I had a very brief but vivid vision of Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, once Leonardo da Vinci's patron until the Italian Renaissance got to him (i.e. his precarious alliances broke down and he fled posthaste), trying to pretend that he invented and did all da Vinci's work, like he was a CEO pretending to be a rocket scientist. >_>
I can't imagine those Italian merchant-princes were really any different, except that they had much better taste in books and paintings, and sending out for fancy stuff took months rather than days. Surely they, too, were all liars and braggarts. Tell me that Ludovico Sforza wouldn't pretend he was an inventor using some da Vinci sketches as "proof".
~Chara