Reading Leonardo Closely: teacher key

Leonardo da Vinci, grade 12 edition, written for 12th grade and up. Look closely at what Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks, flight studies and paintings show, and at what is still argued. Follow the pages and pictures from his own time to November 2026.

Read the book. Print this page for the key.

Questions and answers

1. Why do some scholars doubt that Leonardo used mirror writing to hide his notes?
   • His letter shapes were ordinary and being left-handed made it easier (answer)
   • He wrote in Chinese
   • He never wrote notes
2. What did the Royal Collection reviewer find about Leonardo and the blood system?
   • The liver was at its core
   • The heart, not the liver, was at its core (answer)
   • The brain was at its core
3. What did Leonardo not do with his bird-flight insights?
   • Develop them in any practical way (answer)
   • Write about birds
   • Study air
4. Who gathered the papers of the Codex Atlanticus into two huge volumes?
   • Marquis Galeazzo Arconati
   • Napoleon
   • Pompeo Leoni (answer)
5. What did Leonardo's underdrawing show under the Virgin of the Rocks in the National Gallery?
   • He first tried a different design and later changed his mind (answer)
   • He never drew first
   • He copied another painter
6. What did the Louvre say, as of November 2026?
   • It holds the largest collection of Leonardo's paintings in the world (answer)
   • It owns the Codex Atlanticus
   • It holds no drawings

Words

• Renaissance: a time
• topology: a math branch
• sfumato: a misty style
• ornithopter: flapping machine
• composition: how things fit