Illustrates and briefly describes the crucial moments in the life of Leonardo da Vinci -- including his family background, education, travels, inventions, discoveries, paintings. These events are presented in terms of the year in which they occurred. In a parallel listing, all the other great events occurring at the same time in the rest of the world are illustrated and described. With one sweep of the eye, the reader has a visual review of how the world looked between the time of Leonardo's birth in 1452 and his death in 1519.