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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. In what year was Leonardo brought to Florence to live with his father?
(a) 1430.
(b) 1464.
(c) 1451.
(d) 1482.

2. One reason Leonardo could not devise how to square a circle is that a mathematical process for squaring a circle cannot be done with just a compass and a ruler. Instead, it requires what type of number?
(a) Rational.
(b) Transcendental.
(c) Natural.
(d) Real.

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

4. Leonardo's most serious longtime companion held the nickname of Salai, which held what meaning?
(a) Lover of the Arts.
(b) Divine One.
(c) Prankster.
(d) Little Devil.

5. In what year did Leonardo and Francesco travel to Pavia to observe and translate the manuscript of Vitruvius?
(a) 1498.
(b) 1477.
(c) 1490.
(d) 1462.

Short Answer Questions

1. In whose honor was the horse monument intended to be created, with a sculpture of his likeness to be placed upon the back of the horse?

2. While the horse monument was never completed, Leonardo did complete a model of the monument out of what material?

3. During the 70 years following the creation of The Officers of the Night in 1432, an average of how many men per year were convicted of sodomy and were sentenced to prison, exile, or death?

4. What item of clothing did Leonardo insist upon wearing, even though it was antithetical to the fashions of the time?

5. What position was held by legitimate first-born sons in Leonardo's family, stretching back at least five generations?

Short Essay Questions

1. What language did Leonardo decide to teach himself in the early 1490s and what was the result?

2. How did the books included in Leonardo's personal library inventory in 1492 represent the extreme diversity of his interests?

3. What are the reasons that Renaissance Italy has come to be known as "a golden age for bastards" (9)?

4. What were the underlying reasons for Leonardo's vegetarianism?

5. What qualities of Leonardo's character are discussed as qualities that would have made him a misfit in any place besides Florence?

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

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

8. What was revealed about Leonardo's looks and personality in early works written about his person?

9. 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?

10. What was the reason that Leonardo's horse monument was never completed?

(see the answer keys)

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