Leonardo da Vinci Born at Vinci

April 15, 1452

The illegitimate son of a Florentine notary and a peasant woman named Caterina was born in a hillside farmhouse near Vinci. He would sketch dissected cadavers, map river floods, design flying machines nobody would build, and paint a handful of canvases that still render every other portrait an approximation. His illegitimacy barred him from university, channeling his intelligence into workshop culture where observation mattered more than pedigree.