One evening at Toscanelli’s house, the old man showed young Leonardo a globe of the world. Much of it was marked “unknown,” but Toscanelli had filled in some areas from his own careful calculations and from the stories told him by sailors and travelers. Visions of distant lands, remote mountain ranges and vast oceans filled Leonardo’s imagination as Toscanelli spoke. Then Toscanelli tapped the globe to the westward of Spain, saying: “Here will be found a quicker route to India than the world has ever known before.” Then, turning to Leonardo he murmured, “You will see it happen, my boy, in your lifetime.” One by one, Leonardo’s childhood questions were being answered. Toscanelli told him much about the stars, the fossils of creatures long disappeared from the world, and how he believed the earth’s early formation took place. He also taught the boy the art of drawing a map. Not only did Toscanelli greatly influence Leonardo, but the course of history as well. Ten years after Toscanelli had died, Christopher Columbus, struggling westward over the Atlantic Ocean, was using a map that old Toscanelli had sent him, carefully notated with all his accumulated wisdom. Leonardo, in keeping with his own philosophy, tested all this knowledge with experiments of his own. Because astronomical instruments were rare, crude, and costly, Leonardo borrowed them where he could and later set about making his own. He went on to experiment with time measurements, devising the first example of the application of a pendulum to regulate a clock; by means of two springs, it measured the minutes as well as the hours. So for the next three years Leonardo worked in Verrochio’s studio and continued his studies and experiments. In 1472 Leonardo’s name was inscribed in the Red Book of the Painters of Florence, which was the official _guild_, or artists’ union of that time. But he was so poor that he couldn’t afford the dues and hardly had the money for the necessary candles to be burnt before St. Luke, the patron saint of all painters. Although his father now had a spacious apartment in a house on one of the main squares of Florence, Leonardo continued to live with Verrochio. In fact, he stayed on past his formal training period for about four more years, grateful to the kindly man for the food and bed he offered. 3 _A Studio of His Own_ On Sunday, April 26, 1478, the bells of the cathedral were ringing loudly over Florence, almost drowning out the noise of the crowds in the street. Shutters were being thrown open and people were shouting excited questions at each other. Distantly at first, but growing in volume, was another sound—an ugly one—the sound of an approaching, angry mob. Leonardo, holding a roll of drawings closer under his arm, stopped and listened. Suddenly the questioning voices stopped. The bells continued ringing and now the angry shouts of the mob could be heard.