leonardo da vinci conceptualized the kite plane and car
 legacy although he had no formal academic training many historians and scholars regard leonardo as the prime exemplar of the universal genius or renaissance man an individual of unquenchable curiosity and feverishly inventive imagination
twentyfirstcentury author walter isaacson based much of his biography of leonardo on thousands of notebook entries studying the personal notes sketches budget notations and musings of the man whom he considers the greatest of innovators