Leonardo da Vinci is well known for his masterful paintings, such as Last Supper and Mona Lisa. The image on the home page is The Virtuvian Man and the image on your right is a self-portrait by da Vinci. Only seventeen of his paintings, and none of his statues survive.

The Codex Leicester, one of da Vinci's notebooks, was purchased by Bill Gates for $30.8 million in 1994. Many of his drawings are held in the British Royal Collection.

There has been a renewed interest in his work as a result of The Da Vinci Code, a fictional novel authored by Dan Brown which sold millions of copies. The success of the book even caught the attention of the Catholic Church.

Throughout his life, he planned a grand encyclopedia based on detailed drawings of everything.