Leonardo da Vinci, in his notebooks, provided remarkably accurate and detailed observations of fossilized shells and marine organisms found in the mountains of Italy. He correctly reasoned that these fossils were the remains of ancient marine life, arguing against the common belief that they were products of the Biblical Flood. His drawings and notes were a testament to his empirical approach to natural history.

Da Vinci's work exemplifies the Renaissance humanist spirit of empirical observation and artistic precision, bridging art and science. His notebooks demonstrate a poetic sensibility in their detailed and reverent observation of nature, inspiring later figures like Goethe who similarly saw poetry and science as intertwined pursuits of understanding the natural world.