Although born out of wedlock—the son of a Florentine notary and his peasant mother—and sharing his childhood with 16 half-siblings from his parents’ respective families, Leonardo da Vinci became one of history’s most celebrated painters and engineers.
One might assume that a man whose conceptual designs inspired inventions like the parachute, the machine gun, and the armored tank must have studied at a renowned academy or received advanced scientific training. However, da Vinci’s formal education was surprisingly limited.
Recognizing his son’s talent, da Vinci’s father arranged for him to work in Andrea del Verrocchio’s workshop during his adolescence. Soon after becoming an apprentice under the master painter and sculptor, he began his lifelong artistic career. However, da Vinci received little formal education in mathematics. Besides learning the basics of reading, writing, and arithmetic, he only briefly attended a local abacus school to study commercial arithmetic.
Notably, da Vinci did not receive formal scientific training or advanced mathematics until he was over 40. In the 1490s, as a middle-aged man, he finally obtained academic training in mathematics by studying under Luca Pacioli, a friend of his.
In the early 1500s, during his later years in Florence, da Vinci took a deeper dive into scientific study while continuing to take art commissions and work on his famous painting Mona Lisa. His research included extensive analysis of anatomy through human dissection, bird flight observations, and detailed machine designs. As an engineer, da Vinci studied and designed many gadgets and devices, detailed across over 5,000 pages of his manuscripts. His journals exemplify his inventive mind with creations such as hydraulic pumps, a steam cannon, reversible crank mechanisms, and musical instruments.
Despite his groundbreaking research, da Vinci’s lack of formal training in Latin and mathematics led scholars of his time to dismiss his work. His empirical method relied on observation and precise depiction rather than experiments or theoretical models.
Da Vinci’s scientific methods differed fundamentally from later figures like Galileo and Newton. As a man of the Renaissance, he combined art and science, using his artistic background to observe and record details with incredible precision. Without formal training, da Vinci had to rely on experience, observation, and experimentation, exploring the world with boundless curiosity.
Leonardo da Vinci, born out of wedlock with limited formal education, became a renowned painter and engineer.
Despite little scientific training, he documented over 5,000 pages of inventions, including hydraulic pumps and a steam cannon.
His observational approach set him apart, though scholars of his time dismissed his work.
Sources: Leonardo da Vinci; Who was Leonardo da Vinci and what can we learn from him?; 6 Things You Don’t Know about Leonardo da Vinci; Leonardo da Vinci
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