Leonardo was born near Vinci, a hill village in Tuscany, on April 15, 1452. His mother was Caterina, a 16-year-old peasant girl of a lower class. His father was Ser Piero da Vinci, a notary. As in many countries today, intermarriage among different classes was unacceptable. So that Piero would not marry Caterina, his father quickly married him to a woman of a higher class. Then Piero was able to take custody of his son. Leonardo never met his real mother, although he was aware of her existence. Both of his parents continued having children with other people and soon da Vinci had 17 half brothers and sisters.

At 15, he was placed under the apprenticeship of Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence. Botticelli was also under the same apprenticeship and became best friends with da Vinci. He stayed there until 1477. In Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ, the kneeling angel at the left of the painting was painted by Leonardo.

In 1472, Leonardo became a member of the painter's guild of Florence. In 1476 he was denounced by the Night Watch, but was acquitted of the charge of immoral conduct. Six years later he entered the service under the Duke of Milan, Ludovico Sforza. His largest commission ever was for a colossal bronze monument to Francesco Sforza, the father of Ludovico. He left in 1499, after the Duke fell from power and, sadly, the French used the monument as target practice. Consequently, it was destroyed. During this period, da Vinci produced a large number of studies on tanks, catapults, portable bridges, flying machines, weapons, and geometry. At the same time he acted as an architect, engineer, and helped the mathematician Luca Pacioli write Divina Proportione (1509). In addition, he produced his first anatomical drawings, which are still well-known today. It is remarkable that da Vinci succeeded in doing so much, as he had paralysis in his right hand.

From 1495 to 1497, Leonardo labored on his masterpiece, The Last Supper. This mural was painted in the refectory of the Monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. This painting has deteriorated over the centuries - even by 1500 - because of da Vinci's use of oil on dry plaster.

For the next few years, he moved around, until he became a military engineer for Cesare Borgia, Duke of Romagna, from 1502 to 1503. Toward the end of the year Leonardo began to design an art work for the great hall of the Palazzo Vecchio. The subject was the Battle of Anghiari, a Florentine victory in its war with Pisa. He created many drawings of the piece, but was never able to finish it. He left many of his works undone. The drawings of the Battle of Anghiari were destroyed long ago. However, the Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens was able to produce a painting from these copies before their destruction.

After these events, da Vinci returned to Florence until 1506. Here he painted many of his best works, including the Mona Lisa otherwise known as La Gioconda. La Giaconda comes from the last name of the Mona Lisas husband, Francesco del Giocondo. This painting, too, was left unfinished, even after four years of work on it. Even so, da Vinci took it everywhere he went. During the same year, he was asked to be the court painter to King Louis XII. The King resided in Milan at that time, so da Vinci traveled between Milan and Florence.

From 1514 to 1516 Leonardo lived in Rome under the patronage of Pope Leo X. He was housed in the Palazzo Belvedere in the Vatican. This is where he principally began to involve himself in the sciences. In 1516 he accepted an invitation from the French to stay in Cloux, France, near Amboise. Here he rested with his faithful pupil Melzi.

Da Vinci passed away on May 2, 1519, and "legend has it that King Francis was at his side when he died, cradling Leonardo's head in his arms" (Museum of Science). He was buried in the cloister at San Fiorentino in Amboise.