Alexander the Great

Appears in Kyle’s notes on Leonardo Da Vinci (Walter Isaacson’s biography) through Leonardo’s own observation that “Alexander and Aristotle were teachers of one another.” Isaacson uses the line to illuminate Leonardo’s reciprocal relationship with king Francis I — the tutor/king reciprocity Leonardo mirrored, where the older artist and the young, erudite king each learned from the other. A second appearance comes via a 1489 counterargument by Francesco Puteolano, who held that poetry and historical writing mattered most because the reputations of great rulers — “including Caesar and Alexander the Great” — came down through historians rather than through sculptors or painters.

Context: Alexander III of Macedon (356–323 BC) conquered the Persian Empire and one of the largest empires of the ancient world before age thirty. He was tutored in his youth by the philosopher Aristotle — the relationship Leonardo cited.

Where this appears

• Leonardo Da Vinci — Leonardo’s “Alexander and Aristotle were teachers of one another” note (the king/tutor reciprocity with Francis I), plus Puteolano’s argument that historians, not artists, preserved rulers like Alexander.