Wednesday 27 April 2011

Leonardo and Vegetius

Leonardo da Vinci was a great artist and clearly a crazy man - dreaming up lots of wierd ideas, and even trying some of them out, including persuading one of assistants to try out his design for a glider one afternoon in Fiesole.

Leonardo was of course well read, and as a designer of military machines for Ludovico Sforza, must have read Vegetius's Epitome. As one of the first books printed, he might even have owned his own copy.

And this leads me to wonder, were his designs for armoured personnel carriers doodles inspired by some of Vegetius's more fantatsical suggestions for military machines?

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