The Most Intelligent Person

If intelligence can be defined as the power to reflect and reason, who is the most intelligent person the world has ever known?

Would it be Einstein, Madam Curie, Plato, or perhaps Galileo? There is no question that these people were highly intelligent. Is there any measurement that can set one man or woman apart from all others?

In the late 15th century in Italy there was a man who merits special distinction. Leonardo da Vinci was an outstanding artist. The Last Supper and Mona Lisa were works of genius. Yet Da Vinci's thoughts, interests, and questions ranged far beyond painting and sculpture. He was a leader in many areas of science, too.

He studied geology because fossils of sea life embedded in rock layers near his home puzzled him. As a painter of the human body he believed he should possess a thorough knowledge of anatomy. Da Vinci was one of the first artists to combine a scientific study of the body with his paintings. He was also an outstanding military and civil engineer.

One of his continuing passions was to develop a vehicle that would permit him to fly. As a young

man he often climbed the towering hills behind his home to study the landscape below. He spent hours studying the flight of birds. He drew many sketchers of machines that he hoped could be built to fly. Some of his drawings were used centuries later in the development of gliders, helicopters, and airplanes.