Sounds like "publish or perish" personified where you come from. Not-publishing doesn't deminish the man's creativity. Gregory Scheib ~ ~ The George Washington University (<O> <O>) [log in to unmask] ( ^ ) / | \ (_____) ___ On Tue, 2 Apr 1996, kevin mccartney wrote: > 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 >