Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions

Leonardo is the man of the Renaissance, embodying that precise historical period of cultural, artistic and scientific revolution where humanity is the measure of all things, with a renewed attention that places them at the centre of every discipline.

Beyond the results achieved, Leonardo’s extraordinary contemporaneity lies in his approach and method and in his inexhaustible curiosity and in the fundamental contribution he made to culture and to the development of humankind.

For this reason, his is considered a “useful” creativity, because all of Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions always aim to improve human life. The Genius of Vinci wrote down every reasoning, sketch and drawing in his notebooks, and thanks to this we can retrace his formidable intuitions, follow his thoughts and his investigation of nature, trying to explain it through science and reason.

Just as genius is both vision and pragmatism, Leonardo da Vinci is art and invention. Among the drawings and inventions of Leonardo da Vinci, all recorded in his notebooks, we find submarines, aeroplanes, automobiles, tanks, but also fans, screws, guitars, cranes and calculators, parachutes and life jackets: objects and intuitions that investigate every aspect of life.

Passionate about nature, his study of the flight of birds led him to imagine a flying machine to allow humans to take to the sky. Among Leonardo da Vinci’s inventions, those on flight are certainly the most surprising, particularly the helicopter. With his aerial screw of 1489, Leonardo had intuited the concept of the modern propeller. His flying machine would have been powered by hand by four men to then rise into the air. In the Codex Atlanticus we find the drawing of a man hanging from a pyramid-shaped contraption capable of allowing him to jump from any height without harm.

Beyond the air, Leonardo wanted humans to be able to go underwater too, defying nature. So in the Codex Atlanticus we also find the description of a diving suit for underwater exploration, with full suit and mask with goggles, and a mechanism to bring air from a bell on the surface connected by tubes resistant to the pressure of the water.

Working as an engineer and architect for numerous defensive systems for his powerful patrons, Leonardo also imagined war machines, such as a mechanical tank capable of moving and firing in every direction, manned by eight men hidden inside. On paper brilliant and perfect, but with a small movement defect. No matter, it’s the intuition that counts.

Inventor, painter, scientist, Leonardo is also an expert in wines. We know this once again from his notes and drawings and in particular from a letter sent to his steward with precise indications of agronomy and oenology to obtain a wine free from defects. It is thanks to this letter, to Leonardo’s love of wine, that Cantine Leonardo da Vinci is committed to producing wines of which the Genius would be proud.