What are some interesting facts about Leonardo da Vinci?

 

• He was an illegitimate child. His father, Piero, was a famous Florentine notary; his mother, Caterina, is thought to have been a peasant or Piero's servant.

• He debunked palmistry. He compared the palms of several people who died at the same age, finding that the life lines were of different lengths.

• He was the first to understand the heart's function. Before him, scientists thought the heart served to warm circulating blood, but its true function was to pump blood.

• The French didn't steal the Mona Lisa from us. Instead, it was Leonardo himself who brought it to France to King Francis I, receiving 4,000 gold scudi in exchange.

• He was a staunch vegetarian. He loved animals unconditionally, so much so that he would set them free in markets. He especially refused to eat anything containing blood.

• He was homosexual. It's now well-established and credible that being homosexual in Florence at the time wasn't a scandal. The absurdity is the trial in which he was accused of sodomy along with other members of Verrocchio's workshop.

• He wrote in a mirror image. He often started at the end of the last page of his notebook, then worked his way to the first, writing everything backward. This was probably to keep his notes secret and make them semi-intelligible.

• He discovered tree growth rings. He was the first person to figure out how to determine a tree's age, by counting the concentric rings on the trunk.