Why isn’t Leonardo Da Vinci remembered as an engineer?

THIS IS HISTORY — A DYNASTY TO DIE FOR

Sony Music

History, Society & Culture

4.8 • 2.5K Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 33 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

If you judge him by his own elaborate metrics, Leonardo da Vinci was a failure. Long before the Mona Lisa became shorthand for genius, Leonardo imagined himself as something else entirely: a military engineer, a designer of bridges and armoured vehicles, a master of siegecraft and architecture. In 1482, he wrote a breathless letter to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, itemising these talents with bravado and noting, quickly, that oh, he could paint, too. Many of his boldest designs never left the page, or arrived centuries too early to be built. By his own standards, the future-facing polymath fell short. In this episode, Elizabeth Day and Dan Jones roam through history’s workshops, laboratories, monasteries, and battlefields to ask what failure really looks like. From Leonardo’s unrealised machines to Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s accidental discovery of microbiology, from champagne’s explosive beginnings to gunpowder’s grim transformation, they trace how curiosity, misjudgement, and wrong turns can quietly reshape the world. What emerges is a gentler, stranger truth: failure is often just invention, waiting for the world to catch up. – As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. In this episode, they discuss history’s colossal maritime failures, from the White Ship disaster to the Titanic. – A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices –– Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman Researcher - Phoebe Joyce Executive Producer - Simon Poole Executive Producer - Louisa Field Executive Producer - Dan Jones Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day Production Manager - Jen Mistri Production Coordinator - Eric Ryan Head of content - Chris Skinner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	What's the most embarrassing accident that you've ever experienced?
0:05.5	Like, basically, I'm asking, when have you wet yourself?
0:08.6	When was the last time I wet myself?
0:11.6	My theory is that the world splits into two types of people, those that routinely shit themselves and those that don't.
0:17.6	Oh.
0:18.2	Some people think it's completely standard to shit themselves.
0:20.8	I'm not one of them, personally, but I tell you who is. Your ex-boyfriend. Oh. Some people think it's completely standard to shit themselves.
0:21.0	Yeah.
0:38.2	I'm not one of them personally, but I tell you who is. Your ex-boyfriend. Yes. Do you know, your friend and mine? Yeah. Well, just to protect the non-innocent, he texted me the other day. He just shit himself in Uniclo. Shut up. He's still doing it. He's still doing it. Why he's still shitting himself in public.
0:38.2	And you're getting Stop! He's still doing it! He's still doing it. The guy is still shitting himself in public.
0:45.0	He's getting towards a point where shitting himself in public is going to be like just normal because he's old.
0:49.0	That is just so undignified on multiple levels. Well, what do you want it to be? Fucking Harrods.
0:53.9	Just not in, not in a shop. Why is he shitting himself? Was he hung over? What? I didn't. You know what? It's happened so often I didn't ask for details.
0:57.3	Well, this is, I'm so glad I opened this rich stream of conversation.
1:02.8	Opened a rich stream, all right? Should we do the show?
1:05.7	Yes, let's do the show.
1:09.7	Hello, I'm Dan Jones, a medievalist, and I'm thankful I'm not actually in the Middle Ages.
1:15.8	Why? Because a restless boss didn't bode well for employees.
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	...

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