Leonardo da Vinci was a person.
Leonardo da Vinci . He has been variously called the father of palaeontology , ichnology , and architecture , and is widely considered one of the greatest painters of all time . 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 . He made substantial discoveries in anatomy , civil engineering , geology , optics , and hydrodynamics , but he did not publish his findings and they had no direct influence on later science . 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 .