Leonardo da Vinci produced the first known designs for diving and underwater devices around 1500, including a rudimentary diving suit and a breathing apparatus. Although never built, these sketches demonstrate an early understanding of the principles of underwater exploration and human physiology, predating practical inventions by over a century.

Leonardo's designs, blending art and science, captured the Renaissance imagination and contributed to a cultural fascination with the hidden depths of the sea. These visionary sketches inspired later poets and writers, who saw in them the archetype of the creative genius reaching beyond the known world, a theme that would resonate through the works of Romantic and modernist poets alike.