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[[File: Leonardo 1.jpg|200px|thumb|left|Leonardo’s drawing of Vitruvian Man]]__NOTOC__
Leonardo Da da Vinci (1452-1519) was a critical figure in the late Renaissance. Not only is he regarded as one of the greatest artists who ever lived, but he made remarkable contributions to engineering, architecture, science, urban planning, cartography, philosophy, and anatomy during the Renaissance. While some of this work was done in secret, he also was a prominent artist, architect, and engineer.
Leonardo is recognized as making a unique contribution to the Renaissance, that period of time which saw the re-birth of learning and a move to a secular worldview. The Florentine artist and polymath made a decisive contribution to this epoch. He decisively influenced artistic trends in his own time and in the later Renaissance. His interest in science and experiment inspired many humanists to study the world and nature. While he was also a great inventor, but his inventions had little impact, on his own era.
During his lifetime Leonardo did encourage some to privilege observation and experiment over the teachings of the Church and the Classics, which was critical in the later phase of the Renaissance. Leonardo helped to change the intellectual environment of the Renaissance to one that was much more modern in outlook.
====Was Leonardo DaVinci da Vinci an inventor? ====
[[File: Leonardo 4.jpg|200px|thumb|left| Anatomical drawings by Leonardo from his Notebook]]
Leonardo was also an inventor and his notebooks are filled with many plans or drafts for inventions. Da Vinci drafted plans for a flying machine, diving suit, parachute, anemometer, armored car, self-propelled car, and even a robotic knight. Leonardo was one of the most prolific inventors in history. None of his inventions were ever developed into practical and working machines. They remained only designs on paper, even though there were ground-breaking ideas.<ref> Gibbs-Smith, Charles Harvard, and Gareth Rees. The inventions of Leonardo da Vinci. Phaidon Press, 1978, p 17</ref>
