The text below is the excerpt of the book Leonardo Da Vinci, written by Eugène Müntz, published by Parkstone International. An alliance between art and science was no new thing in Italy. Minds trained in the incomparable gymnasium of classic education could attack the most various tasks without danger of a check. In such an enterprise the painter of the Last Supper and the sculptor of the Sforza statue could justify himself by the example of many a famous Italian. Brunellesco had been an ardent student of mathematics; Piero della Francesca of geometry; Alberti had composed the Ludi Matematici and invented a way of measuring the depth of the sea…