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Catharine Cox's 1926 study The Early Mental Traits of Three Hundred Geniuses produced an estimate of 180 for Leonardo da Vinci. The methodology penalized subjects whose childhood records were poor: da Vinci's early life is documented only fragmentarily, so the Cox estimate likely understates him.

Da Vinci's recorded output spans painting (the Mona Lisa, Last Supper), anatomy (over 240 detailed anatomical drawings), engineering (proposed flying machines, hydraulic systems, military fortifications), and natural science (botanical observation, fluid dynamics). His Codices include roughly 7,200 surviving manuscript pages.

Later psychometric researchers including Dean Simonton revised Cox's figure upward, arguing that the limitations of childhood-records methodology meant Cox systematically under-estimated polymath figures whose biographical evidence emerged in adulthood.