Leonardo da Vinci

Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS!

The #1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker).

Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy.

He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius.

In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post).

Pretty good, narrator doesn't bother me

Lot of reviews complaining about his pronunciation of, among other things, Leonardo, which I (Italian speaker) did not mind.

great book but not really biography

while the book is really well written and the research is great, it didn't feel like a biography but more like an exploration of Leonardo's art and his notebooks.
great book nevertheless!

Issa son

Does another great job providing both the facts of an interesting life, but also insights about his time and place

99% Excellent

I very much enjoyed this book, both its account of Da Vinci's life, and the smooth flow of the writing andcm reciting; with one glaring exception: not once, but twice, Isaacson expresses admiration for Da Vinci proving the Biblical account of the Great Flood.....wrong? Excuse me???? DaVinci may have been a profound genius, but he was still a human being, and we should never presume that anyone is wiser or smarter than God, who caused and wrote the account of the Great Flood. Da Vinci, through Isaacson, claims that stratified layers on the tops of mountains prove the non-existence of a Flood, something happening at different times. To which I say, where's the proof? Did anything stop the flood from depositing these layers on top of another in succession? How do we dare contradict the Bible over a mere human being's curiosity? Aside from having this one glaring disagreement, I thought the book was excellent.

A gift to humanity

Fascinating description of a complex human. I am in awe of this man. The story of Leonardo teaches us to stretch our minds. Never stop learning
The narrator sets the tone beautifully. I disagree with any negative evaluation of him