Literary and Philosophical Fragments

The 15th century was hostile to this transition: driven by the thirst for a renewal, it demanded not thought, but action Original: fare, literally "to do" or "to make." The author contrasts the Renaissance's focus on tangible creation with Leonardo's desire for theoretical understanding.. Leonardo, on the other hand, was born for the labor of thought. Poetry, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, the inventions of printing, gunpowder, and mechanical instruments, and geographical discoveries—at their most marvelous peak—were what the Renaissance saw and admired: abstract law The underlying scientific principles or mathematical logic governing the physical world. was not appreciated for its true value; its inherent logic was almost not understood. Leonardo, however, driven by an overwhelming need, moves from the concrete to the abstract, from practice to theory, and from art to science, developing that same spiritual tendency which, though born around him, was only to manifest fully two centuries later A reference to the formalization of the scientific method during the 17th-century Enlightenment..

In 1500, the character of Da Vinci's life is clearly defined: his dominant idea is to develop and bring his natural research to completion; his firm resolve is to make as few concessions as possible to the spirit of the age.