orn on April 15, 1452, in the hamlet of Anchiano, near Vinci in the Republic of Florence, Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was the illegitimate son of (apprentice) to leading Florentine painter and sculptor Andrea del Verrocchio, and by his mid-20s he had established his own studio. Artistic pursuits were simply not enough to contain Leonardo’s infinitely inquisitive mind, however. While studying geometry and anatomy to hone his paintings and sculpture, he also plunged into drafting, cartography, architecture, woodworking, engineering, metallurgy, botany, paleontology, chemistry and astronomy.
