Leonardo Da Vinci was born in 1452 on a Saturday in April at 10:30 PM according to the notes of Leornardo's paternal grandfather. He was born as the illegitimate son of Ser Piero d'Antonio, a 25 year old notary (official) of the town Vinci, a village in Italy located between the cities of Pistoria and Empoli. Although his mother is not mentioned in historical texts except as a name - Caterina, she was in contact with him throughout much of his life time. Ser Piero did not marry her, but rather married a woman from a wealthy family, most likely to unite the houses in a political or wealth move. Leonardo was brought to live with his father when he was still young (Ser Piero's first wife was barren).
Leonardo showed an affinity for music at an early age and as a child was taught the Lyre upon which he became masterful. Could this musical training have been the foundation for his advancements in the learning of geometry and math?
Previous studies have shown that subjects with musical training outperform subjects without musical training in many areas unrelated to music. With regard to math ability, it has been proposed that musical training produces increased spatial-temporal reasoning ability, and that this translates into increased math ability.ßß The neurophysiological basis for the correlation between musical training and math ability, however, is not known. There are still many unresolved questions about precisely how the brain analyzes and interprets music, and the effect of musical training on math processing (www.irc.chmcc.org/Research_Areas/brain/fMRI/musicmathcorr.htm).
Like most boys of wealthy families from the time, Leonardo was schooled by masters within the family residence until he was about the age of 16. It was from this learning and discussion with his masters that Ser Piero was apprised of his son's gift in the field of sketching. So, once again, just as other young men of the era, Leonardo was app...