Renaissance Archive

Here at DaVinci Academy, the students are encouraged to be prepared for life. To do this, one must first complete his education, earning his diploma and his degree. Then, after the person knows the necessary information to excel in a chosen field, he or she is almost ready. The last step is writing a resume. The original Renaissance Man, Leonardo DaVinci, wrote the following passage in a letter to Ludovico Sforza, the ruler of Milan, in 1482:

Most Illustrious Lord: Having now sufficiently seen and considered the proofs of all those who count themselves masters and inventors in the instruments of war, and finding that their invention and use does not differ in any respect from those in common practice, I am emboldened… to put myself in communication with your Excellency, in order to acquaint you with my secrets. I can construct bridges which are very light and strong and very portable with which to pursue and defeat an enemy… I can also make a kind of cannon, which is light and easy of transport, with which to hurl small stones like hail… I can noiselessly construct to any prescribed point subterranean passages — either straight or winding — passing if necessary under trenches or a river… I can make armored wagons carrying artillery, which can break through the most serried ranks of the enemy. In time of peace, I believe I can give you as complete satisfaction as anyone else in the construction of buildings, both public and private, and in conducting water from one place to another. I can execute sculpture in bronze, marble or clay. Also, in painting, I can do as much as anyone, whoever he may be. If any of the aforesaid things should seem impossible or impractical to anyone, I offer myself as ready to make a trial of them in your park or in whatever place shall please your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with all possible humility.

This letter should seem familiar to those who’ve been a part of DaVinci. It’s actually a five hundred and forty year old resume, written by a man whose ideals are what this school was founded upon. DaVinci did get that job. He worked for Ludovico Sforza for 17 years, until the city was taken over and a new leader put in place. After that event was when DaVinci came up with his mega-cannons and robot soldiers and tanks and ballistas and submarines and helicopters and gliders. It is needless to say (even without the chain of examples) that DaVinci was extremely successful.

Leonardo may not have gone to school like people do today, but he did train as an apprentice under Master Verrocchio. If Leonardo, genius of the late fifteenth century, was writing resumes five hundred years ago, then that’s all the more reason for students and adults to write them today.