Biology Faculty Publications Biology 6-17-2019 Leonardo and the Whale Kay Etheridge Gettysburg College Follow this and additional works at: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/biofac Part of the Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture Commons, Biology Commons, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Commons, and the Marine Biology Commons Share feedback about the accessibility of this item. Recommended Citation Etheridge, Kay. "Leonardo and the Whale." In Leonardo da Vinci – Nature and Architecture, edited by C. Moffat and S.Taglialagamba, 89-106. Leiden: Brill, 2019. This is the author's version of the work. This publication appears in Gettysburg College's institutional repository by permission of the copyright owner for personal use, not for redistribution. Cupola permanent link: https://cupola.gettysburg.edu/biofac/81 This open access book chapter is brought to you by The Cupola: Scholarship at Gettysburg College. It has been accepted for inclusion by an authorized administrator of The Cupola. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Leonardo and the Whale Abstract Around 1480, when he was 28 years old, Leonardo da Vinci recorded what may have been a seminal event in his life. In writing of his travels to view nature he recounted an experience in a cave in the Tuscan countryside: Having wandered for some distance among overhanging rocks, I can to the entrance of a great cavern... [and after some hesitation I entered] drawn by a desire to see whether there might be any marvelous thing within..." [excerpt] Keywords Leonardo da Vinci, fossils, whale Disciplines Ancient, Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture | Biology | Ecology and Evolutionary Biology | Marine Biology Comments Please note that that this is pre-print version of the article and has not yet been peer-reviewed.