Overview
- Using a gentle swabbing method, researchers sampled a red chalk drawing known as Holy Child and 15th‑century letters tied to Leonardo’s relatives, retrieving mostly non‑human DNA and sparse male‑specific human signals.
- Y‑chromosome fragments from the drawing and from a cousin’s letter clustered within the E1b1b lineage found in Tuscany, where Leonardo was born, according to comparisons with reference databases.
- The authors and outside experts emphasize that the data do not prove the DNA belongs to Leonardo, citing contamination risks, the absence of a verified reference sample, and disrupted historical burial records.
- The findings appear in an arXiv preprint, with analyses conducted in part by Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine, and the team calls for methods to better distinguish artefact‑associated signal from modern handling.
- Researchers say next steps include sequencing identified male‑line descendants of Ser Piero da Vinci and applying the approach to other works, while ancillary plant and microbial traces offer clues to materials and historical context.