Nearly five centuries ago， Leonardo da Vinci had notions① later proved correct. Such as about fossils， about the circulation of the blood， about the Earth not being the center of the universe， about falling bodies， and about anatomy②.
His close observation and amazing skill at drawing were such that his pictures of waves and bubbles in water could be improved on only by a slow-motion camera.
But his genius went for naught. He kept these ideas to himself， writing them in code in voluminous③ notebooks， so that his contemporaries④ knew little of his ideas and remained uninfluenced by them.
Most of these writings remained unpublished until the nineteenth century. Two lost works were laterly found in the National Library of Spain in Madrid.
① notionn. 概念，想法，见解
② anatomyn. 解剖学
③ voluminousadj. 多卷的，大量
④ contemporaryn. 同时代的人
密码写成的见解
将近5个世纪前，列奥纳多·达·芬奇就有了许多后来被证明是正确的见解。比如关于化石，关于血液循环，关于地球不是宇宙中心，关于落体，关于解剖等。
他极为细致的观察和令人惊异的画图技术使得他画的波浪及水中的气泡非常精确，只有快速摄影机拍的照片才能改进。
可是，他的天才没有起作用。他从未把他的这些见解告诉过别人，而是用密码写在浩瀚的笔记中，因此他同时代的人很少知道他的想法，因而也没有受到他这些想法的影响。
这些著作的大部分直到19世纪才发表。两本失传的著作也是后来在马德里的西班牙国家图书馆中才被发现的。