What underwater garment did Leonardo da Vinci design for divers?

Leonardo da Vinci designed an early diving suit for underwater exploration.

His concept included a sealed garment, a mask, and tubes intended to supply air to a diver below the surface. The design was recorded in Leonardo’s notebooks during the Renaissance, when underwater engineering was still largely speculative.

The suit is sometimes described as a diving apparatus rather than a fully tested invention. There is no reliable evidence that Leonardo’s complete design was built and successfully used in his lifetime. Its importance is that it addressed several real diving problems: breathing, protection, and communication with the surface.

Leonardo’s design should not be confused with a modern wetsuit. A wetsuit mainly provides thermal insulation through neoprene, whereas Leonardo’s proposed garment was intended to support breathing underwater. Modern diving equipment developed much later with dependable air tanks, regulators, and materials.