Italy. Da Vinci means from Vinci. Vinci is the village where Leonardo was born. Leonardo 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. Leonardo was a painter, a sculptor, an architect and an engineer. In 1482 Leonardo went to Milan to work for the ruling family there.

Leonardo loved nature and explored the mountains near Milan. He 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 kept notebooks filled with drawings and notes. He was left-handed. He wrote his notes backwards, in mirror writing. They read from right to left. The Codex Atlanticus is a collection of 1,119 sheets of Leonardo's drawings and notes. The Codex Arundel is one of his notebooks. As of November 2026, it is kept at the British Library in London. Leonardo's notebooks were hidden away for a long time. People learned about them long after he died. He filled pages of his notebooks with ideas about water and rivers. He drew plans for new musical instruments.

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

Words to know

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