He didn't actually complete very much while he was there, though (this was a recurring problem for him which only got worse in later life) -- his contribution over sixteen years was a couple of paintings [including, it must be said, the famous Last Supper, which would rapidly deteriorate after completion] and assistance with various pageants.

His one attempt at something lasting and challenging, a giant bronze statue of his employer's father on a horse, was delayed many times, lying unfinished for years, and finally put to rest by the French invasion. The seventy tons of bronze set aside for it were appropriated for cannons, and the clay model was used as target practice by the victorious French.

Brilliant. Notice that he doesn't dwell on his "qualifications" or his accolades, the letter is basically:

1. I know as you do that there are many who claim to be able to bring you new stuff, but as we both know, they are almost all just rebranding the same old stuff we already have

2. I can do the following important things for you:

a.

b.

c.

...

3. If you are skeptical of my seemingly optimistic claims, I'd be happy to come and show you test versions which I'm sure will convince you of their worth.

I wonder what a modern tech version of this letter would look like?

If it worked for Leonardo da Vinci, maybe it could work for me. The next time I'm looking for a job, I'll try this:

"Most Illustrious Proprietor, Having now sufficiently considered the specimens of all those who proclaim themselves skilled developers of applications of business, and that the invention and operation of the said programs are nothing different from those in common use: I shall endeavor, without prejudice to any one else, to explain myself to your Company, showing your Management my secret, and then offering them to your best pleasure and approbation to work with effect at opportune moments on all those things which, in part, shall be briefly noted below.

1. I have a sort of extremely light and strong functions and modules, adapted to be most easily ftp'd, and with them you may pursue, and at any time combine them with others, secure and indestructible by standard mean time to failure of hardware and denial of service, easy and convenient to compile and catalog. Also methods of unzipping and storing the data of the customers.

2. I know how, when a website is besieged, to shard data onto the cloud, and make endless variety of mirrors, and fault tolerant disks and RAIDs, and other machines pertaining to such concerns.

3. If, by reason of the volume of the data, or the structure of the btrees and its indexes, it is impossible, when conducting a search, to avail oneself of sub-second response time, I have methods for benchmarking every process or other function, even if it were interpreted, etc.

4. Again, I have kinds of functions; most convenient and easy to ftp; and with these I can spawn lots of data almost resembling a torrent; and with the download of these cause great terror to the competitor, to his great detriment and confusion.

5. And if the processing should be on the desktop I have apps of many machines most efficient for data entry and reporting; and utilities which will satisfy the needs of the most demanding customers and users and consumers.

6. I have means by secret and tortuous scripts and modules, made without leaving tracks, to generate source code, even if it were needed to run on a client or a server.

7. I will make secure firewalls, safe and unattackable, which, entering among the hackers with their utilities, there is no body of crackers so great but they would break them. And behind these, software could run quite unhurt and without any hindrance.

8. In case of need I will make big properties, methods, and collections and useful forms, out of the common type.

9. Where the operation of compiling might fail, I would contrive scripts, functions, routines, and other parameter driven processes of marvellous efficacy and not in common use. And in short, according to the variety of cases, I can contrive various and endless means of data entry, reporting, and storage.

10. In times of low revenue I believe I can give perfect satisfaction and to the equal of any other in maintenance and the refactoring of code public and private; and in guiding data from one warehouse to another.

11. I can carry out code in Javascript, PHP, or C, and also I can do in network administration whatever may be done, as well as any other, be he who he may.

Again, the intranet app may be taken in hand, which is to be to the immortal glory and eternal honor of all your customers of happy memory, and of the illustrious house of Google.

And if any of the above-named things seem to anyone to be impossible or not feasible, I am most ready to make the experiment in your data center, or in whatever place may please your Businessperson - to whom I comment myself with the utmost humility, etc."

Interviewer: So why did you leave your last job?

Da Vinci: Well, my boss was captured by the French.

Interviewer: What!?

Da Vinci: Uh ... What I mean is I was looking for new growth opportunities, and Venice is obviously the employer of choice in this industry.

Something that strikes me is that Da Vinci got the job mostly as a combat engineer, hired to destroy enemy forces by any means possible, but ended up creating art of various sorts and increasing human knowledge in many domains. The military appeal he provided seemed only interesting during the hiring process and is not what lasted across the ages.

What's really impressive to me is that Da Vinci deftly sells the benefits and features of his employ. Yes, he says he can build cannons, but more importantly, he tells the Duke why, "with which to hurl small stones like hail, and of which the smoke causes great terror to the enemy, so that they suffer heavy loss and confusion."

That's boss. If you're the Duke, you're getting pretty excited about taking the meeting.

mmmm.., I can see a new format for my resume...

Most illustrious lord, seen and considering the experiments of all those who pose as masters in the art of inventing instruments of technology..

1. I can construct delivery systems that are as beautiful as functional, with which to pursue your business while being assured they'll equally resist the largest loads or the relentless attacks from malicious characters from cyberspace.

2. I can show you how to improve the craft..

And if any of the aforesaid things should seem to anyone impossible or impracticable, I offer myself as ready to make trial of them in your park or in whatever place shall please your Excellency, to whom I commend myself with all possible humility.

People interested in this might also like his self-promoting letter to the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, a little later in life: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com/2013/01/22/leonardos...

Best link I could find at short notice, unfortunately, the letter excerpt is two paragraphs in.

Would love to see a citation to such letter. Does anyone knows where to find a scan of the original?

I have seen that letter many times around the Net, but never a link to anything that could prove the veracity of it.

reminds me of nikolai tesla attempts to sell tech to rich investors or the military.. such is most of human history. quite a lot of the best and brightest in search of funding to pursue their research turn to the military industrial complex rulers aka generals and plutocrats. while the emergence of the internet has opened up a third avenue, how many phds languish on wall street or the nsa.

be happy you live in a time where the gatekeepers are crumbling all over, so you can just focus on your craft, whoever and wherever you are, without having to suck up to others

He definitely lack the kind of ego of engineers of our times.

da Vinci isn't a surname and shouldn't be used as one. It'd be like calling the Duke of Edinburgh "Of Edinburgh".

See Wikipedia for more information.

Pretty cool to see that after 16 years in office, an "hostile takeover" (e.g. invasion) took out his employer - Lots of parallels with today's world. :)

I'm surprised the French were successful despite the technology and engineering Da Vinci brought to the table.

A little disheartening to realize that Leonardo is basically applying for a post in the Sforzan NSA.

I feel like this pops up here once every quarter.

"Stay thirsty, my friends."

hope this makes it to the front page, so sick

I wonder how Da Vinci would feel to know that 500 years after he wrote this letter, it would be parodied by future men and their magical supercomputer tech.

If the language was modernized, a strong and confident list of benefits like this would make for a very compelling cover letter.

Dang! great minds think alike :)

It reads disconcertingly like a patent application.