Lovin' the Loire

Leonardo the autodidact

Unable to attend school because he was an illegitmate child, Leonardo is one of the world's most famous self-taught geniuses. He actually wore his lack of schooling as a badge of honor -- calling himself an uomo senza lettere, a man without letters. His Italian was laced with the local…

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Leonardo the lefty

Like many left-handed people of Leonardo's era, he habitually wrote backwards. A by-product of being excluded from a normal education because he was an illegitimate child is that no one discouraged Leonardo from preferring his south paw. Contrary to the widespread belief that the practice was a way for lefties…

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