The international collaboration known as the Leonardo DNA Project has published a new book which they say reveals more than ever before about the family tree of Leonardo da Vinci.

The book, titled Genìa da Vinci. Genealogy and Genetics for Leonardo’s DNA, presents evidence from 30 years of DNA research which traces da Vinci’s family tree back to 1331, spanning 21 generations and involving more than 400 individuals.

Da Vinci (1452–1519) is a celebrated artist, inventor and scientist. He was a genius.

Among the DNA findings is the identification of 15 male-line descendants of da Vinci’s family related to his father and half-brother, Domenico Benedetto. Da Vinci was never married and had no children of his own.

They confirmed that Y chromosome segments of 6 living men are from the da Vinci family line from at least the 15th generation.

The researchers also verified that the da Vinci family tomb is in the Church of Santa Croce in Vinci – a small commune in the metropolitan city of Florence in northern Italy – where Leonardo was born. Da Vinci himself was buried at Chapel of Saint-Hubert, Amboise, France.

“Our goal in reconstructing the da Vinci family’s lineage up to the present day, while also preserving and valuing the places connected to Leonardo, is to enable scientific research on his DNA,” says book co-author and Italian art critic Alessandro Vezzosi.

“Through the recovery of Leonardo’s DNA, we hope to understand the biological roots of his extraordinary visual acuity, creativity, and possibly even aspects of his health and causes of death.”

“Even a tiny fingerprint on a page could contain cells to sequence,” says Jesse H. Ausubel of The Rockefeller University and director of the Leonardo DNA Project. “21st century biology is moving the boundary between the unknowable and the unknown. Soon we may gain information about Leonardo and other historical figures once believed lost forever.”

The possible birthplace and childhood home of Leonardo in Anchiano, Vinci, Italy. Credit: Roland Arhelger via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

The book goes beyond genetics, including new insights into history and geography to build a picture of the world that shaped da Vinci, and how he and his family interacted with it.

Analysis of land registries, for example, led to the identification of 7 da Vinci family homes in Vinci’s village and castle. There were also 2 properties found to have been owned by da Vinci  himself.

Presumed self portrait of Leonardo da Vinci. Source: Web Gallery of Art via Wikimedia Commons.

An enigmatic charcoal drawing discovered on the fireplace mantle of an old building in Vinci has for the first time been attributed to da Vinci as well. The image is of a fantastical creature which sports a spiral horn on its head, a long snout, curved beak, hooked teeth, flaming tongue, pointed ears, scales, serpentine tail and a large wing.

It has been dubbed the “Unicorn Dragon” and thought to be one of Leonardo’s works because of its “rare expressive intensity”.

Fittingly, the book also suggests that da Vinci was an early pioneer of what we today call epigenetics – the concept that heritable traits in organisms can be turned “on” or “off”. Today, this field of research asserts that external factors can modify DNA to change whether genes are turned “on” or “off”.

Da Vinci’s writings on heredity point to the possible influence of diet, blood and parental behaviour on offspring.