Greetings,

  Eric Seagel has commented that Leonardo di Vinci is "exceptionalism
personified"; I would strongly argue that he is history's most overrated
person.

  To begin, he was not a scientist.  A scientist seeks to increase mankind's
knowledge.  Di Vinci did no such thing.  Scientists PUBLISH their discovies;
Di Vinci did not.  All the discovies attributed to Di Vinci were actually
discovered by someone else who published these findings and thus contributed
to the development of those ideas.  Many years afterwards, Di Vinci's notes
(which he had kept secret) were found and it was learned that Di Vinci had
previously had that idea.  But by the time that Di Vinci's notes were
discovered, the idea had already been well developed and Di Vinci did not
contribute to that development.  Di Vinci cannot, as far as I can tell, be
credited with the discovery of anything; credit goes to the person who
publishes and thus gets the ball rolling.

  For "exceptionalism personified", try one of Di Vinci's near
contemporaries:  Galileo.  Here was a man who was not afraid to tell the
world what he had learned.


Kevin McCartney, Ph.D.
Associate Prof., Geology
Director, Northern Maine Museum
  of Science (opens October 5)
University of Maine at Presque Isle
Presque Isle, ME  04769