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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Leonardo wrote that, "Those who are in love with practice without theoretical knowledge are like the sailor who goes onto a ship without" (175) what two items?
(a) A map and a spyglass.
(b) A compass and a map.
(c) A compass and a rudder.
(d) A rudder and a spyglass.

2. What family controlled the republic in place in Florence at the time of Leonardo's arrival in the city?
(a) The Machiavellis.
(b) The Medicis.
(c) The Borgias.
(d) The Orsinis.

3. How many godparents gave witness to Leonardo's birth?
(a) 10.
(b) 20.
(c) 6.
(d) 8.

4. Who was pope when Leonardo was born?
(a) Paul II.
(b) Innocent VIII.
(c) Alexander VI.
(d) Pius II.

5. In the same year that Leonardo was born, Italy began a period of how many peaceful years without war?
(a) 20 years.
(b) 90 years.
(c) 40 years.
(d) 30 years.

Short Answer Questions

1. What was Leonardo's favorite branch of mathematics?

2. The troops of which French king marched through Italy, putting a halt to Leonardo's creation of the horse monument, since his materials were needed to construct cannon?

3. In what season of 1452 was Leonardo born?

4. Walter Isaacson states that Leonardo's Vitruvian Man perfectly symbolizes the ideal of what?

5. Leonardo's memory of a bird hovering above his crib when he was an infant involved what type of bird?

Short Essay Questions

1. What information was recently discovered in 2017 about Leonardo's birth mother?

2. What is chiaroscuro and how did Leonardo employ it?

3. The essayist Benedetto Dei wrote in 1972 that Florence "has all seven of the fundamental things a city requires for perfection" (26). What were the seven things he named?

4. What plan did Leonardo have for the casting of the horse monument that no one had ever attempted before?

5. What were the main techniques Leonardo adopted from his mentor, Andrea del Verrocchio, that would go on to be featured prominently in all of Leonardo's later works?

6. How did Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press in 1452 affect Leonardo's life and work?

7. Discuss an example of Leonardo's use of analogies that led him to new scientific discoveries.

8. What was the main source of information used by Walter Isaacson in his writing of Leonardo's biography?

9. What major difference does the author depict when comparing and contrasting Leonardo's personality with Leon Battista Alberti's personality?

10. What does Walter Isaacson say was the main lesson he tried to take from Leonardo's life in order to apply it to his own life?

(see the answer keys)

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