Leonardo da Vinci Dies at Amboise

May 2, 1519

In a small chateau on the Loire, the aging polymath Leonardo da Vinci died in the arms, or so legend says, of his patron King Francis I. He left notebooks on anatomy, hydraulics, flight, and perspective that would not be deciphered for centuries. Florence had lost her strangest son. The story that he died in Francis I's arms, though probably apocryphal, reflects the esteem the French court held for the aging polymath.