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Leo wins! According to mental_floss’s learned readers, Leonardo da Vinci is history’s greatest genius. While the Renaissance man may have easily bested Albert Einstein in the 65-person tournament’s final round, his path to the title wasn’t so easy. He had to survive a controversial first-round matchup against Burt Reynolds that went into a runoff due to allegations of voter fraud, and then he had to slip past Sigmund Freud, Galileo, Nikola Tesla, and Benjamin Franklin.
Through it all, though, the Italian polymath’s supporters came out in droves, and it seems that no other genius could quite match Leonardo’s combination of artistic mastery and scientific acumen. Congratulations, Leonardo! Consider this one more addition to your lengthy, impressive resume.
Comments (14)
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Awww… I hate this. Is there still a next year???? Or maybe a different tournament?
posted by Karl on 4-7-2009 at 11:12 pm
Leo really? I’m disappointed! I wouldn’t have considered him in my Top 10.
posted by Joe on 4-7-2009 at 11:22 pm
I’m such a nerd, I’m reading something for class and I’ve been checking this site all night to see the winner…
I voted for Albert, but Leo is quite amazing so I’m not upset!
posted by Adam D. Jones on 4-7-2009 at 11:30 pm
How about doing sub categories? Maybe best genius for some categories of knowledge or maybe a set century. I mean, if Leonardo was born in the same century as Albert, would he be greater? Or maybe the other way around? I think it’s kind of weird to mix so many western personalities in one big popularity contest.
Some context would indeed be welcomed.
posted by panda on 4-8-2009 at 12:18 am
daVinci deserves it. A lot of people, with enough effort and study, could become pretty amazingly smart in a single subject, but It takes a special kind of genius to be able to innovate in all those diverse fields simultaneously. This contest was a great idea.
posted by Ryan on 4-8-2009 at 3:23 am
Okay, I gotta ask Joe. Who are your top 10?
I mean one can debate whether or not Leonardo is THE greatest genius of all time (though I thoroughly support this victory), but I can’t imagine not putting him in the top 10.
posted by EMStoveken on 4-8-2009 at 9:23 am
This is clearly not an authoritative contest, but it was fun. There was a definite Western slant to it though. Chinese scientists such as Zhang Heng or Shen Kuo deserved a spot. Talk about expertise in multiple fields. They probably would not have done well though, because people did not know them well enough to vote for them.
posted by Eric on 4-8-2009 at 10:01 am
YES! Einstein is great and all, but I was fully in support of Leonardo. But I am disappointed that Mental Floss isn’t making a bigger deal out of this announcement.
I would say that this wasn’t a contest of the greatest genius of all time as much as it was a study in how we define the term “genius.” There’s the standard definition of genius-level IQ, but we made the decision that IQ is not the deciding factor when we didn’t give Marilyn vos Savant the win in the first round. Then again, a google search for Leonardo’s IQ lead me to a site where they’ve estimated IQ’s of famous people, and they’ve guessed Leonardo’s to be 220 (and they only gave Einstein a 160). I’m assuming most people didn’t know that when they voted for Leonardo.
posted by Amber on 4-8-2009 at 12:44 pm
Bravo Amber. You just killed an hour of my day by having me google vos Savant and then following that up with some flossing on the Monty Hall problem. I love the internet.
Leo’s a good call I think. His knowledge on multiple fields given the available resources and technology at the time I feel is unmatched.
posted by Steve-O on 4-8-2009 at 2:46 pm
I am also a wee disappointed that there wasn’t a bigger fanfare over Leonardo’s victory. I expected banners at the top of the webpage, horns blowing when I look at the tournament…something! How about a top 10 of lesser known facts about our grand champion? Some kind of salute should be given besides just adding this victory to his long list of accomplishments.
posted by redhead girl on 4-8-2009 at 4:24 pm
I expected Einstein to win, but I voted for Da Vinci, so woohoo!
mental_floss should do a tournament of (fiction) authors and, during the contest, randomly give away books by the winning authors.
posted by Mike on 4-8-2009 at 6:16 pm
Can we get pendants to hang in our offices with our favorite geniuses like some do with team or university names? Might be fun to have daVinci, Franklin and Edison pendants hanging overhead.
posted by Jim on 4-8-2009 at 10:26 pm
funny that Michelangelo was a better painter (and sculpture and architect) than Leonardo but everybody equates Leonardo as the penultimate genius due to his various drawings of inventions which are more of an intellectual curiosity. Leonardo was first and foremost an artist and he seems in my opinion to lose that contest to Michelangelo. Compare the Sistine Chapel, the David, the Pieta, and St. Peter’s dome to the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, and the vitruvian man. Doesn’t seem like much of a contest.
posted by Tom on 8-28-2009 at 10:31 pm
I wish Pope Pio XII were in the contest
he was a crazy for studyes man. dont eat dont sleep to study! be sick for study 16H per day! Pio Pio Pio
posted by Lionel V. Krueger on 10-28-2009 at 11:53 am