Leonardo da Vinci was the quintessential renaissance man. Best known for his achievement in the
art world, da Vinci made significant contributions to architecture, botany, engineering, mathematics,
music, history, cartography, geology, invention, and more--including animal rights and ethical
vegetarianism, or what we today call veganism. Of course this final point isn’t one you’ll
find very often discussed in the annals of historical literature.
Could it be that Dan Brown got it all wrong? Is the real conspiracy that
da Vinci was vegan?
Hi it's Emily from Bite Size Vegan and welcome to another vegan nugget. So far in my series
on The History of Veganism, we’ve covered the development of veganism all the way from
over 9,000 year ago in ancient times, through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance.
Each of those episodes are linked below an in the playlist in the sidebar and they have
chapter markers in their respective video descriptions for ease of navigation.
With parts one, two and three of The History of Veganism series each being the length and
depth of a full television episode, I wanted to create a spotlight series of shorter videos
focusing on individuals key to veganism’s history. Cause who knows, you may just be
so amazed and enthralled that you jump on over and watch the full series!
[don’t crush my dreams]
A quick tech note: the blog post for this video, as with all of my videos, has thorough
citations to every quote and account I’ll be relating today.
While da Vinci himself never seems to have stated explicitly that he was vegetarian -- which,
in those days usually meant vegan as the term “vegan” wasn’t coined until the 1940’s,
but we’ll get to that soon in the main series -- those who knew him described da Vinci as
both caring for and not consuming animals.
Upon encountering vegetarians in India, Italian explorer Andrea Corsali wrote to his and da
Vinci’s mutual patron Giuliano de’ Medici that they “do not feed upon anything that
contains blood, or do they permit among them any injury be done to any living thing, like
our Leonardo da Vinci.”
And Giorgio Vasari in 1550, spoke of da Vinci’s compassion and perhaps even establishes him
as a liberator of animals.
“In all the other animals… he managed with the greatest love and patience; and this
he showed when often passing by the places where birds were sold, for, taking them with
his own hand out of their cages and having paid for them what was asked, he let them
fly away into the air, restoring them to their lost liberty.”
Indicating his own dietary inclinations, Da Vinci did write that he would not let his
body be a “tomb for other animals, an inn of the dead … a container of corruption.”
Further writings belie the fact that da Vinci wasn’t speaking purely from a health standpoint.
He wrote powerfully against the perceived entitlement of humans and their treatment
of animals for their own gain:
"King of the animals–– as thou hast described him–– I should rather say king of the
beasts, thou being the greatest––because thou doest only help them, in order that they
give thee their children for the benefit of the gullet,[meaning killing animals for your
stomach] of which thou hast attempted to make a sepulcher [meaning: grave/tomb] for all
animals; and I would say still more, if I were allowed to speak the entire truth.”
Da Vinci even addressed the gap between human and non-human animals, turning our supposed
superiority on its head, “Man has great power of speech, but the greater part thereof
is empty and deceitful. The animals have little, but that little is useful and true; and better
is a small and certain thing than a great falsehood.”
Da Vinci asks those insistent on eating animals, “Does not nature produce enough simple [meaning:
plant-based] food for thee to satisfy thyself?” This was a question often voiced by similarly
veg-inclined Renaissance thinkers.
Rather uniquely, though, da Vinci dove deeper into issues beyond diet:
“Of shoes made from leather In many parts of the country you can see men
walking about on the skins of large beasts. Of candles made of beeswax
[The bees] give light to divine service—and for this they are destroyed .
Of knives with handles made of ram’s horns Here we see the horns of certain beasts fitted
to sharp iron, which is then used to take the lives of their own kind.
Of asses Here the hardest labour is repaid by hunger
and thirst, pain and blows, goads and curses and loud abuse.
Of a fish served with its roe Endless generations of fish will be lost because
of the death of this pregnant one. Of slaughtered oxen
Behold-the lords of great estates have killed their own labourers.”
And a similar passage:
“Of asses which are beaten … I see thy children given into slavery
to others, without any sort of advantage, and instead of remuneration for the services
they have done, they are repaid by the severest suffering, and they spend their whole life
in benefiting their oppressor. Of bees
And many will be cruelly robbed of their stores and their food, and will be cruelly submerged
and drowned by folks devoid of reason. O justice of God! Why dost thou not awake to behold
thy creatures thus abused? Of sheep, cows, goats, and the like
From countless numbers will be taken away their little children and the throats of these
shall be cut, and they shall be quartered most barbarously.”
Demonstrating once again that the arguments against veganism haven’t changed over the
centuries and modern-day vegan hater comments are beyond unoriginal, is an excerpt from
da Vinci explaining why it is that plants do not feel as animals do.
"Though nature has given sensibility to pain to such living organisms as have the power
of movement, – in order thereby to preserve the members which in this movement are liable
to diminish and be destroyed, – the living organisms which have no power of movement
do not have to encounter opposing objects, and plants consequently do not need to have
a sensibility to pain, and so it comes about that if you break them they do not feel anguish
in their members as do the animals."
Oh yes. We’ve come upon what is perhaps da Vinci’s finest moment: the refutation
of the brilliant non-vegan counterpoint, “Plants, tho.”
Before we close out this historical spotlight, I thought I’d mentioned as I did in the
History of Veganism Part Three: Vegans in the Renaissance, that there is a quote often
circulated amongst vegan and vegetarians that is falsely attributed to da Vinci: “I have
from an early age abjured the use of meat, and the time will come when men such as I
will look upon the murder of animals as they now look upon the murder of men.” This was
accidentally misattributed to him in an anthology and actually comes from a fictional portrayal
of da Vinci.
Judging by his writings, however, this quote would easily fit with da Vinci’s views.
I’ll leave you with a rather engaging passage in which da Vinci hints towards habitat and
environmental destruction, the moral weight of consuming animals, and the ultimate outcome
of humanity’s actions:
“Animals will be seen upon the earth who will always be fighting with one another,
with very great losses and frequent deaths on each side. And there will be no end to
their malice; … when they are filled with their food, the satisfaction of their desires
will be to deal death, and grief and labor and fear and fright to every living thing;
… Nothing will remain on earth or under the earth or in the waters that will not be
persecuted, disturbed and spoiled, and those of one country move to another. And their
bodies will become the tomb and the means of transit of all the living bodies they have
killed. O Earth! what delays thee to open and hurl them headlong into the deep fissures
of a huge abyss and caverns, and no longer to display in the sight of heaven so savage
and ruthless a monster?”
The monster, the animal da Vinci denounces for causing such destruction, is of course
humans.
I hope you enjoyed this History of Veganism Spotlight on Leonardo da Vinci. I’d love
to hear what you thought of da Vinci’s writings! Were you aware of his belief about animal
ethics? If it sparked your appetite for some old school vegans, be sure to check out the
series so far, again linked below and in the sidebar.
The time it’s taken to produce the History of Veganism series so far clocks in at about
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I put out fresh content covering all aspects of veganism every Monday, Wednesday and some
Fridays. Now go live vegan, break the vegan da Vinci code, and I’ll see you soon.
This video is totally going to outperform The da Vinci Code in box office sales.