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As his scientific work progressed, Leonardo documented it in notebooks. He left behind thousands of pages of notes filled with designs, ideas and discoveries. Most of what he wrote has been lost to history, but the notebooks that remain are tantalizing clues in a detective story that has obsessed scholars, engineers, and artists for centuries. Written in strange backwards handwriting, they hold a mirror up to the mind of Leonardo and reveal a man who was as much a dreamer as a doer—a man whose insights live on today.

Some other intriguing facts about this Renaissance man:

• Leonardo often marked his paintings with his fingerprint as a signature.
• Leonardo was left-handed. In the time of the Renaissance, left-handedness was considered a mark of impurity. Children were forced to use their right hands, but Leonardo continued to favor his left hand throughout his life. Some say that this is why he wrote from right to left—so as not to smudge the ink with his left hand.
• Leonardo performed autopsies in order to gain more knowledge about human anatomy for his painting and scientific studies.
• For at least a part of his life, Leonardo was a vegetarian, and a great lover of animals. He was known to buy caged birds simply to let them free.
• In addition to science, art, engineering and optics, Leonardo was also a talented musician. He played the lyre, sang and is believed to have composed music, though his compositions have been lost.
• When drawing the plans for an invention, Leonardo would often purposely leave out a necessary element or instruction, presumably so that no one could copy his ideas.