The Gunpowder Cataclysm

'''In 1500, under the financial assistance of the Venetian Doge, the polymath Leonardo da Vinci establishes an academy of science in Venice. The institution, which brings together some of the finest minds in the Mediterranean, has its foundation primarily in the research of military technologies, but as time passes it becomes a leading body in all fields of science, and begins to produce innovations of every sort.'''