Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was a painter, sculptor, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, architect, botanist, musician and writer. He was an undoubted universal genius and one of the most talented and intelligent people ever to have lived. And he was a vegetarian. In Leonardo da Vinci Artist, Thinker, and Man of Science (1898), Eugene Muntz wrote, "It appears from Corsali’s letter that Leonardo ate no meat, but lived entirely on vegetables, thus forestalling modern vegetarians by several centuries."
He is probably best known for his paintings, with ‘The Last Supper’ and ‘Mona Lisa’ being among the most famous works ever created. He was ahead of his time with his visionary engineering ideas including the helicopter, the tank, solar power and the calculator and his studies of anatomy greatly enhanced the general understanding of human life.
There is documentary evidence to show that he would even rescue live animals from the market and set them free, particularly unusual in the era in which he lived. According to The Mind of Leonardo da Vinci by Edward MacCurdy "The mere idea of permitting the existence of unnecessary suffering, still more that of taking life, was abhorrent to him. Vasari tells, as an instance of his love of animals, how when in Florence he passed places where birds were sold he would frequently take them from their cages with his own hand, and having paid the sellers the price that was asked would let them fly away in the air, thus giving them back their liberty.” Truly ahead of his time.