Leonardo da Vinci, nel mare dei saperi del Rinascimento: tra civiltà delle immagini e cultura delle scienze

International audienceThe personality of Leonardo da Vinci and the multifaceted character of his experimental career – as an artist, scientist, technician and writer – offer the perfect example of how some patterns and paradigms, usually intended as the highest representation of the Western tradition and the best result it was able to reach, actually turn out to be the witnesses of a cultural crossroads. Although being often considered the major champion of European culture, in fact, Leonardo shows a remarkable interest in foreign (non-Western) habits and customs in many aspects of his life and professional training. Moreover, he directly experienced a mixture of suggestions from different cultural and intellectual provenances. Finally, he tried to be employed as a civic engineer by the Turkish Sultan, for whom he imagined an epic bridge to be built in order to unite Europe and Asia, from Pera to Costantinople. Such dream-like enterprise – never concretely realized – may be assumed as the symbolic synthesis of a route through the Mediterranean in the Renaissance