In the last couple of years I’ve become a big advocate of hobbies. Hobbies maketh the man. I like a good to do list too. Hats off then to Leonardo da Vinci – ultimate Renaissance man and top polymath – for his splendid to do list of 1510:
1) Obtain skull
2) Get books on anatomy bound
3) Observe holes in the substance of the brain
4) Describe jaw of a crocodile
Sadly there was no ‘App for that’ in 1510 – the parchment (above) being the iPhone ‘Notes’ of his day. Leonardo sets the bar high for a Bank Holiday weekend. Certainly beats cleaning the fish-tank.
Postscript: turns out on Leonardo’s own holiday list were: chalk, wrapping paper, a pane of glass, nutmeg and describing the tongue of a woodpecker. Perhaps he did his fish-tank the week before.
Achilles & Aristotle 