“Experience never deceives; only our judgments are wrong”
When in 1482 Leonardo da Vinci wanted to offer his services to Ludovico Maria Sforza sent him a letter in which he basically presented himself as an engineer especially useful on the battlefield. Only at the end, almost in passing, does he mention his skills as an architect, sculptor, and painter (in that order). The letter It is written to capture the attention of Sforza, an aristocrat more concerned with wars than the arts, but it still reveals something valuable about Da Vinci: although today we remember him as a painter, he saw himself as a man of science. In fact, he left notes that make him one of the great precursors of modern science. There are even those who consider it “the first scientist”. Who was Leonardo Da Vinci? I know, in 2026 that question seems like a truism. Everyone knows who Leonardo da Vinci was, just as we all have a (more or less vague) idea of who Beethoven, Newton, Vang Gogh, Galileo, Alexander the Great or Cleopatra were, to name just a handful of historical figures who have ended up becoming popular icons. However, it is one thing to place Da Vinci in a historical framework or cite his most famous paintings and another to peer into his enormous intellectual complexity, the same one that he allows to be glimpsed in a calculated way in the letter to Ludovico Sforza and in a much more clear and detailed way in his note books. Beyond the brushes. In his mirror writing notebooks, Da Vinci leaves an enormous number of designs that anticipate by centuries what would be the helicopterhe tank or even the submarine; but he also speaks on topics as varied as morality, theology, psychology, geology, anatomy, hydraulics, aesthetics… and that among a long, long etcetera. Some time ago the engineer Eduardo García de Zúñiga (1867-1951) helped us navigate that intellectual tidal wave bringing together a large part of the aphorisms written by Leonardo. The result can consult in the Miguel de Cervantes Library and it is interesting (among other issues) because it reveals something about Da Vinci: although he wrote profusely on topics such as aesthetics or morals, a large part of his annotations focus on purely scientific issues. And that includes everything from notes on geology and anatomy to reflections of an epistemological nature in which he reveals how he understood knowledge and the way to achieve it. Why is it important? Because the first (the notes on his observations) reveal Leonardo’s curiosity and intellectual acuity. The second (the epistemological ones) tell us about something more important: in the 15th century, even before the birth of Galileo, Da Vinci looked at the world with the eyes of a scientist, one who distrusted inherited authority (breaking with scholasticism) and advocated verifying knowledge based on experience. Hence there are those who consider it a pioneer of science. Reviewing your notebooks. Between his syllogisms There are many who point in that direction, including the one who heads this article: “Experience never deceives. Your judgments only deceive when it promises effects that cannot find their cause in our experiences.” What does Da Vinci want to tell us with that phrase? That our great crutch to know the world is experience, direct observation, not inherited knowledge that cannot be verified. “Whoever argues claiming authority does not apply ingenuity, but rather memory,” he emphasizes. Does that mean that we should deny the wise men who preceded us? At all. The key is not to accommodate ourselves to the detriment of rigorous observation, a critical spirit and empirical experimentation. Does it tell us anything else? Yes. Leonardo’s notes are full of reflections that insist on the importance of verification. Of all, the most popular may be “Wisdom is the daughter of experience”, but it is not the only one. In another part of his handwritten notebooks, we read: “Vain and full of errors seem to me the sciences that are not born from experience, mother of all certainty (…). Neither their origin nor their middle, nor their end pass through any of the five senses.” “The true sciences are those that experience has made penetrate through the senses, imposing silence on the arguers and not nourishing their researchers with dreams; those that, on the first known principles, proceed successively and with true unity to the end.” And in case there were still doubts, Da Vinci leaves us advice that is totally valid in 2026: “Flee from the precepts of speculators whose reasons are not confirmed by experience.” Images | Wikipedia In Xataka | Da Vinci’s last secret was not in his paintings or notes, but in his family: a direct link with Barcelona