One fact is crucial to a proper understanding of the period: the spread of printing, which played a vital role in the dissemination of music. The first printing press to print music from movable type was the now legendary press of Ottaviano Petrucci in Venice, who printed his first book, Harmonicae Musices Odhecaton, in 1501. In 1511 he opened a workshop in Fossombrone, disseminating the works of masters such as Josquin, Isaac, Obrecht... and frottola music in eleven books of which ten survive to the present day. That was the beginning of printed music; the industry grew rapidly, with new printing presses appearing at an extraordinary rate. Petrucci’s rival, Andrea Antico, had workshops in both Rome and Venice and therefore also played a significant part in the increased circulation of music books.

Italy was a magnet for foreign musicians, including Willaert, Dunstable, Ockeghem, Obrecht, Binchois, Compère, Dufay –whose motet “Nuper rosarum flores” was performed at the consecration of Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence after Brunelleschi’s cupola was completed in 1436– and particularly Josquin Desprez. The most admired musician of his day, Josquin was maestro di capella at Milan Cathedral. Martin Luther, himself a musician, wrote of him: “Other masters must do as the notes wish, whereas Josquin is master of the notes, which do his bidding.”

Although there is some disagreement among the biographers, it seems that Leonardo moved from Vinci to the Tuscan capital in 1460 or 1464 (not in 1470) and embarked on his life in the cultural melting pot that was Florence at a time when it was one of the three or four most important cities of the age. Once there, his father took him, as we have already mentioned, to the workshop of Andrea di Cione, also known as Verrocchio, who, according to Vasari, “was a sculptor, a master of intarsio, a painter and a consummate musician”. Considered the most prestigious in Italy, Verrocchio’s workshop numbered among its pupils Lorenzo di Credi, Perugino and Francesco di Simone, and it was frequented by such figures as Sandro Botticelli and Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo. It was a centre of humanistic thought in which Leonardo acquired both conceptual and technical knowledge in the fields of painting, music, science and humanism. There he came into contact with his future patrons, the Medicis and Ludovico Sforza (Il Moro), Duke of Milan. All manner of objects were produced at the workshop and all kinds of creative activities were pursued: painting, sculpture, the manufacture of processional banners, diverse items for festive occasions and, significantly, musical instruments. Verrocchio held Leonardo in high esteem and took great pains to teach him the skills of the artist and musician. It was during this period that Leonardo began to study singing and various instruments and, very probably, the art of instrument building. Although no score of Leonardo’s survives, and in fact scarcely one or two musical phrases remain, a testament to his musical knowledge has been preserved in his drawings of musical instruments, his hieroglypha and his writings.