In appreciation of the “Little Guys”

So far in Italy we have focused our attention on the masters of the Renaissance, Leonardo Da Vinci specifically. While his works and their significance are hugely important, I think that the “little guys” deserve more recognition. By “little guys” I mean the people who inspired Da Vinci, translated his work, or indirectly contributed to his successes. We have run around Italy admiring Da Vinci’s work, and I want to take a moment to talk about Jean Paul Richter. In the 19th century when very few people knew of Leonardo’s manuscripts, Jean Paul Richter published them and helped introduce them to the masses (“Notebooks” 7). Without Jean Paul Richter’s work, so much more of Da Vinci’s brilliance could have been tragically lost to history. Today, and especially this week, we take the availability of Leonardo’s ideas for granted. Without the “little guys” in the 500 years since his time, we might not have even had a reason to visit Italy this spring break, or at the very least would have not had as complete of a collection of Leonardo’s works from which to study. I also want to give a shout out to Gutenberg. Aside from changing the course of history and allowing new ideas to transverse the globe and whatnot, the printing presses of Venice allowed Leonardo to access ideas and education that would have been impossible to obtain in more rural areas.

I also think that Vitruvius deserves a special recognition as Leonardo was greatly inspired by his treatises. The Vitruvian Man, one of Da Vinci’s most recognizable works, is greatly drawn on knowledge from Vitruvius, hence its name. It is incredible to think that the work of a Roman general from the first century BC could survive until the Renaissance for Leonardo to study.

Even Vitruvius had his own “little guys”. In Walter Isaacson's best selling book about Da Vinci,  he says “For many dark centuries, Vitruvius’s work had gone forgotten, but in the early 1400s it was one of the many pieces of classical writing...that were rediscovered and collected by the pioneering Italian humanist Poggio Bracciolini (149).” Without Poggio Bracciolini, Leonardo would not have been able to study Vitruvius’s work, rendering him unable to further his knowledge and really the knowledge of humankind.

I would argue that Richter and Bracciolini are just as important, if not more important, as the genius of Da Vinci and Vitruvius. If Richter and Bracciolini had not done what they did, the modern world would no doubt be very different, possibly not even what we call modern.

Irma Richter brings up a fact that fascinates and terrifies me in equal measure. “Probably about four-fifths of what he wrote has disappeared, but what remains is extraordinary in range and depth (“Notebooks” 7).” What remains is indeed amazing, but 80% of Da Vinci’s work is just gone. 80% of the brilliance of one of the most genius and influential minds in history is simply lost to time. If such a thing can happen to Da Vinci, I wonder what lasting legacy I could possibly hope to leave. I hope to leave a legacy in terms of kindness and how I made people feel.

Even if we don’t contribute great works to humanity like Leonardo, we will have our own “little guys” in whatever we do. I would consider Leonardo Da Vinci to be one of our “little guys”, though maybe we should call him a “big guy” because of his numerous influential works. His works helped bring humanity to its current paradigm and knowledge, from which our generation will continue to build upon.

--Ally

Sources

Da Vinci, Leonardo. Leonardo Da Vinci Notebooks. Selected by Irma A. Richter. Edited by Thereza Wells. Preface by Martin Kemp. Oxford University Press, 2008, 1-11.

Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo Da Vinci. Simon & Schuster, 2017.