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Flagellation</em>, Piero della Francesca, c1469<br />
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First Milanese period 1481/2 - 1499

Leonardo travels to the Lake Como region in Lombardy, visiting Valtellina, Valsassina, Bellagio, and Ivrea.

He begins Paris Manuscript A. The Codex Ashburnham I (and II) may have also been started around this time.

Death of Lorenzo de’ Medici il Magnifico, “The Magnificent”. His son Piero II becomes ruler of Florence.

On 12th October Christopher Colombus sails from Palos in search of a westerly route to China and sights land at Watling’s Island, Bahamas.

Pope Alexander VI (Borgia) is elected.

Death of Piero della Francesca, influential Italian painter from Umbria who made rapid advancements in the development of sculptural figure types in painting and unprecedented spatial clarity. During his later life, he devoted himself to the study of mathematics and perspective, and wrote treatises on the five regular solids and perspective, which had an important influence on Leonardo.