Leonardo da Vinci

Famed Renaissance artist Leonardo Da Vinci detailed a design for a new instrument in his Codex Altanticus. But it never moved beyond his sketchbook. Now, more than 500 years later Polish pianist Slawomir Zubrzycki has built and played the inventor’s viola organista.

Continuing revelations from Edward Snowden are feeding the political humor mill around the world, as they also feed anger among US allies. In today’s Global Scan, we find at least one leader who doesn’t have to worry about US electronic eavesdropping. And we find new uses for ktichenware, from spamming to political protest.

Naturalist Sir David Attenborough explains how artists exposed Europeans to nature in the New World, beginning in the 15th century.

Art researchers in Italy have been peeking through cracks in a 16th century fresco and now say they may have discovered traces of long-lost mural by Leonardo da Vinci.

Reporter Megan Williams tells us about an effort under way at a former convent in Florence, Italy to identify the remains of the woman who might have been the model for Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa.”