Shadowrun in a different time setting, When players are involved in the backstory Options

[cREbralFIX]

I'm currently thinking of running a few games of Shadowrun, that will involve its background and rules, but would be set in an unusual period.
I'm thinking of stories in the 2011-2030 for exemple, but maybe also during the "Renaissance" period (16th century).
Anyone ever did this and could give me some hints of what are the things difficult to handle, or even the kind of stories they made up around this ?
I'd be clearly interested to do some kind of crossover campaign, where the players would start a story in the 16th century, involving Leonardo da Vinci, and then resume the modern campaign of shadowrun, where my players would stumble on some kind of diary that relates the events of the story they played in the 16th century, and continue to work on some mysteries unsolved at that time.
I have yet no clue of the details of the story, but i want to have it linked in some way with Leonardo, or any kind of reocurring character in the classical shadowrun setting (i'm still in 2053 with my group). If you guys have ideas, or already some experience with such a kind of story, i'd be delighted to get your advices (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

I did a campaign set in 2031. I ended up having to do a time line of "inventions" to determine when certain cyberwear, magic, gear and "stuff" would become available. It was very interesting as a research project since I had to read many of the older books to make "accurate" guesses.