Leonardo and the Whale

Abstract

Around 1480, when he was 28 years old, Leonardo da Vinci recorded what may have been a seminal event in his life. In writing of his travels to view nature he recounted an experience in a cave in the Tuscan countryside: Having wandered for some distance among overhanging rocks, I can to the entrance of a great cavern... [and after some hesitation I entered] drawn by a desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing within... [excerpt