Leonardo da Vinci designed a diving suit with a mask, breathing tubes, and equipment intended for underwater work.
His drawings show a diver wearing a full-body suit connected to tubes leading toward the surface. The concept was reportedly associated with a proposal to help defend Venice against hostile ships, although the historical evidence for that intended military use is limited.
Leonardo’s design is not the same as modern scuba diving. It depended on air supplied from above and did not use a compressed-air cylinder carried by the diver. Some versions also include a container or float to help manage the breathing apparatus.
The suit was never documented as a successful Renaissance diving system. Nevertheless, it shows Leonardo thinking about underwater breathing, pressure, buoyancy, and human protection long before modern diving technology developed.