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Article: Art, science, and life's enigmas.(Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa")(Cover story)
- Article from:
- Emerging Infectious Diseases
- Article date:
- August 1, 2006
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2006 U.S. National Center for Infectious Diseases. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Vinci, a small town near Florence, Italy, dates back to Roman times, when it was inhabited by the Etruscans. "But this town is even more renowned for having given its name to the famous Leonardo da Vinci, who, in any discipline of science and art he dedicated himself to, surpassed all his contemporaries" wrote Emanuele Repetti in his geographic dictionary of Tuscany (1). In the modern sense, during his lifetime, the great Leonardo had no surname--"da Vinci" means "from Vinci."
Born out of wedlock to a notary-craftsman and a peasant woman, Leonardo was nonetheless well educated in Florence. At this cultural center, home of the Medici, he was apprenticed to ...