![]() ![]() Fascinated by engineering and the mechanics of flying, da Vinci designed flying machines, portable bridges, submarines, the first mechanised crossbow and an early prototype of the armoured car, although he himself was a pacifist. His notebooks are filled with sketches of visionary inventions. ‘Just when you think you’ve got a handle on his talents, he wrong-foots you by excelling in another field altogether’ And when he wrote of the ‘quality of time as distinct from its mathematical divisions’, he was setting out on a path that was later travelled by Einstein. In carrying out anatomy experiments, da Vinci realised that blood circulated around the body – a medical breakthrough confirmed by William Harvey in 1628. He also found that ‘Every weight tends to fall towards the centre by the shortest way,’ 150 years before Isaac Newton propounded the same theory. ‘What survives is an unparalleled record of a human mind at work, as fearless and dogged as it was brilliant’ĭa Vinci made deductions that are uncanny in their accuracy: ‘The sun does not move,’ he noted, 100 years before Galileo reached the same conclusion. However, it was this lack of education that caused him to rely on his own observations and experience, rather than written authority – a revolutionary new method that was far ahead of its time. ![]() The illegitimate son of a notary and a peasant woman from the small town of Vinci, Leonardo had no formal education bar his painting apprenticeship, which began at age 14. Finally, two insightful essays tell us more about da Vinci and his writings: one by da Vinci biographer Charles Nicholl, and the other by the collection’ translator and editor, Edward MacCurdy. Almost 100 of his exquisite drawings have been reproduced to exceptionally high standard: preparatory drawings for The Last Supper, anatomical diagrams such as The Vitruvian Man, and sketches of inventions – including his designs for a flying machine, created hundreds of years before others dared dream of flying. His personal notes offer insights into his passions, preoccupations and eccentricities, while a detailed index allows for easy navigation. This commemorative edition of the 1938 Edward MacCurdy compilation includes writing on almost every subject imaginable: anatomy, medicine, engineering, optics, architecture, hydraulics, botany and natural history. In the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, he created the most iconic images in Western art but his brilliance extended well beyond these masterpieces: da Vinci bequeathed the most extraordinarily diverse body of written work ever created by one individual and his notebooks are among the most precious documents in the world. Almost 500 years since his death, the genius of Leonardo da Vinci has never been rivalled. ![]()
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