Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was born in the year 1452 in the small hill town of Vinci. His father was a successful notary and his mother a peasant woman. The little town of Vinci has changed very little in 544 years since then. Stone houses are clustered together around the protective battlements of a castle. The tall church bell tower is still an important landmark which can be seen for miles. Vinci is surrounded by fertile farmland. The …

…several possibilities have been suggested: He was trying to make it harder for people to read his notes and steal his ideas, he was hiding his scientific ideas from the powerful Roman Catholic Church, whose teachings sometimes disagreed with what Leonardo observed, writing left handed from left to right was messy because the ink just put down would smear as his hand moved across it. Leonardo chose to write in reverse because it prevented smudging.