1 00:00:01,534 --> 00:00:03,202 Narrator: Leonardo da Vinci is one 2 00:00:03,270 --> 00:00:05,204 of the world's greatest artists. 3 00:00:05,272 --> 00:00:07,206 His masterpiece, the "Mona Lisa," 4 00:00:07,274 --> 00:00:08,707 is known to everyone. 5 00:00:08,776 --> 00:00:10,709 Millions view it every year. 6 00:00:10,778 --> 00:00:14,713 "The Last Supper" is a landmark of art history. 7 00:00:16,984 --> 00:00:20,185 But Leonardo was more than a painter. 8 00:00:21,756 --> 00:00:23,689 It's in the pages of his notebooks 9 00:00:23,758 --> 00:00:25,691 that we find the true Leonardo, 10 00:00:25,760 --> 00:00:28,260 the man of science. 11 00:00:28,329 --> 00:00:32,765 He investigated an astounding range of subjects. 12 00:00:32,833 --> 00:00:36,935 Man: Leonardo's science cannot be understood without his art, 13 00:00:37,004 --> 00:00:40,072 and his art cannot be understood without his science. 14 00:00:40,141 --> 00:00:43,575 Narrator: Leonardo drew everything he saw 15 00:00:43,644 --> 00:00:45,911 and everything he imagined. 16 00:00:45,980 --> 00:00:49,415 He pushed science forward in the fields of anatomy, 17 00:00:49,483 --> 00:00:53,419 engineering, optics, geology. 18 00:00:53,487 --> 00:00:57,990 Most of these disciplines didn't even have names at the time. 19 00:00:58,059 --> 00:01:01,927 His notebooks contained plans for hundreds of technologies 20 00:01:01,996 --> 00:01:05,431 common today: machine guns, diving suits, 21 00:01:05,499 --> 00:01:09,435 cranes, robots, flying machines. 22 00:01:09,503 --> 00:01:14,440 His inventions have given him the status of a towering genius, 23 00:01:14,508 --> 00:01:17,943 a prophet who anticipated the modern age. 24 00:01:21,082 --> 00:01:23,015 But was he? 25 00:01:24,218 --> 00:01:25,651 As researchers probe 26 00:01:25,719 --> 00:01:28,420 Italy's 15th-century technical revolution, 27 00:01:28,489 --> 00:01:30,589 they're discovering precedents for many 28 00:01:30,658 --> 00:01:34,093 of Leonardo's most remarkable innovations. 29 00:01:34,161 --> 00:01:36,595 Some are from Leonardo's contemporaries. 30 00:01:36,664 --> 00:01:40,099 Others predate him by a thousand years. 31 00:01:42,136 --> 00:01:46,405 Could it be that Leonardo is not the legendary, isolated genius 32 00:01:46,474 --> 00:01:49,741 we take him for, but has, in fact, 33 00:01:49,810 --> 00:01:53,145 presented the work of others as his own? 34 00:01:54,381 --> 00:01:58,317 Is Leonardo da Vinci truly an original? 35 00:02:04,224 --> 00:02:06,592 Narrator: At his death in 1519, 36 00:02:06,660 --> 00:02:09,094 Leonardo was a famous artist, 37 00:02:09,163 --> 00:02:12,598 but his scientific achievements were less well-known. 38 00:02:12,666 --> 00:02:16,101 His notebooks, written in a secretive reverse script, 39 00:02:16,170 --> 00:02:19,605 went unpublished for more than 400 years. 40 00:02:19,673 --> 00:02:22,274 They provide insights about the dynamic period 41 00:02:22,343 --> 00:02:26,278 in which he lived, but they also raise questions. 42 00:02:26,347 --> 00:02:28,447 Some of his sketches are very similar 43 00:02:28,516 --> 00:02:30,616 to those of other inventors. 44 00:02:30,684 --> 00:02:34,119 Did Leonardo steal their ideas? 45 00:02:37,024 --> 00:02:39,958 One of the many inventions attributed to Leonardo 46 00:02:40,027 --> 00:02:41,960 is the parachute. 47 00:02:48,169 --> 00:02:50,102 Bartolomeo! 48 00:02:50,171 --> 00:02:52,104 [Both grunting] 49 00:02:52,173 --> 00:02:53,605 You must do it. 50 00:02:53,674 --> 00:02:55,607 But, Maestro Leonardo, I'm scared! 51 00:02:55,676 --> 00:02:57,609 Ludovico Sforza is down there waiting for us. 52 00:02:57,678 --> 00:02:59,111 Come on! No, Maestro. 53 00:02:59,180 --> 00:03:01,113 Ask Zoroastro! da Vinci: No! 54 00:03:01,182 --> 00:03:02,614 You tested it and you have to do it. 55 00:03:02,683 --> 00:03:04,616 No, Maestro! 56 00:03:14,795 --> 00:03:16,728 My dear Bartolomeo, 57 00:03:16,797 --> 00:03:19,231 surely once you've tasted flight, 58 00:03:19,300 --> 00:03:21,733 you will walk forever 59 00:03:21,802 --> 00:03:24,236 with your eyes turned skywards, 60 00:03:24,305 --> 00:03:26,738 for there you have been 61 00:03:26,807 --> 00:03:29,741 and there you will always long to return. 62 00:03:43,991 --> 00:03:45,924 Narrator: It's not known for certain 63 00:03:45,993 --> 00:03:48,927 if Leonardo ever used his parachute. 64 00:03:48,996 --> 00:03:51,430 His written notes are difficult to decipher-- 65 00:03:51,498 --> 00:03:53,432 perhaps purposely-- and there are 66 00:03:53,500 --> 00:03:56,435 no physical remains of any of his inventions, 67 00:03:56,503 --> 00:03:59,438 no way to tell for sure if any of them passed 68 00:03:59,506 --> 00:04:01,940 beyond the idea stage. 69 00:04:03,510 --> 00:04:05,444 But in 1482, 70 00:04:05,512 --> 00:04:07,946 he was in the service of Ludovico Sforza, 71 00:04:08,015 --> 00:04:11,450 the Duke of Milan, a warrior prince interested 72 00:04:11,518 --> 00:04:14,720 in any invention with military application, 73 00:04:14,788 --> 00:04:17,222 like swooping down on enemies encamped 74 00:04:17,291 --> 00:04:20,225 at the foot of a high cliff. 75 00:04:25,499 --> 00:04:27,933 And what did you bring for us today, Maestro Leonardo? 76 00:04:28,002 --> 00:04:29,835 Duke Sforza, my lord. 77 00:04:29,903 --> 00:04:32,337 Today I will demonstrate an ingenious apparatus 78 00:04:32,406 --> 00:04:33,839 by which a man can leap 79 00:04:33,907 --> 00:04:36,508 from any height without injury. 80 00:04:36,577 --> 00:04:38,143 For instance, it could be used 81 00:04:38,212 --> 00:04:40,145 to escape from a tower on fire. 82 00:04:40,214 --> 00:04:41,813 Now! [Screaming] 83 00:04:43,584 --> 00:04:45,517 Look up there! 84 00:04:54,695 --> 00:04:57,129 Whoo hoo! 85 00:04:57,197 --> 00:05:00,632 Sforza: Maestro Leonardo, you always amaze us. 86 00:05:00,701 --> 00:05:03,635 How do you come up with such ideas? 87 00:05:03,704 --> 00:05:07,639 Narrator: But did Leonardo really invent the parachute? 88 00:05:14,715 --> 00:05:16,648 In 1968, 89 00:05:16,717 --> 00:05:19,651 researchers examining a trove of drawings 90 00:05:19,720 --> 00:05:21,687 discovered sketches from the studio 91 00:05:21,755 --> 00:05:25,357 of a 15th-century inventor that were remarkably similar 92 00:05:25,426 --> 00:05:28,360 to Leonardo's study for a parachute. 93 00:05:29,930 --> 00:05:34,366 The inventor--Mariano di Jacapo, known as Taccola. 94 00:05:34,435 --> 00:05:36,368 [Man speaking Italian] 95 00:05:36,437 --> 00:05:38,870 Translator: This drawing, the design for a parachute, 96 00:05:38,939 --> 00:05:40,872 is the oldest known to us, 97 00:05:40,941 --> 00:05:43,208 and it is very similar to Leonardo's. 98 00:05:43,277 --> 00:05:45,210 It was found in a manuscript conserved 99 00:05:45,279 --> 00:05:47,212 at the British Library in London. 100 00:05:47,281 --> 00:05:48,714 Leonardo knew manuscripts 101 00:05:48,782 --> 00:05:50,882 from the Sienese engineering tradition, 102 00:05:50,951 --> 00:05:53,051 and he even refers to Taccola's drawings 103 00:05:53,120 --> 00:05:55,053 in his manuscripts. 104 00:05:55,122 --> 00:05:57,556 [Bernardoni speaking Italian] 105 00:05:57,624 --> 00:06:00,359 Translator: There are actually two drawings. 106 00:06:00,427 --> 00:06:03,362 The second is a flying man without a parachute, 107 00:06:03,430 --> 00:06:05,864 although the subject is similar. 108 00:06:05,933 --> 00:06:09,368 He is holding two sticks with two fabrics, like two wings. 109 00:06:09,436 --> 00:06:11,370 It is a much more primitive design 110 00:06:11,438 --> 00:06:14,373 that goes back about 15 years, 111 00:06:14,441 --> 00:06:16,375 before Leonardo's drawing. 112 00:06:18,445 --> 00:06:20,379 Narrator: Taccola was an engineer 113 00:06:20,447 --> 00:06:24,383 of the early Renaissance, 70 years older than Leonardo. 114 00:06:24,451 --> 00:06:27,886 He was among the first to use drawing as a design tool. 115 00:06:27,955 --> 00:06:31,056 Before him, engineers worked out their inventions 116 00:06:31,125 --> 00:06:34,226 as they built them, through trial and error. 117 00:06:34,294 --> 00:06:37,729 His manuscripts detail civil and military machines; 118 00:06:37,798 --> 00:06:41,400 some original, others copies of ancient inventions. 119 00:06:41,468 --> 00:06:44,069 And just as Leonardo copied him, 120 00:06:44,138 --> 00:06:47,072 Taccola's idea is copied from a Muslim inventor, 121 00:06:47,141 --> 00:06:49,074 Abbas ibn Firnas, 122 00:06:49,143 --> 00:06:52,077 who, the story goes, leapt from the minaret 123 00:06:52,146 --> 00:06:55,080 of the Córdoba Mosque in the year 852 124 00:06:55,149 --> 00:06:58,083 and suffered only minor injuries. 125 00:06:58,152 --> 00:07:00,585 Bartolomeo: Oh, Maestro... 126 00:07:00,654 --> 00:07:03,088 Narrator: So why is Leonardo remembered 127 00:07:03,157 --> 00:07:05,590 as the inventor of the parachute? 128 00:07:14,568 --> 00:07:17,502 [Man speaking Italian] 129 00:07:17,571 --> 00:07:20,005 Translator: In the "Codex Atlanticus" notebook, 130 00:07:20,073 --> 00:07:22,174 we find Leonardo's parachute, 131 00:07:22,242 --> 00:07:25,110 but we know it's not really his invention. 132 00:07:25,179 --> 00:07:28,613 Leonardo copied it from Taccola and took inspiration from him. 133 00:07:30,684 --> 00:07:33,618 The most incredible thing is that Leonardo is the first 134 00:07:33,687 --> 00:07:37,122 to write about the material needed to make this object-- 135 00:07:37,191 --> 00:07:40,125 cloth made of waxed flax-- so that the air 136 00:07:40,194 --> 00:07:42,627 doesn't come through and it becomes waterproof, 137 00:07:42,696 --> 00:07:45,630 like the feathers of birds. 138 00:07:47,201 --> 00:07:50,635 For the first time, he describes how this object has to be built. 139 00:07:50,704 --> 00:07:54,272 He's the only one to think about the dimensions. 140 00:07:55,375 --> 00:07:56,808 There's another interesting thing 141 00:07:56,877 --> 00:07:58,477 on this other part of the sheet. 142 00:07:58,545 --> 00:08:00,479 We find a lot more subjects. 143 00:08:00,547 --> 00:08:03,982 Leonardo wrote many pages about how to build a flying machine, 144 00:08:04,051 --> 00:08:07,486 and here, we find five or six examples of them. 145 00:08:07,554 --> 00:08:10,489 In these small sketches, Leonardo shows himself 146 00:08:10,557 --> 00:08:14,493 as more than an artist or some insane inventor. 147 00:08:16,563 --> 00:08:19,664 For the first time, we see Leonardo da Vinci 148 00:08:19,733 --> 00:08:23,602 the scientist, and this is really amazing. 149 00:08:25,672 --> 00:08:29,107 Narrator: Leonardo copied dozens of Taccola's inventions: 150 00:08:29,176 --> 00:08:32,611 the screw pump, a device to raise water... 151 00:08:37,184 --> 00:08:40,118 ...the life preserver, adapted by Taccola 152 00:08:40,187 --> 00:08:43,622 to float armored knights across rivers... 153 00:08:45,125 --> 00:08:47,058 ...and the snorkel, 154 00:08:47,127 --> 00:08:49,227 though Leonardo's version is more developed, 155 00:08:49,296 --> 00:08:51,396 with floaters to ensure air flow 156 00:08:51,465 --> 00:08:54,399 and valves to counter water pressure. 157 00:08:56,970 --> 00:09:01,406 He relies on science, Taccola on fantasy. 158 00:09:02,976 --> 00:09:06,511 Taccola died the year Leonardo was born, 159 00:09:06,580 --> 00:09:08,680 but he cast a long shadow 160 00:09:08,749 --> 00:09:11,683 and was a powerful inspiration. 161 00:09:11,752 --> 00:09:14,853 The young Leonardo encountered Taccola's drawings 162 00:09:14,922 --> 00:09:17,355 in the course of his artistic apprenticeship, 163 00:09:17,424 --> 00:09:20,025 beginning in 1467 164 00:09:20,093 --> 00:09:22,027 at 15 years old. 165 00:09:22,095 --> 00:09:23,528 Man: Leonardo! 166 00:09:23,597 --> 00:09:25,630 Leonardo! 167 00:09:32,205 --> 00:09:34,306 Narrator: Andrea del Verrocchio, 168 00:09:34,374 --> 00:09:37,309 master of the greatest of the many artistic workshops 169 00:09:37,377 --> 00:09:40,312 in Florence, challenged Leonardo, 170 00:09:40,380 --> 00:09:43,648 fired his passion, and began the transformation 171 00:09:43,717 --> 00:09:47,485 of this uneducated country boy from the town of Vinci. 172 00:09:50,924 --> 00:09:53,358 Man: A small town or a large village, 173 00:09:53,427 --> 00:09:57,295 where nature came right up to your door and your window, 174 00:09:57,364 --> 00:10:01,633 so he was immersed in natural forms. 175 00:10:01,702 --> 00:10:05,637 He was immersed in a landscape which one sees repeated 176 00:10:05,706 --> 00:10:09,140 over and over in his paintings and drawings. 177 00:10:09,209 --> 00:10:11,977 And I think, perhaps, the most profound legacy 178 00:10:12,045 --> 00:10:15,981 of his childhood was his supreme 179 00:10:16,049 --> 00:10:18,450 mental independence. 180 00:10:18,518 --> 00:10:23,121 And this independence of mind, um, feeds on into Leonardo 181 00:10:23,190 --> 00:10:25,557 as a--a thinker, as a philosopher, 182 00:10:25,626 --> 00:10:27,058 as a scientist. 183 00:10:28,629 --> 00:10:31,563 Narrator: Leonardo's father paid for his apprenticeship, 184 00:10:31,632 --> 00:10:34,065 even though he was born illegitimate. 185 00:10:34,134 --> 00:10:37,068 The idea was to provide him with a trade. 186 00:10:37,137 --> 00:10:40,071 Under Verrocchio, he studied architecture, 187 00:10:40,140 --> 00:10:44,075 engineering, and mechanics, as well as painting. 188 00:10:44,144 --> 00:10:47,078 All were considered art in the Renaissance. 189 00:10:47,147 --> 00:10:49,581 Artists were trained as craftsmen, 190 00:10:49,650 --> 00:10:51,216 not intellectuals. 191 00:10:51,284 --> 00:10:54,219 He never had a formal education. 192 00:10:54,287 --> 00:10:57,122 [Speaking indistinctly] 193 00:10:57,190 --> 00:11:00,291 Uh, the studio of Andrea de Verrocchio was, uh, 194 00:11:00,360 --> 00:11:03,128 extraordinarily versatile 195 00:11:03,196 --> 00:11:05,130 and varied in its output. 196 00:11:05,198 --> 00:11:09,134 Paintings were certainly one of its major outputs, but only one. 197 00:11:09,202 --> 00:11:12,270 Verrocchio himself was primarily a sculptor, 198 00:11:12,339 --> 00:11:16,775 and one has to think, really, of a sort of communal workspace, 199 00:11:16,843 --> 00:11:21,179 full of the smells and sounds of light industry. 200 00:11:22,749 --> 00:11:25,316 [Sighs] 201 00:11:25,385 --> 00:11:28,153 The workshop of Verrocchio was not only a place 202 00:11:28,221 --> 00:11:31,156 where Leonardo learned all kinds of skills, 203 00:11:31,224 --> 00:11:34,159 it was also a place of intellectual excitement. 204 00:11:34,227 --> 00:11:36,661 For one thing, the master painters 205 00:11:36,730 --> 00:11:39,164 who had left the workshop came back 206 00:11:39,232 --> 00:11:41,666 to learn the newest techniques, 207 00:11:41,735 --> 00:11:44,169 to discuss the latest about oil painting; 208 00:11:44,237 --> 00:11:48,173 uh, people like Botticelli or Ghirlandaio, 209 00:11:48,241 --> 00:11:51,676 Perugino, who were master painters, 210 00:11:51,745 --> 00:11:54,679 would hang out with Verrocchio, come in the evenings 211 00:11:54,748 --> 00:11:57,115 to discuss the newest developments. 212 00:11:57,184 --> 00:12:00,618 So Leonardo had a tremendous inspiration 213 00:12:00,687 --> 00:12:02,620 in all kinds of knowledge, 214 00:12:02,689 --> 00:12:06,124 and I think his tremendous scientific curiosity 215 00:12:06,193 --> 00:12:09,828 also may have been triggered in this workshop culture. 216 00:12:09,896 --> 00:12:12,063 Leonardo. 217 00:12:12,132 --> 00:12:13,565 Maestro. 218 00:12:13,633 --> 00:12:16,568 Nicholl: His interest in machinery would have been 219 00:12:16,636 --> 00:12:19,571 considerably quickened in 1471, 220 00:12:19,639 --> 00:12:24,075 when he was probably part of the team of Verrochio's studio, 221 00:12:24,144 --> 00:12:26,911 which was entrusted with the task of putting 222 00:12:26,980 --> 00:12:30,915 the copper orb right on the top of the lantern 223 00:12:30,984 --> 00:12:34,919 above the dome of Florence Cathedral. 224 00:12:34,988 --> 00:12:36,921 So the technical problems 225 00:12:36,990 --> 00:12:39,691 of getting a two-ton ball of copper 226 00:12:39,760 --> 00:12:43,194 up 300 meters to the top of Brunelleschi's dome 227 00:12:43,263 --> 00:12:46,197 required the use of some pretty complex 228 00:12:46,266 --> 00:12:49,200 and robust machinery, and it would seem to be at that point 229 00:12:49,269 --> 00:12:52,704 that Leonardo's interest in the work of Filippo Brunelleschi-- 230 00:12:52,773 --> 00:12:55,373 the architect of the dome and the great engineer 231 00:12:55,442 --> 00:13:00,211 of the earlier Florentine Renaissance--takes shape. 232 00:13:00,280 --> 00:13:03,381 Narrator: For a long time, Leonardo is credited 233 00:13:03,450 --> 00:13:06,551 with inventing the construction machines in his notebooks, 234 00:13:06,620 --> 00:13:09,721 but they are actually copies of Brunelleschi's, 235 00:13:09,790 --> 00:13:13,725 invented 50 years earlier to raise the duomo, 236 00:13:13,794 --> 00:13:16,728 and used again by Verrocchio. 237 00:13:21,535 --> 00:13:22,967 [Speaking French] 238 00:13:23,036 --> 00:13:25,470 Translator: I think we have to insist on the fact 239 00:13:25,539 --> 00:13:28,473 that the Renaissance is also a Renaissance of machines, 240 00:13:28,542 --> 00:13:31,476 a technical Renaissance. 241 00:13:31,545 --> 00:13:33,478 For example, 242 00:13:33,547 --> 00:13:35,480 in Florence, 243 00:13:35,549 --> 00:13:38,483 the Dome of Brunelleschi was first of all 244 00:13:38,552 --> 00:13:40,985 a highly technical achievement 245 00:13:41,054 --> 00:13:44,489 which involved complex mathematical calculations, 246 00:13:44,558 --> 00:13:47,992 and many young students came to Florence 247 00:13:48,061 --> 00:13:50,495 so they could study the dome. 248 00:13:53,567 --> 00:13:55,500 Narrator: In Verrocchio's studio, 249 00:13:55,569 --> 00:13:57,502 Leonardo's mind was forged 250 00:13:57,571 --> 00:13:59,504 by artists and architects 251 00:13:59,573 --> 00:14:02,006 who were transforming the world through their works 252 00:14:02,075 --> 00:14:06,010 and through the power of a new intellectual movement, 253 00:14:06,079 --> 00:14:08,012 humanism. 254 00:14:11,251 --> 00:14:12,684 [Speaking French] 255 00:14:12,752 --> 00:14:14,185 Translator: Humanism is a cultural movement 256 00:14:14,254 --> 00:14:16,688 that really takes form and gains power 257 00:14:16,756 --> 00:14:20,191 in the first three decades of the 15th century. 258 00:14:20,260 --> 00:14:24,195 Humanists believed in a better future for humankind 259 00:14:24,264 --> 00:14:26,531 and the potential for a better man, 260 00:14:26,600 --> 00:14:28,533 and perhaps this is the fundamental break 261 00:14:28,602 --> 00:14:30,702 with medieval culture which was marked 262 00:14:30,770 --> 00:14:33,204 by a sort of fundamental pessimism. 263 00:14:36,276 --> 00:14:38,142 Narrator: Brunelleschi's dome 264 00:14:38,211 --> 00:14:41,145 is one of the great architectural achievements. 265 00:14:41,214 --> 00:14:43,815 To construct it, he studied the monumental ruins 266 00:14:43,884 --> 00:14:45,817 of classical antiquity, 267 00:14:45,886 --> 00:14:49,320 reviving long-forgotten building techniques. 268 00:14:50,991 --> 00:14:53,925 The rediscovery of ancient Greece and Rome 269 00:14:53,994 --> 00:14:55,960 is the foundation of humanism. 270 00:14:56,029 --> 00:14:57,462 In the Middle Ages, 271 00:14:57,530 --> 00:15:00,832 the ruins of imperial Rome seemed a mystery. 272 00:15:00,901 --> 00:15:03,735 Centuries of invasions, plague, and decay 273 00:15:03,803 --> 00:15:07,138 had erased the memory of Rome's grandeur. 274 00:15:07,207 --> 00:15:10,642 Even Latin had fragmented into regional languages. 275 00:15:10,710 --> 00:15:14,646 The long cultural chain leading from Greece to Rome 276 00:15:14,714 --> 00:15:16,648 was broken. 277 00:15:16,716 --> 00:15:18,816 But in the 14th century, Florence saw 278 00:15:18,885 --> 00:15:21,819 a new class of merchants and bankers prosper 279 00:15:21,888 --> 00:15:25,323 as a result of international trade. 280 00:15:25,392 --> 00:15:28,826 They were drawn to the glories of the classical world, 281 00:15:28,895 --> 00:15:31,496 paying fortunes for ancient manuscripts found 282 00:15:31,564 --> 00:15:33,498 in isolated monasteries 283 00:15:33,566 --> 00:15:36,000 and distant libraries. 284 00:15:36,069 --> 00:15:38,169 In 1439, 285 00:15:38,238 --> 00:15:40,505 the most powerful family in Florence, 286 00:15:40,573 --> 00:15:42,507 the Medici, played host 287 00:15:42,575 --> 00:15:45,009 to the Byzantine emperor and his court. 288 00:15:45,078 --> 00:15:48,012 Thirteen years later, the emperor's capital, 289 00:15:48,081 --> 00:15:51,516 Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Turks. 290 00:15:51,584 --> 00:15:54,018 Greek scholars fled to Florence. 291 00:15:54,087 --> 00:15:56,521 Bringing manuscripts from the thousand-year-old 292 00:15:56,589 --> 00:16:01,025 Imperial Library, they became teachers and translators. 293 00:16:01,094 --> 00:16:03,528 The encounter between East and West kicked 294 00:16:03,596 --> 00:16:07,832 the fledgling Renaissance into high gear. 295 00:16:07,901 --> 00:16:08,833 [Speaking French] 296 00:16:08,902 --> 00:16:09,834 Translator: It's at this moment 297 00:16:09,903 --> 00:16:11,836 that the concept of the Middle Ages, 298 00:16:11,905 --> 00:16:13,838 the Dark Ages is invented. 299 00:16:13,907 --> 00:16:16,841 And at the same time, the concept of Renaissance, 300 00:16:16,910 --> 00:16:19,344 "the return of the light," is born. 301 00:16:19,412 --> 00:16:21,846 It's the idea that for decades, 302 00:16:21,915 --> 00:16:25,350 wisdom was somehow hidden from humans. 303 00:16:25,418 --> 00:16:28,019 But reading the ancients directly, 304 00:16:28,088 --> 00:16:30,688 rediscovered in newly translated texts 305 00:16:30,757 --> 00:16:33,524 unknown during the Middle Ages, gives the power 306 00:16:33,593 --> 00:16:36,527 to access this treasure of knowledge. 307 00:16:36,596 --> 00:16:38,863 Suddenly, they have direct access 308 00:16:38,932 --> 00:16:40,631 to the hidden understanding 309 00:16:40,700 --> 00:16:43,701 somehow lost over the last ten centuries. 310 00:16:45,205 --> 00:16:47,138 Narrator: Caught up in the humanist fervor, 311 00:16:47,207 --> 00:16:50,475 Cosimo de' Medici hired translators and scribes 312 00:16:50,543 --> 00:16:52,643 to copy ancient manuscripts. 313 00:16:52,712 --> 00:16:55,813 His goal was to create a universal library 314 00:16:55,882 --> 00:16:58,282 containing every written work. 315 00:16:59,853 --> 00:17:02,286 [Speaking French] 316 00:17:02,355 --> 00:17:05,623 Translator: Cosimo de' Medici invited a group of humanists 317 00:17:05,692 --> 00:17:08,626 to settle in his villa outside Florence, 318 00:17:08,695 --> 00:17:10,628 Villa Careggi. 319 00:17:12,499 --> 00:17:17,268 Translator: They created what we would call today an academy, 320 00:17:17,337 --> 00:17:20,271 a place where humanists would meet to talk, 321 00:17:20,340 --> 00:17:22,774 to play the lyre. 322 00:17:24,344 --> 00:17:26,277 It was, at heart, a political program 323 00:17:26,346 --> 00:17:29,280 to increase the power of the family. 324 00:17:29,349 --> 00:17:31,916 It starts with Cosimo and will continue 325 00:17:31,985 --> 00:17:33,918 with his grandson, 326 00:17:33,987 --> 00:17:36,421 Lorenzo the Magnificent. 327 00:17:42,462 --> 00:17:45,563 Narrator: Lorenzo de' Medici was just three years older 328 00:17:45,632 --> 00:17:48,066 than Leonardo, but he was a product 329 00:17:48,134 --> 00:17:50,568 of an elite humanist education. 330 00:17:50,637 --> 00:17:53,071 Like his grandfather Cosimo, 331 00:17:53,139 --> 00:17:55,239 he was determined to advance humanism 332 00:17:55,308 --> 00:17:57,408 and his family's power and prestige 333 00:17:57,477 --> 00:18:00,912 through the patronage of artists and scholars. 334 00:18:03,316 --> 00:18:04,749 [Indistinct chatter] 335 00:18:04,818 --> 00:18:06,250 Narrator: But for wealthy patrons 336 00:18:06,319 --> 00:18:08,252 and aristocratic humanists, 337 00:18:08,321 --> 00:18:11,756 artists and engineers were little more than simple workmen. 338 00:18:11,825 --> 00:18:15,760 A commission usually included a detailed description 339 00:18:15,829 --> 00:18:19,263 of the scene, the colors, the size, 340 00:18:19,332 --> 00:18:21,766 even the number of angels. 341 00:18:21,835 --> 00:18:24,102 There was little room for creativity. 342 00:18:24,170 --> 00:18:26,104 de' Medici! de' Medici! 343 00:18:26,172 --> 00:18:27,305 It's Lorenzo! He's here! 344 00:18:27,373 --> 00:18:28,506 Are you sure? 345 00:18:28,575 --> 00:18:30,508 Absolutely sure! Let's go! 346 00:18:32,812 --> 00:18:36,414 Nicholl: Lorenzo de' Medici was a major client 347 00:18:36,483 --> 00:18:38,583 of the Verrocchio studio, 348 00:18:38,651 --> 00:18:41,385 but the evidence that he supported Leonardo 349 00:18:41,454 --> 00:18:43,387 seems to me pretty patchy. 350 00:18:43,456 --> 00:18:46,324 In fact, I'd say there was rather some opposite evidence 351 00:18:46,392 --> 00:18:49,760 to show that Lorenzo considered Leonardo, 352 00:18:49,829 --> 00:18:52,730 uh, a-an unreliable sort of character. 353 00:18:52,799 --> 00:18:54,699 [Artists shouting] 354 00:18:54,767 --> 00:18:56,667 Narrator: Already, Leonardo had a reputation 355 00:18:56,736 --> 00:18:59,670 as distracted and irresponsible. 356 00:18:59,739 --> 00:19:02,173 He left paintings unfinished 357 00:19:02,242 --> 00:19:06,177 and abandoned commissions, even after being paid. 358 00:19:06,246 --> 00:19:08,179 And it only got worse when, 359 00:19:08,248 --> 00:19:10,348 after ten years of apprenticeship, 360 00:19:10,416 --> 00:19:13,351 he left Verrocchio and set out on his own. 361 00:19:13,419 --> 00:19:15,419 [Laughter] 362 00:19:15,488 --> 00:19:17,922 It's a kind of obscure period in the biography 363 00:19:17,991 --> 00:19:20,424 and, uh, it's slightly clouded 364 00:19:20,493 --> 00:19:22,927 by--by a couple of run-ins 365 00:19:22,996 --> 00:19:24,929 with the authorities in connection 366 00:19:24,998 --> 00:19:26,931 with his homosexuality. 367 00:19:27,000 --> 00:19:29,433 Uh, the officers of the night, as they were called-- 368 00:19:29,502 --> 00:19:32,436 uh, what we might call the vice squad, uh-- 369 00:19:32,505 --> 00:19:36,107 received a report about a certain young man 370 00:19:36,176 --> 00:19:39,777 and about other young men, or men, who, uh, 371 00:19:39,846 --> 00:19:42,780 frequented his company at night for immoral purposes, 372 00:19:42,849 --> 00:19:46,083 and Leonardo is on-- one of the men on that list. 373 00:19:50,156 --> 00:19:53,124 Nicholl: I have a feeling that Leonardo is experiencing 374 00:19:53,193 --> 00:19:56,127 some uncertainty, some self-doubt. 375 00:19:56,196 --> 00:19:59,630 He realizes the limits of his power, 376 00:19:59,699 --> 00:20:02,633 the limits of his, uh, status. 377 00:20:02,702 --> 00:20:05,636 He described himself as "omo sanza lettere," 378 00:20:05,705 --> 00:20:07,972 "an unlettered man"; he meant he hadn't had 379 00:20:08,041 --> 00:20:11,475 the sophisticated, Latinate schooling. 380 00:20:13,479 --> 00:20:16,914 da Vinci: They say that I, having no literary skill, 381 00:20:16,983 --> 00:20:21,652 cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of. 382 00:20:21,721 --> 00:20:24,822 But they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with 383 00:20:24,891 --> 00:20:28,326 by experience rather than by words. 384 00:20:28,394 --> 00:20:31,829 Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, 385 00:20:31,898 --> 00:20:35,333 I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy-- 386 00:20:35,401 --> 00:20:39,337 on experience, the mistress of their masters. 387 00:20:40,873 --> 00:20:43,808 Machiavelli has a line in one of his plays: 388 00:20:43,876 --> 00:20:46,310 "If you don't have power in Florence, 389 00:20:46,379 --> 00:20:49,580 even the dogs won't bother to bark at you." 390 00:20:49,649 --> 00:20:52,583 And I think there's probably a feeling with Leonardo, 391 00:20:52,652 --> 00:20:56,087 a--a sense of exclusion from the more sophisticated, 392 00:20:56,155 --> 00:20:58,589 polished, intellectual world. 393 00:21:08,668 --> 00:21:10,601 Narrator: The only way to financial security 394 00:21:10,670 --> 00:21:13,104 for an artist was to find a patron, 395 00:21:13,172 --> 00:21:17,108 a prince willing to retain his services in his court. 396 00:21:17,176 --> 00:21:19,610 Leonardo knew that Lorenzo de' Medici 397 00:21:19,679 --> 00:21:22,613 would never support him, so he looked elsewhere, 398 00:21:22,682 --> 00:21:26,284 to Milan, where the young duke Ludovico Sforza 399 00:21:26,352 --> 00:21:28,786 was assembling artists and scholars to create 400 00:21:28,855 --> 00:21:31,789 what he called "a new Athens," 401 00:21:31,858 --> 00:21:34,292 and the duke paid well. 402 00:21:35,862 --> 00:21:38,796 Leonardo set out to draft a resumé. 403 00:21:40,366 --> 00:21:42,800 da Vinci: My most illustrious lord, 404 00:21:42,869 --> 00:21:45,369 I beg leave to present myself to you 405 00:21:45,438 --> 00:21:48,039 and to discover to Your Excellence 406 00:21:48,107 --> 00:21:50,541 my secrets of war. 407 00:21:50,610 --> 00:21:53,344 I will make covered vehicles, 408 00:21:53,413 --> 00:21:55,346 safe and unassailable, 409 00:21:55,415 --> 00:21:58,349 which will penetrate the enemy and their artillery, 410 00:21:58,418 --> 00:22:01,519 and there's no host of armed men so great 411 00:22:01,587 --> 00:22:04,021 that they would not break through it. 412 00:22:04,090 --> 00:22:07,024 I have also types of cannon most convenient 413 00:22:07,093 --> 00:22:10,528 and easily portable, with which to hurl small stones 414 00:22:10,596 --> 00:22:12,530 almost like a hailstorm, 415 00:22:12,598 --> 00:22:15,533 and the smoke from the cannon will instill a great fear 416 00:22:15,601 --> 00:22:19,537 in the enemy on account of the grave damage and confusion. 417 00:22:19,605 --> 00:22:22,540 Where the use of the cannon is impracticable, 418 00:22:22,608 --> 00:22:25,209 I will install catapults, mangonels, 419 00:22:25,278 --> 00:22:27,211 trebuchets, and other instruments 420 00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:30,715 of wonderful efficiency not in general use. 421 00:22:30,783 --> 00:22:33,584 [Boom, horse neighs] 422 00:22:33,653 --> 00:22:36,620 Narrator: For two centuries, the Italian peninsula 423 00:22:36,689 --> 00:22:39,357 had been torn by nearly constant warfare. 424 00:22:39,425 --> 00:22:41,892 Venice, Milan, Florence, Naples, 425 00:22:41,961 --> 00:22:45,629 and the Papal States all vied for dominance, 426 00:22:45,698 --> 00:22:48,666 sometimes allied with outside powers. 427 00:22:48,735 --> 00:22:51,168 Leonardo had never seen war, 428 00:22:51,237 --> 00:22:53,170 but he knew the labor market. 429 00:22:53,239 --> 00:22:56,674 Military engineers were in high demand. 430 00:22:59,011 --> 00:23:02,446 Still, he adds a footnote... 431 00:23:02,515 --> 00:23:05,449 da Vinci: What's more, I'm a sculptor. 432 00:23:05,518 --> 00:23:08,953 I can execute figures in bronze, marble, and clay. 433 00:23:09,021 --> 00:23:11,155 Likewise, in painting, 434 00:23:11,224 --> 00:23:14,658 I can do everything possible as well as any other man, 435 00:23:14,727 --> 00:23:16,660 whosoever he may be. 436 00:23:16,729 --> 00:23:18,162 I'm the man you need. 437 00:23:18,231 --> 00:23:19,663 [Taddei speaking Italian] 438 00:23:19,732 --> 00:23:21,332 Translator: In the "Codex Atlanticus," 439 00:23:21,401 --> 00:23:23,167 there is something very strange. 440 00:23:23,236 --> 00:23:26,170 It's a resumé, the first resumé in history 441 00:23:26,239 --> 00:23:28,672 made by Leonardo da Vinci. 442 00:23:28,741 --> 00:23:32,176 But Leonardo introduces himself as a military engineer 443 00:23:32,245 --> 00:23:35,179 who makes secret weapons, incredible submarines, 444 00:23:35,248 --> 00:23:37,181 assault bridges. 445 00:23:37,250 --> 00:23:39,183 But the most bizarre and incredible thing 446 00:23:39,252 --> 00:23:41,285 is that Leonardo is lying. 447 00:23:41,354 --> 00:23:42,787 Why is he lying? 448 00:23:42,855 --> 00:23:45,289 He's still young and comes from Verrocchio's studio. 449 00:23:45,358 --> 00:23:48,292 How could he be such an expert in military engineering? 450 00:23:48,361 --> 00:23:51,295 He's not, but here is his genius. 451 00:23:51,364 --> 00:23:53,464 Leonardo is not stupid. 452 00:23:53,533 --> 00:23:55,966 He does what any intelligent person would do. 453 00:23:56,035 --> 00:23:59,069 He studies. He studies a lot. 454 00:24:01,140 --> 00:24:03,741 This is the famous book of Roberto Valturio, 455 00:24:03,810 --> 00:24:06,410 printed just before Leonardo leaves for Milan. 456 00:24:06,479 --> 00:24:08,913 Leonardo uses it as a source. 457 00:24:08,981 --> 00:24:12,416 It is an encyclopedia of military weapons. 458 00:24:12,485 --> 00:24:15,419 We see Leonardo's famous scythed chariots 459 00:24:15,488 --> 00:24:17,922 taken from this book. 460 00:24:22,795 --> 00:24:25,229 Leonardo is inspired by this book. 461 00:24:25,298 --> 00:24:28,399 He studies every single page and copies all these machines 462 00:24:28,468 --> 00:24:31,535 and gives them to the duke as his own inventions. 463 00:24:31,604 --> 00:24:34,038 Here, we see something beautiful, 464 00:24:34,106 --> 00:24:37,541 perhaps the ancestor of Leonardo's tank. 465 00:24:37,610 --> 00:24:39,543 It is an armored tank with guns. 466 00:24:39,612 --> 00:24:42,046 One can hide cannons inside. 467 00:24:42,114 --> 00:24:44,048 Narrator: In 1472, 468 00:24:44,116 --> 00:24:46,050 Valturio's "On the Military Arts" 469 00:24:46,118 --> 00:24:49,553 was among the first illustrated printed books. 470 00:24:49,622 --> 00:24:52,556 Leonardo turned to it not out of curiosity, 471 00:24:52,625 --> 00:24:54,058 but desperation. 472 00:24:54,126 --> 00:24:57,561 He needed to sell himself to the Duke of Milan. 473 00:24:57,630 --> 00:25:00,564 But his improvements on Valturio led to some 474 00:25:00,633 --> 00:25:02,566 of his most famous inventions: 475 00:25:02,635 --> 00:25:05,569 combat wagons, siege machines, 476 00:25:05,638 --> 00:25:07,671 even a machine gun. 477 00:25:07,740 --> 00:25:10,674 Translator: This is a spheroidal machine gun. 478 00:25:10,743 --> 00:25:12,176 Leonardo understood 479 00:25:12,245 --> 00:25:15,179 that just having many cannons is not enough. 480 00:25:15,248 --> 00:25:18,682 If your enemy can run fast or even fly, 481 00:25:18,751 --> 00:25:22,853 this machine gives you the power to chase him from left to right, 482 00:25:22,922 --> 00:25:26,357 but one can also move it like a modern gun. 483 00:25:26,425 --> 00:25:29,360 Thanks to the central sphere inside the gun, 484 00:25:29,428 --> 00:25:32,363 one can follow the enemy even if he is moving. 485 00:25:32,431 --> 00:25:35,866 It's a fantastic machine. It could even work today. 486 00:25:35,935 --> 00:25:39,036 We rebuilt it for the first time with its original dimensions, 487 00:25:39,105 --> 00:25:41,906 just like Leonardo conceived it. 488 00:25:50,416 --> 00:25:54,852 Nicholl: Leonardo arrived in Milan in the spring of 1482. 489 00:25:54,921 --> 00:25:57,855 He found a city much bigger than Florence, 490 00:25:57,924 --> 00:26:01,358 much less like a town and more like a metropolis. 491 00:26:01,427 --> 00:26:05,029 Um, he also found a very cosmopolitan city; 492 00:26:05,097 --> 00:26:07,364 there were a lot of influences percolating down 493 00:26:07,433 --> 00:26:09,366 from across the Alps, let's say, 494 00:26:09,435 --> 00:26:11,869 so it was something of a crossroads of trade, 495 00:26:11,938 --> 00:26:16,073 and therefore also of ideas and techniques. 496 00:26:17,643 --> 00:26:20,077 Narrator: The spirit of the city was dynamic, 497 00:26:20,146 --> 00:26:22,580 entrepreneurial, practical. 498 00:26:22,648 --> 00:26:24,748 Milan suited Leonardo, 499 00:26:24,817 --> 00:26:27,251 and though the duke did not immediately hire him 500 00:26:27,320 --> 00:26:29,253 as a military engineer, 501 00:26:29,322 --> 00:26:32,256 Leonardo set up a studio for painting. 502 00:26:36,495 --> 00:26:38,929 [Music playing] 503 00:26:42,001 --> 00:26:43,934 Nicholl: Leonardo's first commission 504 00:26:44,003 --> 00:26:47,438 by--from the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza, 505 00:26:47,506 --> 00:26:49,940 was a portrait of Ludovico's mistress, 506 00:26:50,009 --> 00:26:52,309 Cecilia Gallerani, 507 00:26:52,378 --> 00:26:56,313 a wonderful portrait known as "The Lady With an Ermine." 508 00:26:56,382 --> 00:26:59,149 It's full of life and movement, 509 00:26:59,218 --> 00:27:02,319 full of vitality, full of that wonderful movement 510 00:27:02,388 --> 00:27:05,322 of the--of the sitter towards the painter, 511 00:27:05,391 --> 00:27:09,193 as if momentarily capturing her, uh, about to speak, 512 00:27:09,261 --> 00:27:13,364 that way Leonardo has of capturing women in particular 513 00:27:13,432 --> 00:27:17,868 in a moment of suspended or potential animation. 514 00:27:35,488 --> 00:27:38,989 Narrator: In Milan, Leonardo found a fresh atmosphere 515 00:27:39,058 --> 00:27:41,659 that sparked his curiosity. 516 00:27:47,166 --> 00:27:49,266 Narrator: And he found new inspiration 517 00:27:49,335 --> 00:27:51,769 in the scientific spirit of the universities 518 00:27:51,837 --> 00:27:54,271 and booming book trade. 519 00:27:56,676 --> 00:27:58,609 The printing press was invented 520 00:27:58,678 --> 00:28:00,778 about the time Leonardo was born. 521 00:28:00,846 --> 00:28:03,280 It was a communications revolution, 522 00:28:03,349 --> 00:28:05,783 like the Internet today. 523 00:28:05,851 --> 00:28:07,284 In just 30 years, 524 00:28:07,353 --> 00:28:10,287 more books were printed than had been copied 525 00:28:10,356 --> 00:28:11,922 in all the Middle Ages. 526 00:28:11,991 --> 00:28:15,926 The cost of a book dropped by 80%. 527 00:28:22,501 --> 00:28:25,602 Books opened a new world for Leonardo; 528 00:28:25,671 --> 00:28:28,605 he could read the ancients directly, 529 00:28:28,674 --> 00:28:30,941 a source of inspiration 530 00:28:31,010 --> 00:28:33,811 that would ignite his scientific impulse. 531 00:28:36,882 --> 00:28:39,316 Capra: These advances 532 00:28:39,385 --> 00:28:42,319 of humanist science and philosophy 533 00:28:42,388 --> 00:28:44,822 would not have been possible 534 00:28:44,890 --> 00:28:48,258 without this tremendous technological breakthrough, 535 00:28:48,327 --> 00:28:49,827 the invention of printing. 536 00:28:49,895 --> 00:28:52,329 In fact, there were two inventions 537 00:28:52,398 --> 00:28:54,498 that--that contributed. 538 00:28:54,567 --> 00:28:58,001 One was the movable type, typography, 539 00:28:58,070 --> 00:29:00,504 and the other one is-- was engraving, 540 00:29:00,573 --> 00:29:04,007 where you could present pictures in a way that could be 541 00:29:04,076 --> 00:29:07,511 multiplied infinitely without deteriorating, 542 00:29:07,580 --> 00:29:10,514 and so this had two consequences. 543 00:29:10,583 --> 00:29:13,016 Dissemination was much more rapid, 544 00:29:13,085 --> 00:29:15,252 and it was much more precise. 545 00:29:16,822 --> 00:29:19,256 Would you be interested in this book? 546 00:29:19,325 --> 00:29:21,258 Why, yes, certainly. 547 00:29:25,664 --> 00:29:27,998 [Bell tolling] 548 00:29:36,208 --> 00:29:38,142 When he arrived in Milan, 549 00:29:38,210 --> 00:29:40,644 he had no books, not a single book, 550 00:29:40,713 --> 00:29:42,646 at the age of 30. 551 00:29:42,715 --> 00:29:45,816 Eight years later, he had about 35 books, 552 00:29:45,885 --> 00:29:47,985 and another--I don't know-- ten years later, 553 00:29:48,053 --> 00:29:49,853 he had about 200 books. 554 00:29:49,922 --> 00:29:52,689 These were books of science and philosophy 555 00:29:52,758 --> 00:29:56,193 by, uh--the classical books about mathematics, 556 00:29:56,262 --> 00:30:00,831 about botany, astronomy, anatomy, and so on. 557 00:30:00,900 --> 00:30:04,501 So he had the books of a Renaissance scholar, 558 00:30:04,570 --> 00:30:08,005 and he actually became a Renaissance scholar. 559 00:30:08,073 --> 00:30:11,008 [Reading aloud in Latin] 560 00:30:17,383 --> 00:30:19,316 [Women giggling] 561 00:30:22,354 --> 00:30:26,590 Narrator: But the untutored Leonardo needed Latin. 562 00:30:26,659 --> 00:30:28,592 [Women giggling] 563 00:30:28,661 --> 00:30:31,595 Narrator: At the age of 35, he began memorizing verbs 564 00:30:31,664 --> 00:30:34,031 like a schoolboy. 565 00:30:42,274 --> 00:30:43,574 [All giggle] 566 00:30:43,642 --> 00:30:47,511 Narrator: Zoroastro, court mechanic and magician, 567 00:30:47,580 --> 00:30:50,013 came from Florence to assist Leonardo, 568 00:30:50,082 --> 00:30:53,517 who was finally appointed ducal engineer, 569 00:30:53,586 --> 00:30:56,019 responsible for everything from canal-building 570 00:30:56,088 --> 00:30:59,356 to staging royal entertainments. 571 00:31:02,261 --> 00:31:04,194 Leonardo found new colleagues 572 00:31:04,263 --> 00:31:07,698 attracted to the dynamic city and the free-spending duke, 573 00:31:07,766 --> 00:31:12,202 men determined to reinvent themselves and their society: 574 00:31:12,271 --> 00:31:15,906 Luca Pacioli, Leonardo's tutor in mathematics, 575 00:31:15,975 --> 00:31:18,408 whose book "The Divine Proportion" 576 00:31:18,477 --> 00:31:20,911 was illustrated by Leonardo... 577 00:31:22,481 --> 00:31:24,948 Francesco di Giorgio Martini, 578 00:31:25,017 --> 00:31:28,118 the most celebrated military architect of his time 579 00:31:28,187 --> 00:31:31,622 and source for some of Leonardo's war machines... 580 00:31:34,193 --> 00:31:36,126 Donato Bramante, 581 00:31:36,195 --> 00:31:38,428 painter turned architect. 582 00:31:38,497 --> 00:31:41,431 He brought the high Renaissance style to Milan 583 00:31:41,500 --> 00:31:44,334 and would go on to design Saint Peter's in Rome. 584 00:31:44,403 --> 00:31:48,272 His ironic fresco, "Heraclitis and Democritus," 585 00:31:48,340 --> 00:31:51,775 is a double portrait of himself and his friend Leonardo, 586 00:31:51,844 --> 00:31:54,778 the only image of Leonardo from the period. 587 00:31:56,348 --> 00:31:58,782 He's an opportunist in many ways, Leonardo. 588 00:31:58,851 --> 00:32:02,786 He learns what he needs to learn for a particular purpose 589 00:32:02,855 --> 00:32:05,789 and for a particular situation. 590 00:32:05,858 --> 00:32:08,292 And his situation as sort of, as it were, 591 00:32:08,360 --> 00:32:11,929 entertainments manager for the Milanese court, 592 00:32:11,997 --> 00:32:15,432 uh, might not seem that congenial put in those terms, 593 00:32:15,501 --> 00:32:19,102 but it did enable him to channel all sorts of interests-- 594 00:32:19,171 --> 00:32:22,105 technical, scientific, engineering interests-- 595 00:32:22,174 --> 00:32:25,842 as well as the pictorial, sort of poetic interests 596 00:32:25,911 --> 00:32:28,645 that he has as an artist. 597 00:32:28,714 --> 00:32:31,148 [Music playing] 598 00:32:39,758 --> 00:32:41,825 Narrator: For the men and women of the Renaissance, 599 00:32:41,894 --> 00:32:45,829 there was little difference between technology and magic. 600 00:32:45,898 --> 00:32:48,398 Seemingly controlled by unknown forces 601 00:32:48,467 --> 00:32:49,900 and hidden powers, 602 00:32:49,969 --> 00:32:52,202 Leonardo's spectacles filled people 603 00:32:52,271 --> 00:32:54,705 with curiosity and wonder. 604 00:32:54,773 --> 00:32:58,208 He went so far as to invent a prototype robot 605 00:32:58,277 --> 00:33:00,677 just for the duke's entertainment. 606 00:33:04,683 --> 00:33:07,117 [Taddei speaking Italian] 607 00:33:07,186 --> 00:33:09,619 Translator: Leonardo is said to have invented the car, 608 00:33:09,688 --> 00:33:11,188 but it's not a car. 609 00:33:11,256 --> 00:33:13,523 He studied in Verrocchio's studio, 610 00:33:13,592 --> 00:33:16,026 where, in addition to paintings and sculptures, 611 00:33:16,095 --> 00:33:19,029 they made theatrical objects, and this is probably 612 00:33:19,098 --> 00:33:21,531 a magical theatrical device-- 613 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,134 Leonardo's robot. 614 00:33:24,203 --> 00:33:26,136 Why a robot? 615 00:33:26,205 --> 00:33:28,638 Because it is programmable. 616 00:33:28,707 --> 00:33:32,242 Leonardo invented these systems. 617 00:33:32,311 --> 00:33:34,745 These simple rods already existed, 618 00:33:34,813 --> 00:33:38,248 but Leonardo conceived them as something new. 619 00:33:38,317 --> 00:33:40,751 If I put these rods in this position-- 620 00:33:40,819 --> 00:33:43,253 one, none, or many-- 621 00:33:43,322 --> 00:33:46,757 these two levers will touch the pedals from time to time, 622 00:33:46,825 --> 00:33:50,260 and the cart will move from right to left. 623 00:33:50,329 --> 00:33:52,763 [Taddei speaking Italian] 624 00:33:55,567 --> 00:33:57,768 Translator: For the first time, he creates a robot 625 00:33:57,836 --> 00:34:00,637 with its own internal energy, 626 00:34:00,706 --> 00:34:05,142 a robot that does what Leonardo wants it to do. 627 00:34:12,217 --> 00:34:14,584 [Wheels creaking] 628 00:34:32,704 --> 00:34:35,639 [People murmur] 629 00:34:41,780 --> 00:34:44,214 [Applause continues] 630 00:34:51,723 --> 00:34:53,657 [Applause abates] 631 00:34:58,831 --> 00:35:00,263 [Taddei speaking Italian] 632 00:35:00,332 --> 00:35:02,265 Translator: This is a dream that takes us back 633 00:35:02,334 --> 00:35:04,267 to Leonardo's predecessors; 634 00:35:04,336 --> 00:35:06,770 people like Heron of Alexandria, 635 00:35:06,839 --> 00:35:09,773 who created magical objects for the fun and wonder 636 00:35:09,842 --> 00:35:13,643 of making things that never existed before. 637 00:35:13,712 --> 00:35:16,646 Narrator: Leonardo's robots copy inventions made 638 00:35:16,715 --> 00:35:18,648 a thousand years earlier, 639 00:35:18,717 --> 00:35:22,652 during a Greek scientific revolution in Alexandria. 640 00:35:22,721 --> 00:35:25,655 There, the first-century engineer Heron 641 00:35:25,724 --> 00:35:29,159 compiled a book of temple magic... 642 00:35:30,729 --> 00:35:34,664 the world's first vending machine for holy water, 643 00:35:34,733 --> 00:35:37,667 and a self-propelled cart. 644 00:35:37,736 --> 00:35:41,171 Leonardo had a summary of Heron in his library. 645 00:35:43,242 --> 00:35:46,176 The 12th-century Arab Golden Age 646 00:35:46,245 --> 00:35:49,179 preserved and advanced the science of Alexandria. 647 00:35:49,248 --> 00:35:53,683 Inventor and engineer Ibn al-Jazari updated Heron 648 00:35:53,752 --> 00:35:56,686 with Indian and Chinese technologies encountered 649 00:35:56,755 --> 00:35:58,688 with the spread of Islam. 650 00:35:58,757 --> 00:36:02,192 His ingenious clockworks and automatons 651 00:36:02,261 --> 00:36:06,696 used control devices like those in Leonardo's cart. 652 00:36:06,765 --> 00:36:11,201 Advanced Arabic works on mechanics, astronomy, 653 00:36:11,270 --> 00:36:14,704 mathematics, and optics made their way to Europe 654 00:36:14,773 --> 00:36:18,041 through Muslim Spain or through Medici's agents, 655 00:36:18,110 --> 00:36:21,545 sent to Persia and Syria in search of manuscripts. 656 00:36:23,782 --> 00:36:26,216 Man: Leonardo had actually referred 657 00:36:26,285 --> 00:36:29,719 to the "Book of Optics," Alhazen, Ibn al-Haytham. 658 00:36:29,788 --> 00:36:33,223 Now, he is a guy who had come-- 659 00:36:33,292 --> 00:36:35,725 faced two philosophical, 660 00:36:35,794 --> 00:36:38,395 two theoretical explanations of how we see, 661 00:36:38,463 --> 00:36:41,865 and what he did is he carried out experiments 662 00:36:41,934 --> 00:36:45,302 to verify what he thought how we see 663 00:36:45,370 --> 00:36:48,805 and developed what we call the dark room or dark box, 664 00:36:48,874 --> 00:36:51,308 which became the pinhole camera 665 00:36:51,376 --> 00:36:54,811 and then we refer to as the camera obscura. 666 00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,815 Now, he says that you should always doubt what you read, 667 00:36:58,884 --> 00:37:02,319 even if you have to doubt yourself, 668 00:37:02,387 --> 00:37:04,321 but you must prove things by experiment, 669 00:37:04,389 --> 00:37:07,324 so experimentation began to take, uh, 670 00:37:07,392 --> 00:37:11,061 a lot of, uh, interest in that society. 671 00:37:12,631 --> 00:37:15,065 Narrator: Leonardo's notes show he was familiar 672 00:37:15,133 --> 00:37:17,067 with al-Haytham's "Optics," 673 00:37:17,135 --> 00:37:19,569 written in 1021. 674 00:37:19,638 --> 00:37:23,306 It's the source of his interest in the camera obscura, 675 00:37:23,375 --> 00:37:26,476 where a small hole acts as a lens 676 00:37:26,545 --> 00:37:28,645 to project a brightly lit exterior 677 00:37:28,714 --> 00:37:31,881 on the opposite wall in a darkened room. 678 00:37:35,454 --> 00:37:38,888 Narrator: Leonardo was not a prophet of the future. 679 00:37:38,957 --> 00:37:41,891 He discovered a distant past, 680 00:37:41,960 --> 00:37:45,328 where a much more advanced technology had existed, 681 00:37:45,397 --> 00:37:47,831 lost to the West with the fall of Rome. 682 00:37:47,899 --> 00:37:50,500 Ibn al-Haytham arranged three candles 683 00:37:50,569 --> 00:37:52,869 in a row in a dark room. 684 00:37:52,938 --> 00:37:54,871 He put a screen with a small hole 685 00:37:54,940 --> 00:37:56,940 between the candles on the wall 686 00:37:57,009 --> 00:37:59,442 and noted that images were formed. 687 00:38:04,916 --> 00:38:09,352 Capra: Leonardo certainly was very influenced 688 00:38:09,421 --> 00:38:12,722 by, uh, Arabic scholars. 689 00:38:12,791 --> 00:38:14,724 His experimental method, 690 00:38:14,793 --> 00:38:16,726 his empirical method, uh, 691 00:38:16,795 --> 00:38:19,896 somehow came from his reading of these texts 692 00:38:19,965 --> 00:38:23,900 because these, uh, uh, Arab scholars 693 00:38:23,969 --> 00:38:27,904 were not bound by-- by religious doctrine. 694 00:38:27,973 --> 00:38:31,908 Uh, Islam left them complete freedom 695 00:38:31,977 --> 00:38:34,911 to--to do the science, the philosophy, 696 00:38:34,980 --> 00:38:37,580 their reinterpretations of Aristotle. 697 00:38:39,651 --> 00:38:42,585 Narrator: In reinventing an ancient technology, 698 00:38:42,654 --> 00:38:45,855 Leonardo also reinvented something that had been lost 699 00:38:45,924 --> 00:38:47,857 for centuries-- 700 00:38:47,926 --> 00:38:50,860 the scientific experiment. 701 00:38:50,929 --> 00:38:55,365 His detailed observations and carefully drawn results 702 00:38:55,434 --> 00:38:59,369 paved the way for modern research methods. 703 00:39:03,375 --> 00:39:05,809 Books start to mean something to him, 704 00:39:05,877 --> 00:39:09,312 and it's hard to know exactly what this change of attitude, 705 00:39:09,381 --> 00:39:13,817 uh, signals, but I suppose it's the desire to-- 706 00:39:13,885 --> 00:39:18,655 it--it goes with that newly encyclopedic idea 707 00:39:18,724 --> 00:39:23,159 that Leonardo has for himself, that all branches of knowledge 708 00:39:23,228 --> 00:39:27,664 are within his reach, and that he--as what he calls 709 00:39:27,733 --> 00:39:32,669 the painter/philosopher--must acquire knowledge of all sorts. 710 00:39:32,738 --> 00:39:36,172 And indeed, there is a sort of bewildering multiplication 711 00:39:36,241 --> 00:39:39,175 of his interests around about the same time 712 00:39:39,244 --> 00:39:41,978 as he starts to acquire and collect books. 713 00:39:42,047 --> 00:39:44,481 [Insects chirping] 714 00:39:51,056 --> 00:39:54,991 Although nature begins with reason and ends with experience, 715 00:39:55,060 --> 00:39:58,495 we must do the opposite-- to begin with experience, 716 00:39:58,563 --> 00:40:01,498 and from this, to investigate the reason. 717 00:40:01,566 --> 00:40:03,500 Narrator: In 1482, 718 00:40:03,568 --> 00:40:05,502 a translation of Ptolemy was printed 719 00:40:05,570 --> 00:40:08,004 from a newly discovered Greek manuscript. 720 00:40:08,073 --> 00:40:10,240 The second-century mathematician 721 00:40:10,308 --> 00:40:13,743 created the Earth-centered model of the universe held 722 00:40:13,812 --> 00:40:16,746 by Alexandria, Islam, and Europe 723 00:40:16,815 --> 00:40:19,749 for over 1,200 years. 724 00:40:19,818 --> 00:40:23,987 Leonardo turned his attention to the geometry of the night. 725 00:40:25,223 --> 00:40:28,158 Ptolemy held that the moon and planets shine 726 00:40:28,226 --> 00:40:30,160 with their own light. 727 00:40:30,228 --> 00:40:34,664 As a test, Leonardo embarked on an imaginary voyage. 728 00:40:34,733 --> 00:40:38,668 He placed himself outside the earth. 729 00:40:40,238 --> 00:40:42,672 He realized that moonlight 730 00:40:42,741 --> 00:40:45,175 is really reflected sunlight, 731 00:40:45,243 --> 00:40:48,178 and that the dim light that makes the body of the moon 732 00:40:48,246 --> 00:40:52,682 just visible at crescent is reflected from the earth-- 733 00:40:52,751 --> 00:40:54,684 earthshine. 734 00:41:04,129 --> 00:41:06,563 Anyone standing on the moon when it and the sun 735 00:41:06,631 --> 00:41:09,065 are both beneath us would see our earth 736 00:41:09,134 --> 00:41:11,067 and the element of water upon it, 737 00:41:11,136 --> 00:41:13,069 just as we see the moon, 738 00:41:13,138 --> 00:41:16,573 and the earth would light it, as the moon lights us. 739 00:41:16,641 --> 00:41:20,076 The earth is not the center of the sun's orbit, 740 00:41:20,145 --> 00:41:22,579 nor at the center of the universe, 741 00:41:22,647 --> 00:41:26,082 but in the center of its companion elements 742 00:41:26,151 --> 00:41:28,084 and united with them. 743 00:41:31,890 --> 00:41:34,824 Narrator: "The sun does not move." 744 00:41:34,893 --> 00:41:39,329 His cryptic phrase was written a hundred years before Galileo, 745 00:41:39,397 --> 00:41:42,332 but never developed further in his notebooks. 746 00:41:42,400 --> 00:41:44,834 A theory of the heavens? 747 00:41:44,903 --> 00:41:46,836 Notes for a spectacle? 748 00:41:46,905 --> 00:41:48,838 Impossible to say. 749 00:41:50,408 --> 00:41:52,342 Leonardo believed that the same force 750 00:41:52,410 --> 00:41:54,844 that moved the heavens moved the body; 751 00:41:54,913 --> 00:41:57,347 as above, so below. 752 00:41:57,415 --> 00:42:01,851 The form of the cosmos was reflected in the human form. 753 00:42:03,021 --> 00:42:04,954 And just as the map of the heavens 754 00:42:05,023 --> 00:42:06,956 went unchanged for centuries, 755 00:42:07,025 --> 00:42:09,959 so too did the map of the body. 756 00:42:10,028 --> 00:42:12,462 Doctors relied on illustrations inherited 757 00:42:12,531 --> 00:42:15,465 from ancient Greece and Persia. 758 00:42:15,534 --> 00:42:20,036 Leonardo would conduct his own medical examinations. 759 00:42:20,105 --> 00:42:24,040 First sign of Leonardo's, uh, actual practical involvement 760 00:42:24,109 --> 00:42:26,209 in anatomy and dissection 761 00:42:26,278 --> 00:42:30,713 is some wonderful, slightly eerie drawings of a skull, 762 00:42:30,782 --> 00:42:33,483 uh, dateable to about 1489. 763 00:42:33,552 --> 00:42:35,485 One of the drawings makes it clear 764 00:42:35,554 --> 00:42:37,654 that at least one of his interests is 765 00:42:37,722 --> 00:42:40,490 to establish by a sort of grid-referencing 766 00:42:40,559 --> 00:42:43,493 the particular location 767 00:42:43,562 --> 00:42:47,664 of the sensus communis, which is an Aristotelian concept, 768 00:42:47,732 --> 00:42:51,167 the communal sense, where all the sensory impressions 769 00:42:51,236 --> 00:42:54,671 go into the brain and was where 770 00:42:54,739 --> 00:42:57,473 a man's soul could be found. 771 00:42:59,544 --> 00:43:01,978 Narrator: Leonardo's first dissections 772 00:43:02,047 --> 00:43:04,480 were in search of the soul. 773 00:43:18,496 --> 00:43:21,531 Narrator: His guide, a newly published manual of anatomy 774 00:43:21,600 --> 00:43:24,534 by Mondino de Liuzzi, would remain the authority 775 00:43:24,603 --> 00:43:26,769 for 250 years. 776 00:43:28,340 --> 00:43:31,274 Capra: Even though he was a mechanical genius, 777 00:43:31,343 --> 00:43:34,277 he never treated the body as a machine. 778 00:43:34,346 --> 00:43:38,781 He said that nature has given the body 779 00:43:38,850 --> 00:43:41,985 or has given animals mechanical instruments, 780 00:43:42,053 --> 00:43:45,488 but the source of the movement comes from the soul-- 781 00:43:45,557 --> 00:43:47,991 which is not mechanical, which is spiritual-- 782 00:43:48,059 --> 00:43:50,660 and by that, he meant immaterial, 783 00:43:50,729 --> 00:43:53,663 and he actually traced back the sensory nerves 784 00:43:53,732 --> 00:43:55,665 to the center of the brain, 785 00:43:55,734 --> 00:43:59,168 which he considered to be the seat of the soul. 786 00:44:02,741 --> 00:44:05,008 Narrator: In the center of the brain, 787 00:44:05,076 --> 00:44:08,511 he found three small cavities-- the ventricles-- 788 00:44:08,580 --> 00:44:12,682 the site, he was certain, of Aristotle's sensus communis. 789 00:44:14,252 --> 00:44:17,186 [Zoroastro reading aloud in Italian] 790 00:44:28,266 --> 00:44:31,200 The soul appears to reside in the judicial part, 791 00:44:31,269 --> 00:44:33,703 and the judicial part seems to be the place 792 00:44:33,772 --> 00:44:35,705 where all the senses come together, 793 00:44:35,774 --> 00:44:37,707 the sensus communis, 794 00:44:37,776 --> 00:44:41,411 and the sensus communis is the seat of the soul. 795 00:44:41,479 --> 00:44:44,047 [Zoroastro continues reading] 796 00:44:46,551 --> 00:44:49,485 Narrator: While Leonardo's proof of Aristotle's theories 797 00:44:49,554 --> 00:44:51,654 has not stood the test of time, 798 00:44:51,723 --> 00:44:55,258 his anatomical drawings have never been surpassed. 799 00:44:55,326 --> 00:44:58,761 Sequential views suggest a cinematic animation, 800 00:44:58,830 --> 00:45:01,264 and views from multiple angles 801 00:45:01,332 --> 00:45:04,267 provide a true three-dimensional understanding 802 00:45:04,335 --> 00:45:06,269 of the body's form. 803 00:45:06,337 --> 00:45:10,273 His images are never static, but animated by a dynamic energy 804 00:45:10,341 --> 00:45:14,277 and seem just on the verge of moving on their own. 805 00:45:14,345 --> 00:45:16,779 Leonardo's illustrations, as precise 806 00:45:16,848 --> 00:45:19,282 as his technical drawings of machines, 807 00:45:19,350 --> 00:45:21,451 were unequaled in accuracy 808 00:45:21,519 --> 00:45:24,620 until the photographic techniques of the 19th century, 809 00:45:24,689 --> 00:45:28,124 but they were never published in his lifetime. 810 00:45:28,193 --> 00:45:31,127 They remained unknown and unpublished 811 00:45:31,196 --> 00:45:34,130 for more than 300 years. 812 00:45:36,901 --> 00:45:39,335 Leonardo, like his fellow humanists, 813 00:45:39,404 --> 00:45:42,038 was very eager to read classical texts, 814 00:45:42,107 --> 00:45:44,040 but there was a big difference. 815 00:45:44,109 --> 00:45:46,142 He would examine them 816 00:45:46,211 --> 00:45:49,145 in the light of his observation of nature, 817 00:45:49,214 --> 00:45:51,647 in the light of his own experience, 818 00:45:51,716 --> 00:45:55,651 and he would never hesitate to correct the classical texts, 819 00:45:55,720 --> 00:45:58,888 even of the greatest authorities. 820 00:45:58,957 --> 00:46:01,390 When he made progress in one area, 821 00:46:01,459 --> 00:46:04,560 he immediately applied it to a related area 822 00:46:04,629 --> 00:46:07,563 so that you can actually see his progress 823 00:46:07,632 --> 00:46:11,067 as a kind of spiral that-- that goes higher and higher 824 00:46:11,136 --> 00:46:13,569 but always touches several fields. 825 00:46:19,144 --> 00:46:22,578 Capra: Dealing with a problem or understanding a phenomenon, 826 00:46:22,647 --> 00:46:27,083 for him, meant to see how it is related to other phenomena. 827 00:46:27,152 --> 00:46:30,119 In this way, I think 828 00:46:30,188 --> 00:46:33,589 he generated what we now call the scientific method, 829 00:46:33,658 --> 00:46:37,593 and he singlehandedly created the scientific method. 830 00:46:39,330 --> 00:46:41,764 Narrator: Leonardo wanted to understand 831 00:46:41,833 --> 00:46:44,267 underlying principles. 832 00:46:44,335 --> 00:46:47,203 Just his study of spirals in water, 833 00:46:47,272 --> 00:46:49,205 flights of birds, plant growth, 834 00:46:49,274 --> 00:46:52,208 even hair patterns, led him to explore 835 00:46:52,277 --> 00:46:54,377 the fields of geology, botany, 836 00:46:54,445 --> 00:46:56,546 topology, and more. 837 00:46:56,614 --> 00:47:00,049 For him, everything was deeply connected, 838 00:47:00,118 --> 00:47:03,052 a great system in continual movement, 839 00:47:03,121 --> 00:47:06,556 with human beings at its center. 840 00:47:06,624 --> 00:47:10,593 And there is an image that seems to summarize all of his work-- 841 00:47:10,662 --> 00:47:13,095 the "Vitruvian Man." 842 00:47:14,666 --> 00:47:17,099 Man: Everybody knows this picture. 843 00:47:17,168 --> 00:47:19,101 It's become a kind of icon, even, 844 00:47:19,170 --> 00:47:21,070 like an emblem of the human spirit. 845 00:47:21,139 --> 00:47:24,073 Leonardo drew it in about 1490, 846 00:47:24,142 --> 00:47:27,076 um, and he did it as a kind of answer to a riddle. 847 00:47:27,145 --> 00:47:31,247 Um, the architect, uh, Vitruvius, from ancient Rome, 848 00:47:31,316 --> 00:47:34,417 had proposed a man could fit inside a square 849 00:47:34,485 --> 00:47:37,587 and inside a circle, and for centuries after that, 850 00:47:37,655 --> 00:47:40,489 people had wondered about how that might work 851 00:47:40,558 --> 00:47:43,492 at a literal and at a metaphorical level. 852 00:47:45,997 --> 00:47:49,432 The height of a man equals four cubits. 853 00:47:57,508 --> 00:48:01,110 Narrator: Vitruvius' book, printed in 1486, 854 00:48:01,179 --> 00:48:03,446 stated that to achieve harmony, 855 00:48:03,514 --> 00:48:07,516 buildings must reflect ideal human proportions. 856 00:48:07,585 --> 00:48:10,019 Before scientific standards, 857 00:48:10,088 --> 00:48:12,521 all measurements were taken from the body-- 858 00:48:12,590 --> 00:48:15,024 the foot, the digit, the step. 859 00:48:15,093 --> 00:48:18,527 But to build something, the proportions must be known: 860 00:48:18,596 --> 00:48:23,032 how many thumbs in a palm, how many palms to a step. 861 00:48:23,101 --> 00:48:25,201 Architects hoped to find the answer 862 00:48:25,270 --> 00:48:28,204 in Vitruvius' ideal proportions, 863 00:48:28,273 --> 00:48:31,207 to unlock secrets of ancient buildings. 864 00:48:31,276 --> 00:48:35,711 Forty at the dial and... 865 00:48:35,780 --> 00:48:38,714 19 at the rod. 866 00:48:38,783 --> 00:48:41,717 Narrator: But the book wasn't illustrated. 867 00:48:41,786 --> 00:48:44,720 How could a human body fit proportionally 868 00:48:44,789 --> 00:48:48,224 inside a circle and a square? 869 00:48:48,293 --> 00:48:50,893 The image of a human at the center of a circle is 870 00:48:50,962 --> 00:48:53,896 an ancient way of relating individual existence 871 00:48:53,965 --> 00:48:56,899 to the infinite universe. 872 00:48:56,968 --> 00:49:00,403 It proposes a linking between the two. 873 00:49:00,471 --> 00:49:02,905 The individual is a microcosm, 874 00:49:02,974 --> 00:49:05,908 a miniature reflection in all its parts 875 00:49:05,977 --> 00:49:08,911 of the universe, or macrocosm; 876 00:49:08,980 --> 00:49:11,914 as above, so below. 877 00:49:13,985 --> 00:49:17,420 Vitruvius' square represents the material world. 878 00:49:17,488 --> 00:49:19,588 His figure has a dual nature, 879 00:49:19,657 --> 00:49:22,758 inscribed in both the heavens and the earth. 880 00:49:22,827 --> 00:49:26,429 His idea was appealing to humanists' values, 881 00:49:26,497 --> 00:49:29,765 but without illustrations, the question of how to fit 882 00:49:29,834 --> 00:49:31,934 the body in a square and a circle 883 00:49:32,003 --> 00:49:34,603 without distorting its proportions became 884 00:49:34,672 --> 00:49:36,772 an obsession for architects. 885 00:49:36,841 --> 00:49:39,275 Those who tried failed. 886 00:49:45,316 --> 00:49:48,751 Narrator: Leonardo was fascinated with proportion. 887 00:49:49,988 --> 00:49:51,420 During the Renaissance, 888 00:49:51,489 --> 00:49:54,323 the goal of art was the expression of harmony, 889 00:49:54,392 --> 00:49:57,827 and harmony is a matter of proportion. 890 00:50:00,898 --> 00:50:04,333 Vitruvius gave complex measurements for the ideal body, 891 00:50:04,402 --> 00:50:08,337 but Leonardo needed to verify everything for himself, 892 00:50:08,406 --> 00:50:13,342 and then he too undertook the quest for "Vitruvian Man." 893 00:50:15,213 --> 00:50:16,645 [Speaking Italian] 894 00:50:16,714 --> 00:50:18,647 It's a matter of proportions. 895 00:50:18,716 --> 00:50:21,150 Come. I want to show you my work. 896 00:50:21,219 --> 00:50:23,152 Narrator: In 1490, 897 00:50:23,221 --> 00:50:25,321 Leonardo met a young architect, 898 00:50:25,390 --> 00:50:29,492 also hard at work on the "Vitruvius" problem. 899 00:50:31,062 --> 00:50:33,496 Lester: Discovery recently suggests that there was 900 00:50:33,564 --> 00:50:36,165 another person who also drew a "Vitruvian Man." 901 00:50:36,234 --> 00:50:40,169 It comes in a manuscript by an architect named Giacomo Andrea, 902 00:50:40,238 --> 00:50:42,671 who was from Ferrara, but who worked in Milan 903 00:50:42,740 --> 00:50:44,673 at the time that Leonardo was there, 904 00:50:44,742 --> 00:50:47,009 and it turns out the two of them were good friends. 905 00:50:47,078 --> 00:50:49,645 Look at this. 906 00:50:49,714 --> 00:50:52,648 "I have all measures inside me, 907 00:50:52,717 --> 00:50:55,151 "the divine ones, as well as the ones coming 908 00:50:55,219 --> 00:50:57,653 from earth and hell." 909 00:51:09,300 --> 00:51:11,233 You see... 910 00:51:11,302 --> 00:51:14,603 the man is called "Little World," 911 00:51:14,672 --> 00:51:16,605 who contains in himself 912 00:51:16,674 --> 00:51:19,108 all the general perfections of the entire world. 913 00:51:19,177 --> 00:51:22,278 Lester: If you look at this manuscript of Giacomo Andrea's, 914 00:51:22,346 --> 00:51:24,914 which seems to date to around 1490 as well, 915 00:51:24,982 --> 00:51:26,916 possibly a little bit earlier, 916 00:51:26,984 --> 00:51:29,919 you'll find in it a--a vision of "Vitruvian Man" 917 00:51:29,987 --> 00:51:32,922 that is eerily like Leonardo's 918 00:51:32,990 --> 00:51:34,924 and seems to be a predecessor. 919 00:51:34,992 --> 00:51:38,928 It's a tentative effort that you can see erasures on. 920 00:51:38,996 --> 00:51:43,432 You can superimpose them and get almost an identical image. 921 00:51:43,501 --> 00:51:46,936 Again, Leonardo's image doesn't appear out of the blue. 922 00:51:47,004 --> 00:51:49,772 Uh, it's part of a progression, and it may have been part 923 00:51:49,841 --> 00:51:53,476 of a very close collaboration with Giacomo Andrea. 924 00:51:53,544 --> 00:51:56,979 Narrator: Giacomo Andrea de-centered the circle 925 00:51:57,048 --> 00:51:58,481 in the square. 926 00:51:58,549 --> 00:52:00,483 The spiritual realm of the circle 927 00:52:00,551 --> 00:52:01,984 is centered on the navel, 928 00:52:02,053 --> 00:52:05,488 the earthly realm of the square on the genitals. 929 00:52:05,556 --> 00:52:08,491 No one else had thought to do that. 930 00:52:08,559 --> 00:52:12,495 The same solution is found in Leonardo's famous drawing, 931 00:52:12,563 --> 00:52:15,998 but as always, he takes it much further. 932 00:52:16,067 --> 00:52:19,001 Andrea's figure is almost Christ-like, 933 00:52:19,070 --> 00:52:21,170 a throwback to the Middle Ages. 934 00:52:21,239 --> 00:52:24,173 Leonardo's is unquestionably human, 935 00:52:24,242 --> 00:52:26,675 bold and ambitious. 936 00:52:26,744 --> 00:52:29,178 "Vitruvian Man" is a pure expression 937 00:52:29,247 --> 00:52:33,182 of the Renaissance, a secular, almost carnal figure 938 00:52:33,251 --> 00:52:37,019 whose reach extends to the very limit of the cosmos 939 00:52:37,088 --> 00:52:41,023 and whose face, staring out with absolute confidence, 940 00:52:41,092 --> 00:52:44,026 might be that of Leonardo himself, 941 00:52:44,095 --> 00:52:47,563 38 years old and at the height of his powers. 942 00:52:48,799 --> 00:52:50,733 There might seem to be some arrogance 943 00:52:50,801 --> 00:52:53,736 in the idea that he is putting his own face 944 00:52:53,804 --> 00:52:56,238 into this, uh, central, 945 00:52:56,307 --> 00:52:58,741 iconic sort of a figure. 946 00:52:58,809 --> 00:53:02,244 I think it's appropriate, though, because who better 947 00:53:02,313 --> 00:53:05,247 to encapsulate this knowledge 948 00:53:05,316 --> 00:53:08,918 that he is imparting than the painter, 949 00:53:08,986 --> 00:53:13,255 philosopher, anatomist Leonardo da Vinci, 950 00:53:13,324 --> 00:53:16,258 who finds all these different avenues 951 00:53:16,327 --> 00:53:19,762 to his knowledge of the human condition, 952 00:53:19,830 --> 00:53:21,931 of what it is to be a man? 953 00:53:28,973 --> 00:53:32,408 Narrator: Leonardo's great dream was to write a series of books 954 00:53:32,476 --> 00:53:34,910 which would unify and transmit the vision 955 00:53:34,979 --> 00:53:38,414 he developed over years of research. 956 00:53:38,482 --> 00:53:41,917 That, for him, would cement his posterity 957 00:53:41,986 --> 00:53:44,587 in a way his fragile paintings could not; 958 00:53:44,655 --> 00:53:48,557 he would join the timeless human chorus of the book. 959 00:53:53,631 --> 00:53:56,065 There would be a manual of painting, 960 00:53:56,133 --> 00:53:59,568 a detailed book of anatomy, a book of mathematics, 961 00:53:59,637 --> 00:54:02,571 astronomy, geometry, 962 00:54:02,640 --> 00:54:06,575 but he never really seemed able to stop and look backwards. 963 00:54:06,644 --> 00:54:09,245 New subjects called to him: 964 00:54:09,313 --> 00:54:12,748 the movement of water, the flight of birds. 965 00:54:12,817 --> 00:54:16,752 This project, like so many, went unrealized. 966 00:54:21,826 --> 00:54:25,261 Leonardo was the perfect man for his time, 967 00:54:25,329 --> 00:54:28,764 and his time was perfect for him. 968 00:54:28,833 --> 00:54:32,101 Leonardo was opposed to any kind of imitation. 969 00:54:32,169 --> 00:54:36,338 If he copied the work of others, it was to learn from it, 970 00:54:36,407 --> 00:54:39,174 transform it, enhance it, 971 00:54:39,243 --> 00:54:43,946 and send it forward to us as a great gift. 972 00:54:44,015 --> 00:54:46,649 Human ingenuity will never 973 00:54:46,717 --> 00:54:48,150 discover an invention 974 00:54:48,219 --> 00:54:50,152 more beautiful, easier, 975 00:54:50,221 --> 00:54:52,655 or more economical than nature's 976 00:54:52,723 --> 00:54:54,990 because in her inventions, 977 00:54:55,059 --> 00:54:59,561 nothing is wanting and nothing is superfluous.