Milan, c. 1495

Given an established role at the court of Ludovico il Moro, Leonardo begins work on the Last Supper in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie. He had previously created masterpieces such as the Virgin of the Rocks, the portrait known as The Musician, and Lady with an Ermine. A huge new project, destined to remain incomplete, is the colossal equestrian monument of Francesco Sforza. It is primarily in Milan, starting circa 1485, that Leonardo begins to systematically expand his scientific research, through direct study of natural phenomena and the workings of machines. He also begins to peruse the works of both ancient and modern authors (the altori, as he calls them), and forms the first nucleus of his library (attested in a list of forty titles on a leaf in the Codex Atlanticus). Engaging in a prodigious activity of writing and drawing, he passes from composing on loose sheets to the compilation of his first notebooks (Codex B and the Codex Trivulzianus).

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