Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Galileo, Fermi — the Italian minds at the heart of the Renaissance and modern physics.
60 GeniusesThe Italian Renaissance is the densest cluster of genius in Western history. Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael overlapped in Florence. Galileo invented modern science. Fermi built the first nuclear reactor.
This list ranks the most influential Italian-born geniuses by IQ and impact.
Leonardo da Vinci is the most commonly cited. He painted the Mona Lisa, designed flying machines, and made anatomical drawings far ahead of his time.
Estimates range from 180 to 220, with 200 being the most-cited figure. He wrote in mirrored script and was a polymath across more disciplines than anyone before or since.
No. Galileo refined the telescope (invented in the Netherlands in 1608) and pointed it at the sky for the first time, discovering the moons of Jupiter and the phases of Venus.
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