LAHi presents: Seriously Trivial Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli once hatched a plan to re

LAHi presents: Seriously Trivial

Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli once hatched a plan to reverse the current of the river Arno into landlocked Florence from Pisa (which at the time was one of their chief rivals). They planned to do so through a series of canals, redirecting the flow of the river Arno into Florence in order to provide farmers with irrigation and to free Florence from its commercial dependency on Pisa, which used to charge Florentine merchants for the ships that went through it. However, the plan didn’t work out, and eventually the two parted ways. Machiavelli continued on to write “The Prince”, and da Vinci continued to pursue his other endeavours.

Sources:
Masters, Roger D. Fortune is a river: Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolò Machiavellis magnificent dream to change the course of Florentine history. Plume, 1999.
Bramly, Serge, and Sian Reynolds. Leonardo: the Artist and the Man. Penguin, 1994.

Poster by Nic Calilung