*Image: Adoration of the Magi by Leonardo da Vinci, 1481 [Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy]. Da Vinci was commissioned by the Augustinian monks of San Donato in Scopeto (just outside the city walls of Florence), but, as he often did, Leonardo left for a richer commission at the court of Ludovico Sforza in Milan. He never returned to Florence to complete the Adoration.
Robert Royal is editor-in-chief of The Catholic Thing and president of the Faith & Reason Institute in Washington, D.C. His most recent books are Columbus and the Crisis of the West and A Deeper Vision: The Catholic Intellectual Tradition in the Twentieth Century.