Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath known for his painting and inventions.

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The diary of the renegade Time Lord known as the Monk recorded a meeting with Leonardo in which he claimed to have provided the inspiration for at least some of Leonardo's inventions which would later seem so advanced for their time. The main one of which was the fact that the Monk gave Leonardo the blueprints for flight. (DW: The Time Meddler)

Circa 1492, Leonardo and his then-patron the Duke of Milan were among the guests invited to the masque organized by the young Duke Giuliano of San Martino. Being caught up in the Mandragora Helix's attempt to conquer 15th century Earth, the Doctor missed this opportunity to meet Leonardo, later noting it was probably for the best. (DW: The Masque of Mandragora)

Circa 1505, Leonardo was hired by a new patron he knew as "Captain Tancredi", in reality, Scaroth of the Jagaroth. Tancredi asked him to paint six extra copies of his most famous work, the Mona Lisa. (DW: City of Death) One of these copies was painted using oil pigments he borrowed from a neighbouring artist, Giuseppe di Cattivo. Unbeknowst to both of them, the minerals used in this paint would bring the painting to life in future. (SJA: Mona Lisa's Revenge) In 1505 the Doctor arrived from 1979 Paris to seek clues to the plot of Count Scarlioni (another of Scaroth's time-splintered selves) to steal the Mona Lisa from the Louvre. After being briefly captured and interrogated by Tancredi wrote "This is a fake" on Leonardo's canvasses in felt tip before returning to the future to try to stop Count Scarlioni. (DW: City of Death)


 * Although the Doctor did not meet Leonardo in person in that period, he did leave him a note which suggested a degree of familiarity already existed, and that perhaps the two had previously met, or would meet in the future.

Behind the scenes

 * Da Vinci was not used as a family name nor was the artist ever known to have used a family name. This part of his name merely indicated that Leonardo was born in Vinci, a town near Florence. As such, referring to the artist as "Da Vinci" would be incorrect. While it is not a known usage, Vinci would have been an acceptable nickname, in the same way that Caravaggio has become commonly known.


 * The title of the episode The Shakespeare Code is a play on the title of the popular Dan Brown novel The Da Vinci Code which dealt with a centuries-old conspiracy theory involving secret codes allegedly included in some of Leonardo's works. (No mention as whether a felt-tip message behind the Mona Lisa reading, "This is a fake" was among them.) The Da Vinci Code was heavily inspired by the non-fiction book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail by former Doctor Who script writer Henry Lincoln.


 * Leonardo da Vinci is one of very few characters to be referenced in both the Doctor Who and Star Trek franchises, with an immortal human claiming to have been him appearing once in the original series, and a holographic recreation of him appearing several times in Star Trek: Voyager.