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Chapter L eonardo’s Early Years in Florence 1

Leonardo da Vinci was born into rapidly changing times. During the first few decades of his life, European sailors were making contact with other cultures in Africa and Asia. The explosive power of gunpowder was being used in war. The appearance of the printed book made communication of ideas easier. Long-accepted views in religion, politics, art, and science were being challenged. This was a great period of “rebirth”—the Renaissance. Some of the new ideas of the Renaissance came from looking back to the writings of the great thinkers of ancient Greece. Leonardo, however, differed from the other great thinkers of his time in an important way—he looked to the future, as well as to the past. During Leonardo da Vinci’s lifetime, Italy was not a unified country as it is today. It consisted of five great city-states—Milan, Venice, Florence, Rome, and Naples, each ruled by powerful families. The rulers of these city-states— including the Medici family that controlled Florence—relied on hired soldiers called condottieri to maintain their power. But they also encouraged the arts, such as painting, sculpture, and architecture, to bring prestige to their kingdoms. Ancient manuscripts and printed books rapidly became precious possessions, and were collected into libraries. Each ruler surrounded himself with artists to paint pictures of him, architects to build monuments to glorify his achievements, and scholars to write about him in books.

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