AHC/WI Leonardo's Legacy

Everyone knows that Leonardo da Vinci (as much as he was spurned by Michelangelo as 'incapable of finishing anything') left a prodigious quantity of drawings, notes, plans and other works besides his handful of paintings.

But da Vinci died as a pensioner at the French court, not working as either artist or inventor, simply as a jewel in the French king's crown of patronage. He had been painter/artist to the duke of Milan, engineer to Cesare Borgia and inventor and thinker and part time musician in his own times. Amongst the drawings he left behind were the designs for (among others) a tank, a machine gun prototype, a parachute, a diving suit, a flying machine, as well as numerous notes on anatomy, geography, hydrography and optics.

What would the world have looked like if da Vinci had not been dismissed as a dreamer, and at least one or two of his inventions were built to his specifications?

Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated.
 
Can't remember the name of it, but there was a program on TV where several of his devices were built as designed, among them the tank and a multi bolt balista of sorts. Additionally his flying machine was built to scale just to see how it might have functioned.

I don't know how much of a dreamer he was considered though, because he kept getting commissions to design new fortifications and weapons.
 
I don't know how much of a dreamer he was considered though, because he kept getting commissions to design new fortifications and weapons.

I think that's the thing though. He was building practical things, weapons, fortifications for those people; not hsi inventions, and I think the suggestion behind the WI is that, if in addition to those forts and weaponry he designed, he also had an opportunity to properly build his various other musings. The suggestion by saying 'dreamer' is that his real passion was in things which other people simply weren't interested in.

Now, handwaving the how and the why, what would his legacy be like if others were also interested in it, and actually commissioned him to make good on his musings about the fanciful stuff we know him for today?
 

Anaxagoras

Banned
I don't think the tank would have worked very well. It would move too slowly and could simply have been set on fire.
 

Driftless

Donor
The Ornithopter was not going to fly:rolleyes:, by itself; but if Leanardo kept working on the principles of gliding (which he was doing), and pursued that through to ciphering the priniciples of lift; that could have been an enormous leap forward.

*edit - I corrected* ....not
 
Last edited:
The "tank" doesn't look too different than the wagons used in Eastern Europe, at least to me. http://www.peashooter85.com/post/51857782070/medieval-tank-warfare-the-hussite-war-wagon-in

If anything, Leonardo's design was more efficient, being round; it allowed the men inside to fire in all directions while being shielded at the same time. When built in the TV show mentioned by phildup, it worked admirably, IIRC. (The show was called "Doing Da Vinci", by the way. I think episodes can be found online.)

Several inventions by Leonardo could work just fine. Problem is, most of those that could work were not very useful, and many that could have been useful could not yet be built at the time. His parachute was functional, but... who needed a parachute back in the day?

On the other hand: A glider based very closely on one of Leonardo's designs, with only slight adaptions, was built by the BBC in 2005. It worked. Given a few more years, he could have done it. His diving suit was also built, with no modifications. It was not exactly risk-free, but was deemed "a workable precursor to a modern diving suit".

One gets the impression that even though many of Leonardo's designs were flawed, many others could have been built right away. furthermore, he didn't just invent machines. He also designed bridges and buildings that were remarkably progressive (smart ways to get maximum load-bearing capacity; use of air-ducts to keep buildings well-ventilated) and even designed an "ideal city" after witnessing the Plague (with a logical canal system and good sewers).

The fact that so few of his ideas were implemented remains a very sad affair.
 
The round "tank" design of Leonardo's was supposed to be self-propelled (by hand cranks) and thus was not practical in its day. He also designed various horse-drawn war wagons, some of which would be closer to the Hussite wagons.
 
If anything, Leonardo's design was more efficient, being round; it allowed the men inside to fire in all directions while being shielded at the same time. When built in the TV show mentioned by phildup, it worked admirably, IIRC. (The show was called "Doing Da Vinci", by the way. I think episodes can be found online.)

Several inventions by Leonardo could work just fine. Problem is, most of those that could work were not very useful, and many that could have been useful could not yet be built at the time. His parachute was functional, but... who needed a parachute back in the day?

On the other hand: A glider based very closely on one of Leonardo's designs, with only slight adaptions, was built by the BBC in 2005. It worked. Given a few more years, he could have done it. His diving suit was also built, with no modifications. It was not exactly risk-free, but was deemed "a workable precursor to a modern diving suit".

One gets the impression that even though many of Leonardo's designs were flawed, many others could have been built right away. furthermore, he didn't just invent machines. He also designed bridges and buildings that were remarkably progressive (smart ways to get maximum load-bearing capacity; use of air-ducts to keep buildings well-ventilated) and even designed an "ideal city" after witnessing the Plague (with a logical canal system and good sewers).

The fact that so few of his ideas were implemented remains a very sad affair.

I seem to recall he presented one of his patrons - think it was il Moro or Borgia - with a plan for draining swamps as well.
 
I don't know but maybe if he can drain the swamps around Rome, the chances of there malaria being as widespread decrease, and he saves Alex. VI, and as a result Cesare gets to last a little longer at playing king.:D
 
The main problem with Leonardo's sketches is that we tend to interpret them along our own current knowledge.

Let's using the tank exemple. Before the actual invention and development of tank, it didn't really catched the interest, being seen as nothing more than an elaborated wagon (not that he actually "invented" it, Leonardo was very about copying and perfecting existing stuff : if someone may be credited, it would be Taccola, but it's possible that himself took the idea from someone else).

The engine would have been slower than any wagon in existance then, being probably reserved for siege wars. It's not a tank, as we concieve it, but an elaboration on poliorcetics, a textbook case for the era.

His other works are to be understood as such : not independent inventions but study and elaborations on things that were "in the air" already, and not foreshadowing of XIX/XXth invention (the fact industrial society needed an historical precursor model didn't helped).

As such, the changes would have been limited, while not inexistant and not without consequences. They wouldn't have representated a qualitative difference with OTL works.

As for draining swamps, by exemple, there was several attempts IOTL that failed both because of technological limits and for political reasons.
Assuming Medici manage to crush any resistance and that Leonardo (a notorious Jack of all trades, perpetually looking at various jobs at the same time) actually launch his project, it would be at the measure of Renaissance Italy, and wouldn't make them disappear.
 
Top