Leonardo da Vinci: A Mind in Motion, British Library

Leonardo da Vinci was the ultimate polymath, turning his hand to just about anything from art, anatomy and stage design, to flying machines and warfare. His curiosity knew no bounds and his ideas were centuries ahead of their time.

Da Vinci is credited as being the first person to invent an armoured tank and came up with the idea that rotating blades could be used to levitate a flying machine, what we now call a helicopter. He was fascinated by water, too, meticulously recording how it moved and flowed.

To mark the 500th anniversary of his death, the British Library is staging an exhibition of three of da Vinci's notebooks, with the aim of exploring his preoccupation with motion. The exhibition will include a selection of sheets from an important notebook purchased by Bill Gates in 1994 for $30.8 million. Known as the Codex Leicester, the 72-page book contains sketches and ruminations on his ideas around the movement of tides, the moon, Earth and Sun.