Leonardo da Vinci is, in Antiterra, an engineer and artist in the service of Milan, maker of war machines and, by rumor, supervisor of the new gears of Mecanos; “Leonardo da Vinci” may also be an adopted identity rather than a single person.
| Type | Character |
| World | Antiterra |
| Associated with | Milan, Ludovico Sforza, Mecanos |
| Spanish entry | Leonardo Da Vinci |
Description
The records call him “the great genius of geniuses”. His face, age, voice and workshop are not recorded; only his works, signature and name.
Court artificer
Milan’s military superiority over its rivals is attributed to him: “Da Vinci ended up working for them… ended up making those war machines”. He served the court of Ludovico Sforza and “spent a long time” in the Castello Forcesco (possibly the Castello Sforza; the spelling is not fixed), where one of the chronicle’s companions also went. He is said to have left “to work at other courts”, or to have turned against Sforza himself.
The signature
Inside the castle his signature authorizes works and validates documents: “You, whenever you sign, right, Leonardo?” This makes his role an office as well as a talent.
The gears of Mecanos
His present work is the new gears of Mecanos, where he supervises axiomite workers. Access is restricted and news of it is incomplete. Working under him is “a catapult to fame”, and his name serves as reputational currency.
Impossible machines
His designs include a submarine and a helicopter “of great complexity”, ahead of their time “by 400 years!“. The designs are said to exist and to be showable; their materials, size and workings are not described.
The vacant name
One voice claims to have killed the man who bore the name (“a guy I killed and murdered a while ago in a village”) and to have given it to an artist: “I think you are a great artist, you will make that name famous”. In Antiterra “Leonardo da Vinci” can thus be an adopted identity. At least three Leonardos overlap: Sforza’s artificer, the supervisor of Mecanos, and the heir of the name taken from a dead villager. Whether they are one individual is not established.
Conflicting accounts
- One record places him active in Milan and Mecanos.
- Another states “No, Da Vinci not yet… 200 years later”, placing him in Galileo’s band, about two hundred years after 1300.
Open questions
- Whether the submarine and helicopter designs belong to the original or to the name’s heir is unknown.
- Whether the Mecanos gears continue the war-machine technique or are a separate commission is unknown.
- Some loose mentions of “Leonardo” and of the signer cannot be told apart from the artificer Ananta, “señor Leonardo”.
- Who the axiomites are, and why they work under him, is not explained.
- If he left Milan, which court he went to and what became of the war machines already delivered is not recorded.