Piero Angela said Friday he discovered the suspected Leonardo self-portrait in the artist's "Codex on the Flight of Birds" manuscript, the Italian news agency ANSA reported.
''I noticed that there was a drawing by Leonardo hidden between the words on the 10th page of his codex,'' Angela said.
''After extrapolating the red-chalk portrait with the help a graphic artist, a portrait of a Renaissance man emerged. Given the similarity, I thought that this could well be Leonardo himself'."
Angela said a maxillofacial surgeon agreed the man featured in the discovered portrait could be Leonardo, who lived from 1452 to 1519 and gained fame as a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.
The journalist cautioned that while certain scholars have informed him of the importance of his discovery, the self-portrait has yet to authenticated, ANSA said.