Leonardo da Vinci “The Arno River Challenge”

As one of the greatest men in recent history , Leonardo da Vinci’s genius remains

unbounded by time and technology. By helping to set an ignorant and superstitious

world on a course of reason, Leonardo’s spirit lives on to influence the inventors, artists,

and art patrons of our own time. This paper is about the design to divert the Arno River to

fortify city of Pisa during war time.

It has been 500 years since Leonardo da Vinci recorded his thoughts and designs in

notebooks for us to marvel at, and within these notebooks I am interested in the “Codec

Madrid II”, which dealt with military architecture and Leonardo plans to divert the Arno

river. The Codec Madrid were rediscovered in 1965 in Madrid after being officially lost

since 1830. This is were the arguments become interesting. Many are unsure whether or

not Leonardo da Vinci originated the design of the diversion of the Arno River to help

fortify Pisa for war. There ar...