Of the countless accomplishments that Leonardo Da Vinci has made in the field of art, science, mathematics, etc., what do you believe is his most significant accomplishment?

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Date : July 10 , 2007

DaVinci 's Greatest Feat Many viewers think of Leonardo da Vinci primarily as an artist and painter . In fact , that was not the dominant work of his life . There are relatively few surviving paintings and much more of his time was sent on investigations into science , military engineering , mechanics , anatomy and medicine - though , of course , he was one of the greatest painters of all time . In one form or another , his notebooks were the greatest source of information to us , including his

many drawings as well as his words

The stunning success of Dan Brown 's novel The Da Vinci Code documents the continued fascination that Leonardo da Vinci exercises on the Western imagination , nearly 500 years after his death . For many readers the book has gone beyond the boundaries of fiction . It is often discussed not as a novel but as history . Leonardo da Vinci has achieved the rare status of being a real person , who has become so famous that he can be used as the key fictional figure in a major commercial success

Da Vinci 's sketchbook is emblematic of extreme genius . His sketches covered a spectrum of s including life studies , science , and architecture . All of Da Vinci 's notes are written backwards in his notebook so that only someone intelligent enough to realize it could read it . His sketches are still studied and marveled today . Many of Da Vinci 's drawings of the human body helped doctors to understand completely the layout of the muscle and bone structures . Without Da Vinci 's study it is hard to imagine what our world would be like , for he made so many countless additions to the knowledge of society

This notebook of Leonardo da Vinci in the British Library is known today as the Codex Arundel . It is not a bound volume , but was put together after his death from his loose s of various types and sizes . The first section was begun at Florence on 22 March 1508 , but the remainder comes from different periods in Leonardo 's life (1452-1519 This collection of Leonardo 's notes contains short treatises , notes and drawings on a variety of subjects from mechanics to the flight of birds They are written in Italian , and in Leonardo 's characteristic 'mirror writing , left-handed and moving from right to left

Little is known of this manuscript until it was acquired by Thomas Howard , Earl of Arundel (1586-1646 , the greatest English art collector of of his day . In 1681 it was presented to the Royal Society by Henry Howard , Arundel 's grandson and transferred to the British Museum in 1831 , and from there to the British Library . Da Vinci scholars believe that there were at least 50 notebooks left in the hands of da Vinci 's pupil Francesco Melzi at the master 's death . Today , just 28 of them survive in museums and with collectors around the world , including the British Museum , The Louvre and Bill Gates . The...