Within a few months, Pontecorboli Editions will publish in Italian a definitive history of the family of Leonardo Da Vinci from his forebears to the present day, a masterwork of scholarship by colleagues Alessandro Vezzosi and Agnese Sabato. An English edition should appear in 2026. Here is Jesse Ausubel’s Afterword in both languages as well as the draft table of contents of the Big Genealogy Book. The books should form a major legacy of the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project.
What’s New
David Thaler publishes Forensics, Genius, and Enthusiasm in the Genetics of Leonardo da Vinci
PHE Guest Investigator has published open access an insightful essay Forensics, Genius, and Enthusiasm in the Genetics of Leonardo da Vinci as part of the Leonardo Da Vinci DNA Project.
Why do we want the DNA sequence of Leonardo da Vinci? Three categories, or contexts, suggest themselves: The first is in support of art history, provenance studies, and forensics. The presence of DNA attributable to the master would be evidence of his physical proximity. Depending on details, molecular evidence might lend support to assertions that Leonardo had a hand in creating a particular work. The second category of reasons is to explore the hypothesis that Leonardo’s DNA sequence may contain clues to his physical qualities, materials of his work, diet, possible illnesses, and maternal lineage. The possibility that Leonardo’s DNA sequence might yield clues to his extraordinary visual sensibilities or even his singular genius deserves to be said explicitly. The third category is not a “reason” in the usual sense but an “apology” in the sense of explanation. It is that this quest is extraordinarily difficult and it engages our enthusiasm.
The Search for Leonardo’s Genome, Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences
The Winter 2023 issue of the Bulletin of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences published “The Search for Leonardo’s Genome” by Jesse Ausubel. Based on Jesse’s June 2022 talk, this version omits the citations included in Jesse H. Ausubel, The Search for Leonardo’s Genome, Human Evolution 37 (3-4): 221-228, 2022.
The Search for Leonardo’s Genome, Human Evolution
The journal Human Evolution has published Jesse Ausubel’s “The Search for Leonardo’s Genome,” an expanded, fully referenced version of a talk Jesse gave in June 2022 to a meeting of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The Academy Bulletin will publish the colloquial version in its winter issue.
Jesse H. Ausubel, The Search for Leonardo’s Genome, Human Evolution 37 3-4: 221-228, 2022; DOI: 10.14673/HE2022341106
FAPAB virtual conference – September 16-17, 2021
Under the helm of Francesco Galassi, Elena Varotto and Rossella Lorenzi, the Leonardo team was invited to participate to a two-day virtual conference at the new Forensic Anthropology, Paleopathology and Bioarchaeology (FAPAB) Research Center in Avola, Sicily. The FAPAB Research Center, created in 2019, is entirely devoted to the study of ancient and modern human remains.
The title was: “Health, medicine, and socio-cultural aspects in the Late Middle Ages and through the Renaissance: new research perspectives.” The informative conference was held online on 16-17 September 2021. Sessions ran from 2:00 to 6:00 pm European Central Time, using the Zoom platform, and included diverse scholarly presentations, and poster presentations.
Here is the definitive program (inclusive of the latest developments). Abstracts will be published in an upcoming edition of the new journal Acta Palaemedica.
Congress program:FAPAB-Congress-Final-Programme-Sep16-17-2021
On behalf of the organizers, THANK YOU :
Screenshot from Marguerite during the poster session
