Leonardo da Vinci signature

Italian painter, engineer and scientist, 1452–1519

Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s signature

A rendering in a modern handwriting font, made for this page. It is not the real signature; see where to view the original below. Where to see the original ↓Style: Italianno, slant -4°

Your name in this style

Type your name to see it in a style inspired by this signature.

Type your name

Open this style in the generator

Italianno · 6°

Who Leonardo da Vinci was

Leonardo da Vinci was born near Vinci in Tuscany in 1452 and died at Amboise in France in 1519. Painter of the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, he was also an engineer, anatomist and inventor who filled notebooks with drawings and notes on almost everything he saw.

“Da Vinci” is not a surname in the modern sense; it means “from Vinci”. In his time he was usually called simply Leonardo.

The story of the signature

Leonardo is one of the great painters with almost no signatures. He did not sign his paintings in the way later artists did, and works signed by him are very rare, which is one reason attributions of his pictures are argued over so fiercely.

What does survive is his handwriting, in great quantity. Left-handed, he wrote most of his private notes from right to left with the letters reversed, so that they read normally in a mirror. Thousands of pages of this mirror writing survive in collections such as the Codex Arundel in the British Library, the Codex Atlanticus in Milan and the drawings in the Royal Collection at Windsor. Why he wrote this way is not known for certain: writing from right to left avoids smudging wet ink for a left-hander, but that may not be the whole explanation. When writing for others he could also write in the normal direction.

One of his earliest dated works shows both habits. A landscape drawing of the Arno valley in the Uffizi carries a note in mirror writing giving the date, 5 August 1473, the feast of Santa Maria della Neve. He was 21.

What makes it distinctive

Mirror writing

Right to left, with reversed letters, readable in a mirror.

Left-handed strokes

Hatching in his drawings runs from upper left to lower right, the natural direction for a left hand.

Notes, not signatures

His identity is in the notebooks rather than in a signature on finished works.

Text and drawing together

Words wrap around sketches on the same page, as part of one way of thinking.

How to give your signature a similar feel

In the Type tab of the signature generator, try Italianno for a refined Italian line. Set the Slant slightly negative, around −4°, for the backward lean of left-handed writing.
If you are left-handed, draw your signature in the Draw tab and keep whatever slant your hand gives it naturally, even if it leans backwards.
A mirrored signature is a fun experiment but not practical: banks and forms expect your normal signature. Keep mirror writing for monograms or artwork.
Pair a small, neat name with a sketch or a mark of your own. Leonardo’s pages work because writing and drawing sit together.

Where to see the original

These links lead to archives, libraries, museums and Wikimedia Commons.

Questions about Leonardo da Vinci’s signature

Did Leonardo da Vinci sign the Mona Lisa?

No. Leonardo did not sign his paintings in the usual way, and signed works by him are very rare.

Why did Leonardo write backwards?

He was left-handed and wrote his notes from right to left in mirror image. Avoiding smudges is the most common explanation, but his exact reasons are not documented.

Where can I see his handwriting?

His notebooks are in collections including the British Library (Codex Arundel), the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan (Codex Atlanticus) and the Royal Collection at Windsor.