Tuesday, May 03, 2005
One of da Vincis canal-digging machines
The politician, playwright and essayist Niccolo Machiavelli was born on this day in 1469, and Leonardo da Vinci died yesterday, 1519. The recent Fortune is a River (Roger D. Masters, 1999) takes its title from Machiavelli's The Prince, but it explores the oddball moment in history when Machiavelli and da Vinci conspired to build a canal which would give Florence access to the sea and, not incidentally, divert the Arno away from Pisa, Florences long-time rival and combatant
# posted by Michael P. Whelan : 1:50 PM
