Leonardo da Vinci was a person.
Leonardo da Vinci . Sometimes credited with the inventions of the parachute , helicopter and tank , he epitomised the Renaissance humanist ideal . Born out of wedlock to a notary , Piero da Vinci , and a peasant woman , Caterina , in Vinci in the region of Florence , Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio . Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime , as the modern scientific approaches to metallurgy and engineering were only in their infancy during the Renaissance . Ludovico Sforza . He was famed as a patron of Leonardo da Vinci and other artists , and presided over the final and most productive stage of the Milanese Renaissance .