Author Description

To know Leonardo da Vinci is to be in communion with an extraordinary mind for whom the normal limitations of time, place, history, and even the human condition itself scarcely existed. The Unknown Leonardo not only brings us closer to Leonardo the man but gives us access as well to Leonardo the genius. In this book ten of the world's leading Vincian scholars illuminate all aspects of Leonardo's multifaceted brilliance. It contains over 800 spectacular illustrations and reproductions, 85 in color. Through an imaginative use of graphics and captions, Leonardo's inventions and ideas are made clear to both the eye and the mind. A pictorial biography, which opens the book, sets the stage linking the highlights of Leonardo's life and work to the cultural and political events of his time. Then, the wide spectrum of his thought and activity is fully explored. The authors examine in turn Leonardo's great paintings, his literary legacy, his innovations in artistic theory, his designs for musical instruments, his new ideas in military architecture, his machines and weaponry, his insights into the mechanics of water and stone, his designs for clockworks, and his ingenious plan to cast a giant equestrian statue in bronze by a revolutionary process. Ladislao Reti, the book's editor, presents exciting discoveries from the Madrid Codices--one of the most important manuscript finds of the century--that unquestionably establish Leonardo as the greatest scientist and technologist of his era. This book is an adventure, an experience, and a possession of beauty. It will delight anyone who is interested in art, science, technology, the Italian Renaissance, or the potentialities of the human mind.--Book jacket flap.