Leonardo da Vinci was born in the year 1452 near the Italian town of Vinci. His father was a successful lawyer in Florence. He spent most of his life studying Flowers,birds insects and animals.

His father sent him to learn painting under a famous master verocchio. He was soon seen to be a better painter than his master. The news of his skill spread far and wide. First hr was employed by the wealth Lorenzo Medici of Florence and later he took service under the Duke of Milan. His skills in other directions also became known. He knew this and said to himself, ''I believe I can compete with anyone in architecture, in the construction of public and private monuments and in the building of canals. I am able to excute statues in marble, Bronze and clay; in painting I can do as well as anyone else.''
As if to prove his claims, he made a wonderful statue of the late Duke of Milan. Leonardo invented several war machines and he made plans for mills and water engines.
He designed the cathedral of Milan. As a scientist he had advances ideas about the workings of the blood system and the movement of light. He drew a picture of a flying machine although he never made u one which could fly.
Leonardo da Vinci is best remembered as the painter of the Mona lisa and is considered one of the greatest paintings ever made. His other great picture is the painting of the last supper of Christ with his disciples.
While the full extent of his scientific studies has only become recognized in the last 150 years, he was, during his lifetime, employed for his engineering and skill of invention. Many of his designs, such as the movable dikes to protect Venice from invasion, proved too costly or impractical. Some of his smaller inventions entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptually inventing an improved version of the helicopter, an armoured fighting vehicle, the use of concentrated solar power, a calculator, a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics and the double hull. In practice, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, astronomy, civil engineering, optics, and the study of water (hydrodynamics).
Leonardo died in 1519 at the age of 65.

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