Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Leonardo - Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc; Art; Art / Individual Artist; Art / History / General; Science / General; Art / General; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Da Vinci Notebooks are Useless on Kindle
Very disappointing. No sketches or drawing. Very confusing to read. This is not worth downloading.

No drawings makes this book useless
The Da Vinci notebooks are one of the most amazing works of literature out there. The sketches alone are amazing. Unfortunately, this e-book lacks the drawings, so it's reduced to a series of footnotes and comments about drawings that are not there, making this utterly useless. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Leonardo - Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc; Science; Art / Individual Artist; Art / History / General; Science / General; ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Check the Publisher carefully before you buy the printed version of "The Notebooks...."
Amazon associates reviews of a book with different versions of the same book from different publishers. Unfortunately for us customers, Amazon is seeing a growing plague of new Print-On-Demand Publishers who are specialising in reprinting copyright-expired books. Such as "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci." Some of these publishers produce quite good quality books, some do not.

A classic example of the "not good quality" is the imprint of "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci" published by General Books LLC.

The version published by General Books LLC is scanned in using OCR technology (and using pretty poor quality OCR scanning equipment and software from the look of their books), is overall of very poor print quality, automated reproduction with no index, no illustrations and an excessive number of typos. Also, there's no illustrations (which are pretty fundamental to any book on or by Leonardo Da Vinci)

To quote a few specifics from the publishers web site:
"We created your book using OCR software that includes an automated spell check. Our OCR software is 99 percent accurate if the book is in good condition. However, with up to 3,500 characters per page, even one percent can be an annoying number of typos....

After we re-typeset and designed your book, the page numbers change so the old index and table of contents no longer work. Therefore, we usually remove them. Since many of our books only sell a couple of copies, manually creating a new index and table of contents could add more than a hundred dollars to the cover price....

Our OCR software can't distinguish between an illustration and a smudge or library stamp so it ignores everything except type. We would really like to manually scan and add the illustrations. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies....

We created your book using a robot who turned and photographed each page. Our robot is 99 percent accurate. But sometimes two pages stick together. And sometimes a page may even be missing from our copy of the book. We would really like to manually scan each page and buy multiple copies of each original. But many of our books only sell a couple of copies....."

General Books LLC are flooding Amazon with these low quality publications (450,000+ listed under General Books LLC) and, unfortunately, many of them have the reviews associated with the original or with better quality imprints associated with them. The product description is totally misleading for the buyer that's not aware of this publisher. IMHO this is unethical marketing.

A general rule of thumb for these Print on Demand publishers is to take a look at the cover - if it's a good quality illustration that reflects the content, there's a table of contents, and when you do the Look Inside thing there's no disclaimer saying you're looking at another book, and they've used facsimile reproduction technology (rather than OCR), it's usually a pretty safe bet. Conversely, if any of these are missing, you're taking a chance on the quality. I've bought a few based on my selection criteria above and they've been ggod quality. General Books LLC however, is a publisher to steer clear of at all costs.

book
This is not what I thought it would be when I ordered it. No pictures. Since I got it free, I can't complain about the price.

BUMMER!!!!
I expected thoughts and drawings, but the Kindle version has no drawings and the entire format is ackward.I was hoping for something that would engage my imagination and entice my intellect, but not in this format.Skip the Kindle version.

Incomprehensible
A notebook without his drawings is like a belly with no intestines inside. Or maybe like a Mona Lisa with a frown instead. Huge disappointment. Complete, indeed!

The first Renaissance man
Nothing of Leonardo DAVinci's sketchbooks were published until the 20th century.These are some of the most important documents of the Renaissance, and they did not become known until the 20th century.There are still people who do not know how important this work was.His anatomical studies were a watershed moment, because they introduced visual diagrams as the standard for communicating knowledge of the body and self.This was no more and no less than the conviction that the true knowledge of the shape of any body could only be arrived at by seeing it from different aspects.The truth of the body, the truth of the human being can only be discovered by looking at the body from multiple aspects, like; level, motion, perspective, transformation and growth.He opened up the body, it had always been closed, now its open.Now, what goes on inside the body is going to give us the essence of what it means to be human.It is the internal struggle, the self with the self, within .you.When you look at his sketchbooks, you see just one place where the whole world opens up.

What you have on Kindle are the notes from his sketch books.

Leonardo DAVinci invented the modern self.He invented the modern self precisely in this way, through the perspective of disappearance.What he tells reality and us about the self is that it only exists by that which is perceived by the eye.Reality is a product of nature; reality is that which we perceive by the eye.Reality is only that by which we can see.Moreover, in his notebooks he gives us another foundational belief about the human subject and its form.That the sound rules are the issue of sound experience and observation.Experience and observation can only be our best teacher.Of course, this is also, what Voltaire is telling us to by the way.The challenge comes when we realize that we are both to the subject observing and the object that is observed.In our search for self, we experience a kind of division between our constitutions as objects and our constitution as subjects.However, when we look at the human form, when we look at the self we find that the body is in harmony with nature, and that it is in harmony within nature.How does DA Vinci make these kinds of claims?Alternatively, how does he ground these kinds of claims with the function of the eye or the power of the eye?Well, one of the ways he does it is thru the camera obscura.Earliest record of use of camera obscura is in DA Vinci's writings.The camera obscura gave birth to the science of optics, the science of seeing.It is with DA Vinci, that the science of seeing became the foundation of self-representation, a representation called the self, thus the representation of the human form.Now DA Vinci embodied his own concept of the painter, as philosophers.He saw painters principally as natural philosophers.To him, nature was all important, absolute, the image of the eternal.In one very significant passage of his notebooks, he defines the relationship of art to nature and its process of evolution."The painter will produce pictures of small merit, if he takes for his standard the pictures of others.If he will study from natural objects, he will bear good fruit, as was seen in the painters after the Romans always imitating each other until their art constantly declined from age to age.Therefore, this was paramount for him in some ways what he was doing, and thinking was very radical and revolutionary and in other ways, it was very traditional.He appears to be quite a traditionalist, he studied ancient sources, Greeks, medieval sources, he studied anatomy, and these traditions get him to compare the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the world.These analogies extend to everything that he attempted to trace, to record and to know about the human form.Comparisons between the arteries in the body and the underground rivers of the earth.The flow of blood to the head in relation to the circulation of water to the summits of mountains.How does blood get to your head?If you want to understand that then understand how water flows up to mountains.Blood when it bursts in the veins of your nose and water rushing out of a vein in the earth.Almost everything that occurs in the human body can be found in the natural world.His interest in these analogies becomes very evident in the notebooks and sketchbooks.Scholars argue that these microcosm and macrocosm analogies are more than outright comparisons that belong to a pre scientific age, they lead him to compare the study of the body and Ptolemy's study of the earth.Consequently to use Ptolemy's method in the geography as the starting point for his own systematic study of anatomy.Therefore, anatomy and geography here become one in DA Vinci's mind.The forms of the earth and those of the human body have a parallel. "Thus in 15 entire figures you will have set before you the microcosm on the same plan as was before me adapted by Ptolemy in his cosmology, and so I shall afterwards divide them into limbs as he divided the whole world into processes.Then, I will speak of the function of each part in every direction putting before your eyes a description of the whole form and substance of man as regards his movements from place to place by means of these different parts.Thus if it please our great author I may demonstrate the nature of men and their customs in a way I describe this figure."Therefore, within the human form and within the kind of intricate details of human anatomy he discovered a way of describing and recording, not only the geographical construction of the natural world, but of Divinity itself.And when you look more closely at the system he devised to study the body, the more carefully you look at his drawings of the human form the more clearly you begin to recognize how strikingly stunningly original it is.

Earlier authors had relied exclusively on verbal descriptions of the human body.The human body had been a verbal entity but he emphasis visual description and some of the illustrations he has to bring visual dimensions to the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle the descriptions put forward by these men he presents in visual terms in these kind of body scapes.In the course of 20 years, roughly from 1489 to the end of his life, he dissected about 19 corpses and became very much obsessed with dissection.He drew these parts of bodies in minute detail every part of the human anatomy, he would draw each piece separately, together and at different angles.He laid out bodies in his drawings to mime classical poses in painting.He is referencing the history of art with the poses and the visual representation of the human subject.It is presented to us that deeply challenge these values of human nature, of life and death of living form and the cadaver it really raises some profound questions.The problem is in order to get to those questions, in order to explore some of the deeper philosophical implications of his work you have to get past the gross factor and the moral and ethical questions that his work raises.He is an artist that works very consciously with the sense of the ethical lines that he is crossing; he is not an artist that wants to make you comfortable.He sees that blood gets in the way of his observations, so he advises that you make a model of the body part and then you draw it.Model making and scientific art go hand in hand for him.You have to reconstruct reality before you can represent it.Therefore, before you can draw what is real you have to make it yourself.One of the most striking features of the notebooks is the manner in which he presents his work to us.There are no criticisms of the shortcomings that he has discovered in earlier authors, he does not boast about his own accomplishments, his writing style is pedagogical, and he is writing a teaching manual with descriptions and advice.Therefore, if you want to draw a lung, here is how you should do it.What he is trying to do is to convey to a larger audience this method of presentation and by representing human form, he relies on diagrams, and his reliance apparently causes some serious problems for the printing presses of the day.It also caused real issues for publishers because of the graphic nature of the work.

This was very important for medicine.He shows us we can separate human emotions and passions from the human body in understanding human form, and what it means to be human.There is a purely clinical dimension and this other dimension of feelings and emotions, and they do not have to come together at all, this is radical.

Thus again, this inside outside, you see it everywhere in his work.Why are we fascinated with the painting of the Mona Lisa?Because of the question we always ask, what is going on inside?The study of the Mona Lisa, it seems to me has always been organized around precisely the question that drove DA Vinci in his research.All his sketches in this obsessive and fanatical devotion to drawing every part of the body in relationship to every other part of the body at multiple levels and multiple perspectives and in motion, outside inside.There is the outside, what is going on inside, isn't that why we are obsessed with this?This painting just demands that we try to find out what is going on underneath.The truth is underneath, behind her smile, something she is keeping from us.Yet she is revealing just enough of it to make us have to find out what is going on inside of her.It is that relationship once again between the inside and the outside.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities.Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, art, and science.
... Read more

Product Description
Genius is made, not born. And human beings are gifted with an almost unlimited potential for learning and creativity. Now you can uncover your own hidden abilities, sharpen your senses, and liberate your unique intelligence--by following the example of the greatest genius of all time, Leonardo da Vinci.

Acclaimed author Michael J. Gelb, who has helped thousands of people expand their minds to accomplish more than they ever thought possible, shows you how. Drawing on Da Vinci's notebooks, inventions, and legendary works of art, Gelb introduces Seven Da Vincian Principles--the essential elements of genius--from curiosità, the insatiably curious approach to life to connessione, the appreciation for the interconnectedness of all things. With Da Vinci as your inspiration, you will discover an exhilarating new way of thinking. And step-by-step, through exercises and provocative lessons, you will harness the power--and awesome wonder--of your own genius, mastering such life-changing abilities as:

• Problem solving
  
• Creative thinking
  
• Self-expression
  
• Enjoying the world around you
  
• Goal setting and life balance
  
• Harmonizing body and mind
  

Gelb discusses each of these principles inrelation to what da Vinci accomplished, thereby giving this book abuilt-in history lesson. The illustrations from the master's work andtime add a nice warmth to the work. As the president of NPR said afterworking with Gelb, this is a program recommended for "anyone who wantsto experience a personal and professional Renaissance." ... Read more

Customer Reviews (129)

Stick with the hard copy vs electronic
I own both the hard copy and the electronic version for my iPad ... The electronic version has too many typo errorsand changes in it, it is still readable but should be proof read again and if possible a better revised issue put together.As I said in an email to Michael Gelb, if the electronic version would have been my first purchase I would be asking for a refund.

How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day
I love the material. It holds my interest and keeps it. My biggest problem are the amount of typos in the Kindle version. I found it hard to read at times because I knew the word (or jumble of letters) was not the word meant (in one instance the word East was replaced by the word Last in more than one location). A simple spell check/grammar check would have spruced this up and made it 5 stars for me. There are also places where, in the hardback, there are obviously extra material in a box in the middle of a longer section. (I know there's a name for this, but I can't think what it is.) This boxed section is merely inserted into the larger section wherever it happens to fall. I would think that the larger section should be finished first, then add supplemental material. It's rather jarring the way it is.
For me, the fact that despite these gross issues, I have rated this with 3 stars should say clearly that the material is very well written and interesting. It's just the editing that throws me.

Focusing On The Whole
I quickly read the book,How To Think Like Leonard da Vinci,when it was published sometime after 2000,but did not complete the exercises,or mind mapping.

Now that I am approaching retirement,I am studying the book,doing the exercises and mind mapping as a method to plan retirement activities in an interesting and orderly fashion. I purchased the audio to listen to when driving or walking,as a supplemental means to learn and reinforce the concepts,and have found it to be very helpful.

The core of the book and audio is a discussion of the da Vinci principles:connessione(interconnectedness),and it has been rewarding. Contained within connessione are: curiosita(continuous learning);dimostrazione(learning from experience);sensazione(refining the senses);sfumato (embracing uncertainty); arte/scienza(a balance between logic and imagination);corporalita(poise and fitness).

Mind mapping is also extensively explained as a creative way to plan and develop solutions, as opposed to the traditional linear, left brain procedure.

The da Vinci principles and mind mapping will keep me active in learning and doing new and interesting things as I transition from work to leisure, although these principles are not limited to only those retiring.

Great book, Love the insights from this Author!
Think like Leonardo was a great read!I loved the idea that IQ is not a constant.I believe we can all increase and continue to learn untill we pass away.I think the author does a fabulous job of making that case for the reader.I also love teh disciplines that Leonardo used to increase is knowledge and experience in everything from taste and sound, to science and discovery.I would be thrilled if I get to experience half of the knowledge this genius was exposed too!

A fun read
This book challenges you to think in ways you haven't done before, in order to expand your mind and appreciation of the arts.It's a fun read. ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (6)

Grandson Delighted!
My grandson requested some da Vinci readings and I found this project book that went through some of the inventions that were buildable. He was delighted!

Inspiring
We received this book within five days, and before the sun set that afternoon, my nine-year-old grandson had constructed three sizes of the trebuchet by following the instructions.

Great Book!
I purchased this book after I saw the "Leonardo di Vinci" exhibit at my local museum.This particular exhibt showcased his inventions, not his artwork.There were many full size replicas of machines that he thought of that were actually built for this exhibit.I was intrigued by the bridge that could be built with just a few stick and got stronger the more weight you put on it.After putting the dowel sized replica together at the exhibit, I had to have one for myself to build. That's the primary reason I purchased this book.Now that I have it in my hands, I've been going over the different activities I can do with my baby siblings, and I'm so excited I have this book in hand.I'd highly recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in "how things work" and science in general.

Amazing Leonardo da Vinci Inventions You Can Build Yourself (Build It Yourself series)
I purchased this book as a cross curricular lesson. Although I teach science there is history, strategies, art, and exposure to building simple machines. I am using the book to make shoe box activities for me students and update myself on the wonders of Leonardo.

Hands on History
We are homeschoolers using this book in part of a unit on Inventors. My eight year old is able to read and enjoy the history behind the different inventions. I thought it would just be a "how to" book, but we are both really enjoying the well written historical information in this book. It really makes Leonardo and the world he lived in come alive.I like to just browse through the book and look at all of Leonardo's sketches as well.

The pictures and instructions are fairly easy to follow. The inventions do use common items, but we don't always have the right "common" items at the right times. We have modified most of the directions to use what we actually have in our house. Today we wanted to make the camera obscura, but we just threw out our last empty Pringles can... guess we'll be eating lots of chips in the next week :) ... Read more

Product Description
The award-winning and bestselling collection of the exquisite, annotated notebooks of Leonardo now in paperback. Culled from more than 7,000 pages of sketches and writings found in various rare books, papers, and other resources throughout the world, Leonardo's Notebooks presents, for the first time, an exhaustive collection of the insights and brilliance of perhaps the finest mind the world has ever known.

H. Anna Suh selected the most fascinating of these studies, penned in the mid-15th century, and compiled them into one monumental volume that showcases Leonardo's observations and clearly illustrates them with more than 1,000 of his original sketches and exquisite line drawings. These elegant studies are of myriad topics, such as the nature of water, light and shade, perspective, philosophy, botany, astronomy, the proportions of the human figure, and many other subjects. The artwork has been carefully arranged with the text to augment and illuminate Leonardo's writings. In addition, his handwritten notes and fascinating marginalia are deciphered and translated.
... Read more

Customer Reviews (23)

davini notebooks
definitly the best book you can find without having to pay 60 dollars for the full out notebooks, it tells you what he says in sidenotes on the page but sometimes can be hard to distinguish which note it is, sometimes the note is on a totally different page, still worth the money though

A great book
I've been enjoying this great book.It has wonderful drawings by Leondardo DaVinci. These I will use as a good way to "copy the masters".It's alway good to practice drawing and there are wonderful drawings throughout the book to copy.It is well written and explains a little history behind the man.Then the rest of the book is filled with his actual writings and traslated for all to read.This would be a great book for someone wanting to improve their drawing skills.

Insightful and Inspiring! A worthy tribute to Da Vinci by Anna Suh!
I purchased this book to further explore Da Vinci's concepts of beauty and aesthetics, particularly on beauty of the human face.As a facial plastic and cosmetic surgeon, I'm constantly seeking to learn more about our concepts facial beauty across various cultures.Da Vinci's notes on the ideal facial proportions was enlightening.After reading this chapter, it's no secret why he was a master of his crafts as a painter and sculptor.He was able to recreate beauty observed in nature because he understand how divine proportions fit together.
The reproductions of his original of his original notes in sepia tone was quite good and made reading this book very enjoyable.Definitely a soon-to-be classic for coffee tables and my cosmetic surgery reception room.

[...]

Best book on Leonardo Da Vinci
This book is full of illustrations.There are pictures of Leonardos notebooks.You get to see exactly how he drew everything.The author also give great insight to much of Da Vincis life and work.

The Amazing Leonardo
Everyone - every household, evey school room, every library should have Leonardo's Notebooks.He is among the world's most profound thinkers - way ahead of his time.As an artist - peerless -as a designer and a scientist awesome - the list goes on and one.There is somehting for absolutely everyone. ... Read more

Product Description
FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY. Presents the life and accomplishments of the famous artist, scientist, engineer, and inventor. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (4)

Great for reluctant readers
My 12-year-old hates reading on his own with a passion. So when he had to do a biogragphy on Leonardo for school, we both dreaded the process.He got a book from the school library and tried to wade through it, but he wasn't getting much usable information out of it because it was too long and complicated.I ordered this book four days before his assignment was due as a last desperate measure.Boy were we glad I did!This book was wonderful for my reluctant reader.It was informative but not overwhelming for a child who doesn't like to read.The basic information on Leonardo was enhanced with illustrations, timelines and information boxes on the Renaissance.I would highly recommend this book.

Who Was Leonardo da Vinci?
The friends at my school read Who Was? Books too. so, i decided to read them and they're SO COOL! I Own 12 Who Was? Books and have read 18. Who Was? Books are so popular at my school. My friend that i was talking about read all the Who Was? Books and has 16.

Great subject for a children book.
Great subject for a children book. I got this series of books for my daughter and she really enjoyes reading them. Great read and educational too.

i can't wait to get the whole series
This is one of the best biographies aimed at children that I have ever read.The main narrative is interspersed with sidebars about different historical explanations about relevant topics such as the invention of paper, ranking of workers within the guild system, Copernicus,The illustrations by True Kelley are light-hearted, accessible, and they carry the text.How else do you explain a painting? ... Read more

Product Description
First published in France, Serge Bramly's acclaimed biography reveals Leonardo to be as complicated, seductive, and profoundly sympathetic as the figures he painted. Bramly spent five years gathering evidence to reconstruct the artist's life--from his early years as an illegitimate child to his death in the arms of the King of France. Four pages of color photographs; 75 B&W photos. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (19)

Art should act on people, disturb and influence them (L. da Vinci)
Against the background of relentless warring about and between the Italian city States, Serge Bramly brushes a complete and in depth portrait of Leonardo da Vinci, his vision on art, the man, his philosophy and religion, the artist (painter, sculptor, architect), the civil and military engineer and the scientist (hydraulics, optics, acoustics, mathematics, geometry, astronomy, anatomy).

Leonardo's vision on art
For Leonardo, art should not be ornamental, but act on people, disturb and influence them. He set thereby an ambitious and formidable goal for himself and also for all true art-ists (not only painters) after him. His paintings are the most vandalized in the entire history of art and have been attacked with stones and knives. One was even burned (Leda).
His vision on art was adopted and adapted by Schopenhauer.

The man
Leonardo was a bastard: `As the illegitimate child of a small-time notary, he could have no hope of a traditional career.' At the age of 17-18 (very late) he found a job as an apprentice in a painting shop (bottega).
There are plenty of indications that Leonardo was gay. He had a weakness for bad boys with pretty faces. He was even accused of sodomy. But in the Renaissance homosexuality was socially acceptable, if discreet.
On the other hand, Leonardo considered the flesh pleasure to be dangerous and absurd, being responsible not only for the absurd multiplication of human beings, but also for various diseases.
After the `gay affair' (and perhaps a few days in prison), he hid his beauty under a long beard. He lived in secrecy, but still in constant fear of malicious gossip which could arouse scandal, a bad reputation and loss of liberty.

Philosophy, religion
His moral philosophy was based on a single maxim: respect all life.
Leonardo was a deist and a staunch anticlericalist. He despised the priests, 'who trade in simulated miracles duping the foolish multitude'. He protested against the sale of indulgences, obligatory confession and the cult of the saints. In the commercial exploitation of pious objects, he saw `Christ once more being sold and crucified and his saints martyred.'

The artist
He was hired by the bottega of Andrea Verrochio, an innovator, who taught him not to repeat what had already been done, not to become a vulgar copyist.
Under the influence of Giotto, he returned to nature as a source of inspiration.
Technically, he adopted Masaccio's solution for creating relief (`the very soul of painting').
In his whole life, he completed only 9 paintings.

Based on Giorgio Vasari's work (`Life of the Artists') and Leonardo's Notebooks, Serge Bramly wrote a sublime biography of one of the first artists with a `real' mission in the history of art.
A must read for all those interested in Western (art) history.

This book crackes the code...
Are you a fan of the Da Vinci Code movie or book? Then this book might not be your cup of tea.

Leonardo: The Artist and the Man covers the real life and era of this legendary painter, sculptor and inventor. Sorting out the life of this genius must have taken the author years to conclude, as Leonardo left thousands of manuscripts, sketches and unfinished paintings behind. Throw into the mix the fact that most paintings have been finalized by his helps and restorated throughout the centuries by incompetent painters and you've got yourself a huge mess to sort out.

Yet this book grabs the core of the man Leonardo. He was versatile, untiring, dedicated to learning and not confined to just one trade. Apart from being a great book to read, you can really learn something from it. As Leonardo always figured, everything is in relation with each other. Although jobs are far more professionalized nowadays, this is still very much true.

So if you're interested in his works or if you want to learn more about one of the legendary historic figures the 16th century had to offer, grab a copy of this book. It will not only extend your own boundaries, but is a great read as well put into a delicate perspective by the writer.

An excellent summary of an amazing life
This is a well written biography of an amazing man. Leonardo's accomplishments are placed within the context of the history happening around him, providing many alleys to explore.

So much you probably didn't know
Amazing book of the man everyone knows.He was ahead of his time filled with ideas and an intellect which added depth to all his interests.

The genius that is Leonardo from a different perspective
This book is more than a simple biography.Mr Bramly writes about his subject with such warmth and familiarity that you forget this is all based on meticulous research, that our subject died nearly 500 years ago and that only a small portion of his art, inventions and writings remain.Far from a dry "birth to death" review, this book has succeeded in bringing the multi-faceted genious that is Leonardo to life - not as an unaccessable giant but as a dreamer, inventer, loyal son, adventurer, self-educated scholar, perfectionist ... all the while possessing of a tortured soul.This is by far one of the most readable and well written biographies I have read and I applaud Mr Bramly for writing such a scholarly information-pacted page turner. ... Read more

Product Description
In the bestselling tradition of The Artist's Way Morning Pages Journal, The Simple Abundance Journal of Gratitude and The Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Workbook comes The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook--the companion volume to Michael Gelb's 1998 Delacorte hardcover bestseller.

Created to structure and motivate the reader's development of the seven da Vincian principles introduced in How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook represents the natural extension of Gelb's da Vinci line. As any modern da Vinci student knows, Leonardo's notebook both served as the incubator and repository of his unique genius and provides the foundation of any modern-day student's attempt to emulate that genius on his own. From the very first exercise in the original How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, Gelb encourages readers to keep their own personal notebooks in which to hone their da Vincian skills; now he provides that notebook for them, with the added bonus of tips on exercises they'll recognize and new suggestions and assignments that will build on the work they've already done.

Designed to echo the inviting look of How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci, and structured to help readers focus on each of the seven genius principles, The How to Think Like Leonardo da Vinci Workbook is a companion volume that truly complements and enhances the reader's experience of the original book on which it's based.Amazon.com Review
Leonardo da Vinci is the perfect antidote to a dumbed-downworld. Perfect for anyone with similar aspirations forself-actualization, the exercises in The How to Think Like Leonardoda Vinci Workbook are designed to provide a lifetime of cerebralexpansion, using the seven parameters laid out in How to Think Like Leonardo daVinci: curiosity; developing knowledge though experience;sensual refinement; a willingness to embrace ambiguity and paradox;linking the scientific and creative sides of the brain; physical poiseand fitness; and understanding the connectedness of all life.

Forexample, to develop curiosity, one of the exercises has you ask peopleyou respect to assess your strengths and weaknesses and to offer waysin which you could improve. Uncomfortable? Probably, for bothparties. But if you're not curious about how others perceive you,you've closed off entire corridors leading toward self-knowledge andself-improvement. In the section on knowledge and experience, Gelb hasyou write down each new word you come across, along with itsdefinition, and practice using it as often as you can. Da Vinci, hesays, recorded 9,000 words this way. As Gelb notes in hisintroduction, this isn't a book that can be fully used up in a week oreven a year; it could take 10 years to perform all these exercises. Itwould take months just to listen to the 10 greatest pieces ofclassical music he lists in the section on sensual refinement, andthen listen to them played by different orchestras and conductors todistinguish subtle differences in interpretation. And, certainly, thesimmeringly sensual recipes listed in that same section could lead tosome very cozy evenings over the course of a lifetime. --LouSchuler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (10)

A good companion for those who want to increase their creativity
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3U8D90RASM3VA Jurgen Wolff, author of "Creativity Now!" reviews Michael Gelb's companion workbook--and the blankish pages that make up the other half as a notebook. Creativity Now: Get inspired, create ideas and make them happen now!

Good Companion to Parent Book
I bought this workbook along with the parent book, "How to think like Da vinci."

I truly enjoyed the parent book, and actually did some of the exercises (the 100 question one specifically). Some of the exercises seemed kind of contrived. If I had it to do over again, I would not buy the workbook, but would instead just buy a journal (as the book suggests) and record your creativity ideas there and do what exercises you desire out of the book and record the results in your journal. This way you are working in one journal.

I do not mean for this to take away from the Main book at all. This workbook seems to be more of a marketing device that a very useful too.

Leon

Wonderful treasure to share with the whole family!
I was looking for something to share with my daughter for her Home school projects but fell in love with this book and workbook for myself instead!
This is a wonderful book to thrill and inspire you to learn new things about yourself every day! Why rush through it?!It was meant to be savored slowly like wine and cheese so don't rush your way through it!
I AM a Leonardo da Vincian Thinker!

My organization now thinks like Leonardo
I bought this book and the companion workbook, read it, then had a presentation done for my professional organization of which I am the state president this year.It was smashing!

I recomend this to anyone who is interested in learning how to "think outside the box" and to really explore how to think and approach everyday things in a different manner.

These books lend themselves well to seminars for groups and for academia.

Great way to step back and relook your life
At first I was skeptical but the workbook has turned out great.I have been using it on and off at times in my life when a lot of things are going on and I need a way to rethink about what I am really doing with my life.It may not be for everyone but for the few people who are ambitious or have lots of intrest, this book can help bring everything in perspective.It's not even that expensive.Also, it doubles as a journal if you don't care for the exercises. ... Read more

Product Description
The book has no illustrations or index. Purchasers are entitled to a free trial membership in the General Books Club where they can select from more than a million books without charge. Subjects: Leonardo - Notebooks, sketchbooks, etc; Art; Art / Individual Artist; Art / History / General; Science / General; Art / General; ... Read more

Product Description

An unwanted child. A brilliant genius.

Born in 1452 to a peasant woman and a country gentleman, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most amazing people who ever lived. He grew up to be a great painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and inventor.

As a boy, Leonardo was apprenticed to a famous artist. But he quickly became more skillful than his teacher, and his passionate interests went far beyond art. Fascinated with the human body, he carried out his own experiments in secret. He filled thousands of pages with plans for incredible inventions including a submarine, an air-cooling system, "glasses to see the moon large," and even a flying machine!

In this magnificent addition to a distinguished series that includes Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, award-winning author-artist Diane Stanley blends wonderful storytelling with gorgeous illustrations to convey the

A 1996 ALA Notable Book
A 1997 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book for Nonfiction
A 1997 Orbis Pictus Award
A 1996 Publishers Weekly Best Books Award

Customer Reviews (8)

Great book for kids
I bought this for a summer reading project for my daughter and she loved it from the first sentence.Great book.

www.lazyreaders.com book club recommendation for April 2006
I get this feeling that interest in Leonardo da Vinci is going to really increase next month (there's this little film called "The Da Vinci Code" coming out, based on a modestly-selling book). If you are too lazy to read an adult biography on Leonardo (and I am), this book provides an excellent glimpse into da Vinci's life and artwork. Kids love the pictures, and I love subversively introducing students to paintings (even though art is no longer taught in most schools). For more cool adult, young adult and children's book recommendations (under 250 pages), visit www.lazyreaders.com.

His name is Leo
Leonardo Da Vinci is, in many ways, the perfect subject for a children's biography.Above and beyond his myriad of accomplishments (scientist, inventor, artist) his life is one of adventure and interest.The illegitimate son of a leading man of Vinci, Leonardo went into the artistic life precisely because he was considered too base for a, "noble profession".

This book is a combination of good artistry and confounding problems.On the one hand, Stanley has drawn beautiful accompanying pictures for each point in Leonardo's life.On the other hand, these pictures sometimes take liberties with the few details of the artist's life we know of.When the text states that Leonardo, "found a loving friend in his young uncle Francesco", the accompanying picture shows the boy piggyback on his uncle.It would be nice if such facts were given appropriate footnotes, but all sources are listed in the end of the book without any references to pages.Also, the aging of Leonardo is a little haphazard.One moment he's a young man writing a letter.The next moment he's bearded and about to slice up a corpse.The Duchy of Milan is described as having black hair and dark skin, but appears to be more of a slightly tan Italian.These are tiny details, but they distract from an otherwise interesting text.

Undoubtedly, the actual drawings and sketches Leonardo made in his lifetime are some of the best parts of this book.It would have been nice if Stanley had included more of them in the story.Leonardo's paintings are nicely presented, but they're usually seen from a distance.At no point do we get a detailed and close look at any art that Leonardo created.Finally, a timeline would have been helpful in this story, but it has not been included.

None of this is to say that Stanley hasn't taken a difficult subject and made an interesting book out of it.The final product is a bit too advanced for those children accustomed to reading picture books, but older kids may shy away from the type of book they would consider "babyish".Open minded children may be the best audience for this piece of non-fiction.For those of you who would like something a little more in depth and interesting, I recommend "Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer".In interesting book that suffers from an array of tiny nagging problems.

Leonard Da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man
The cover of this excellent juvenile biography of Leonardo Da Vinci is quite interesting because it shows him as a young man in front of the background from his most famous painting, the "Mona Lisa."I saw a story once that compared the face of the "Mona Lisa" with the famous red ink drawing of Da Vinci as an old man, which did size comparisons and argued they were the same.In other words, the "Mona Lisa" is really a self-portrait of Da Vinci.This makes a bit of sense since the artist worked on it for years, obviously with the benefit of a model.Diane Stanley's cover painting, intentionally or not, references this intriguing hypothesis.

Stanley does some fascinating things with the art throughout this book.She puts reproductions of Da Vinci's actual paintings into her own works and includes various drawings by Da Vinci to complement her text.Young readers will learn about the highlights of Da Vinci's life, both as an artist and as an inventor.Consequently, they will see not only the painting of "The Last Supper" but the flying machine he designed.In a fascinating postscript Stanley details what happened to the grave of Da Vinci and what few of his paintings remain.Stanley provides an excellent introduction to the life of the original Renaissance Man.

A typical Diane Stanley Book!
For those who do not yet know, Diane Stanley writes the best kid-level biographies out there, and Leonardo da Vinci is no exception. She carefully traces his life from birth (including alluding to the legitamacy question) to death. Worked into the illustrations are many of Leonardo's works (so that you needn't buy a separate book for your child to appreciate them). A wonderful book that should be mandatory reading! ... Read more

Product Description

Customer Reviews (20)

Looking into the mind of a master...
This book is very intriguing reading for any fan of Leonardo da Vinci! It does lack any drawing/images, but is an excellent collection of his writings.

The Mind of a Genius
Step into the mind of a true genius! This book is filled with Leonardo's insightful thoughts and interpretations about a wide variety of topics such as: the elements, flight, art, and even some short tales. It contains a small biography of Leonardo giving the reader a good sense of setting. It also organizes Leonardo's notebooks into basic and easy to follow categories, allowing the reader to pick and choose what interests them the most. This makes the book a joy to read. It does not have to be read front to back; the reader is able to skip around and read what they feel like at that moment. On the downside there are a few minor details that damper its enjoyment. The first is the enormous amount of references to manuscripts. In the reading they have annotations which point to the back where the manuscripts are listed, but this creates confusion while reading, since many of the references are not well known. The other downside is the lack of illustrations. Even though there are a couple integrated into the writing, Leonardo was known for his many sketches, and the lack of these leaves the reader with a sense of emptiness for Leonardo's thoughts. Overall this book is a well organized piece of Leonardo Da Vinci's deepest thoughts, allowing the reader to dive into the mind of a mastermind.

Do you want to read or look at the art of Da Vinci?
I'm not much of a reader and it's not blatantly spelled out in this book's description BUT if you're looking for a book with DaVinci's art DO NOT LOOK HERE!

The Biggest Disappointment
With pictures all over the CD I was led to believe that at least minimal effort would have gone into including at least some of the illustrations from Leonardo Da Vinci's notebooks.Not one illustration is included on the CD let alone the complete works. :( While having the footnotes is potentially useful for scholars, having the illustrations would have been far better.

The product description needs to be re-written to include the fact that this is a text only presentation and thus not as complete as the title leads one to believe. In fact, the title should be properly revised as well because it is deceptive.

The first Renaissance man
Nothing of Leonardo DAVinci's sketchbooks were published until the 20th century.These are some of the most important documents of the Renaissance, and they did not become known until the 20th century.There are still people who do not know how important this work was.His anatomical studies were a watershed moment, because they introduced visual diagrams as the standard for communicating knowledge of the body and self.This was no more and no less than the conviction that the true knowledge of the shape of any body could only be arrived at by seeing it from different aspects.The truth of the body, the truth of the human being can only be discovered by looking at the body from multiple aspects, like; level, motion, perspective, transformation and growth.He opened up the body, it had always been closed, now its open.Now, what goes on inside the body is going to give us the essence of what it means to be human.It is the internal struggle, the self with the self, within .you.When you look at his sketchbooks, you see just one place where the whole world opens up.

Leonardo DAVinci-- Leonardo DAVinci invented the modern self.He invented the modern self precisely in this way, through the perspective of disappearance.What he tells reality and us about the self is that it only exists by that which is perceived by the eye.Reality is a product of nature; reality is that which we perceive by the eye.Reality is only that by which we can see.Moreover, in his notebooks he gives us another foundational belief about the human subject and its form.That the sound rules are the issue of sound experience and observation.Experience and observation can only be our best teacher.Of course, this is also, what Voltaire is telling us to by the way.The challenge comes when we realize that we are both to the subject observing and the object that is observed.In our search for self, we experience a kind of division between our constitutions as objects and our constitution as subjects.However, when we look at the human form, when we look at the self we find that the body is in harmony with nature, and that it is in harmony within nature.How does DA Vinci make these kinds of claims?Alternatively, how does he ground these kinds of claims with the function of the eye or the power of the eye?Well, one of the ways he does it is thru the camera obscura.Earliest record of use of camera obscura is in DA Vinci's writings.The camera obscura gave birth to the science of optics, the science of seeing.It is with DA Vinci, that the science of seeing became the foundation of self-representation, a representation called the self, thus the representation of the human form.Now DA Vinci embodied his own concept of the painter, as philosophers.He saw painters principally as natural philosophers.To him, nature was all important, absolute, the image of the eternal.In one very significant passage of his notebooks, he defines the relationship of art to nature and its process of evolution."The painter will produce pictures of small merit, if he takes for his standard the pictures of others.If he will study from natural objects, he will bear good fruit, as was seen in the painters after the Romans always imitating each other until their art constantly declined from age to age.Therefore, this was paramount for him in some ways what he was doing, and thinking was very radical and revolutionary and in other ways, it was very traditional.He appears to be quite a traditionalist, he studied ancient sources, Greeks, medieval sources, he studied anatomy, and these traditions get him to compare the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the world.These analogies extend to everything that he attempted to trace, to record and to know about the human form.Comparisons between the arteries in the body and the underground rivers of the earth.The flow of blood to the head in relation to the circulation of water to the summits of mountains.How does blood get to your head?If you want to understand that then understand how water flows up to mountains.Blood when it bursts in the veins of your nose and water rushing out of a vein in the earth.Almost everything that occurs in the human body can be found in the natural world.His interest in these analogies becomes very evident in the notebooks and sketchbooks.Scholars argue that these microcosm and macrocosm analogies are more than outright comparisons that belong to a pre scientific age, they lead him to compare the study of the body and Ptolemy's study of the earth.Consequently to use Ptolemy's method in the geography as the starting point for his own systematic study of anatomy.Therefore, anatomy and geography here become one in DA Vinci's mind.The forms of the earth and those of the human body have a parallel. "Thus in 15 entire figures you will have set before you the microcosm on the same plan as was before me adapted by Ptolemy in his cosmology, and so I shall afterwards divide them into limbs as he divided the whole world into processes.Then, I will speak of the function of each part in every direction putting before your eyes a description of the whole form and substance of man as regards his movements from place to place by means of these different parts.Thus if it please our great author I may demonstrate the nature of men and their customs in a way I describe this figure."Therefore, within the human form and within the kind of intricate details of human anatomy he discovered a way of describing and recording, not only the geographical construction of the natural world, but of Divinity itself.And when you look more closely at the system he devised to study the body, the more carefully you look at his drawings of the human form the more clearly you begin to recognize how strikingly stunningly original it is.

Earlier authors had relied exclusively on verbal descriptions of the human body.The human body had been a verbal entity but he emphasis visual description and some of the illustrations he has to bring visual dimensions to the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle the descriptions put forward by these men he presents in visual terms in these kind of body scapes.In the course of 20 years, roughly from 1489 to the end of his life, he dissected about 19 corpses and became very much obsessed with dissection.He drew these parts of bodies in minute detail every part of the human anatomy, he would draw each piece separately, together and at different angles.He laid out bodies in his drawings to mime classical poses in painting.He is referencing the history of art with the poses and the visual representation of the human subject.It is presented to us that deeply challenge these values of human nature, of life and death of living form and the cadaver it really raises some profound questions.The problem is in order to get to those questions, in order to explore some of the deeper philosophical implications of his work you have to get past the gross factor and the moral and ethical questions that his work raises.He is an artist that works very consciously with the sense of the ethical lines that he is crossing; he is not an artist that wants to make you comfortable.He sees that blood gets in the way of his observations, so he advises that you make a model of the body part and then you draw it.Model making and scientific art go hand in hand for him.You have to reconstruct reality before you can represent it.Therefore, before you can draw what is real you have to make it yourself.One of the most striking features of the notebooks is the manner in which he presents his work to us.There are no criticisms of the shortcomings that he has discovered in earlier authors, he does not boast about his own accomplishments, his writing style is pedagogical, and he is writing a teaching manual with descriptions and advice.Therefore, if you want to draw a lung, here is how you should do it.What he is trying to do is to convey to a larger audience this method of presentation and by representing human form, he relies on diagrams, and his reliance apparently causes some serious problems for the printing presses of the day.It also caused real issues for publishers because of the graphic nature of the work.

This was very important for medicine.He shows us we can separate human emotions and passions from the human body in understanding human form, and what it means to be human.There is a purely clinical dimension and this other dimension of feelings and emotions, and they do not have to come together at all, this is radical.

Thus again, this inside outside, you see it everywhere in his work.Why are we fascinated with the painting of the Mona Lisa?Because of the question we always ask, what is going on inside?The study of the Mona Lisa, it seems to me has always been organized around precisely the question that drove DA Vinci in his research.All his sketches in this obsessive and fanatical devotion to drawing every part of the body in relationship to every other part of the body at multiple levels and multiple perspectives and in motion, outside inside.There is the outside, what is going on inside, isn't that why we are obsessed with this?This painting just demands that we try to find out what is going on underneath.The truth is underneath, behind her smile, something she is keeping from us.Yet she is revealing just enough of it to make us have to find out what is going on inside of her.It is that relationship once again between the inside and the outside.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities.Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, art, and science.

... Read more

Product Description
This is a spectacular gift book for children interested in how things work.This beautifully engineered glimpse into the world and works of Leonardo da Vinci is a spectacular 3-D celebration of one of the world's most creative minds. Presented as if it were the master's previously undiscovered private journal, it recreates his original notes, drawings and astonishing inventions. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

exceptional
wonderful book I'm fascinated by his thoughts and his incredible intelligence to see his inventions in 3d is exceptional. ... Read more

Product Description
The marriage of art and science is celebrated in this beautifully illustrated full-color biography and activity book of Leonardo da Vinci. Kids will be gin to understand the important discoveries that da Vinci made through inspiring activities, such as determining the launch of a catapult, sketching animals, creating a map, learning to look at a painting, and more. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (9)

Dive into the Renaissance with Da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci for Kids is a fascinating biography of a fascinating man with plenty of material to keep children and adults interested and amazed. The story details da Vinci's life, works, ideas and interests. His artistic and scientific creations and inventions cover an incredibly broad field - from his famous paintings to complex defense mechanisms for cities under siege to mechanical "creatures" to complex and artistically creative parties for important people of his day. The story is filled with fascinating details about his works, studies and ideas as well as many beautiful reproductions of his paintings and sketches. You'll find a resume that he wrote at the age of 30 for the ruler of Milan - offering his services as a military engineer! There are fascinating and sometimes humorous stories about how he prepared to design some of his greatest paintings, how he dealt with difficult clients and how some of his paintings were recovered centuries later.

Leonardo da Vinci has long been considered the paradigm "Renaissance Man". Through this book, he offers children a great example of enthusiastic love of life and learning. Readers will come away with a greater perspective on the importance and joy of learning, early advancements in science, general concepts of art and how to appreciate it, basic scientific concepts, ideas for using the imagination and memory, concepts in math relating to science, Renaissance life and much more.

I was impressed with the care the author took in relating so many interesting ideas in an accessible and engaging manner. I found difficult concepts handled graciously and respectfully - particularly for the intended age level. For example, the reader will learn that da Vinci's parents were never married and that this had consequences on his career choices. We learn that da Vinci dissected dead bodies at the morgue for the sake of artistic and scientific learning. At one point the Pope prohibits him from continuing this mode of study. Instead of being judgemental about these sorts of issues or dwelling on them inappropriately, they are explained in clear, simple terms as relevant parts of the story, but without any extra nonsense.

This book also includes 21 activities relating in various ways to da Vinci's life. They span a wide range: baking, drawing, math, science, painting, observing, language and more. The book is best for independent reading in 6th grade and up, though it could be read aloud to younger children.

once I find one error, how can I tell?
While I believe that da Vinci was a vegetarian, his minestrone would not have had tomatoes in it. (Tomatoes are a "New World" product that were introduced to Europe by Spanish explorers in the sixteenth century - and many did not eat them as they were known to be in the poisonous nightshade family.) Suddenly my concern is - how can I tell what other errors might be in this book?

not received
up to now the 3 itens do not arrived in my address.
I already wrote a message about that months ago.
Please do something

Sergio

A juvenile history of Da Vinci with 21 related activites
I have been going through some of the books by Janis Herbert and others than combine history with 21 activities, and as interesting as I have found those volumes to be I have to say I like the ones that deal with artists even more."Leonardo da Vinci for Kids: His Life and Ideas" combines a detailed juvenile biography of the life of the great inventor, military engineer, scientist, botanist, and mathematician who found time to be a great painter and sculptor as well.This was the man who painted the "Mona Lisa" and invented the armored tank, diving suit, bicycle and airplane centuries before they were built.He is also an important figure in what has been the novel that has been at the top of the bestseller list for like the past year.

The biography is divided into four sections, focusing on Leonardo's youth in Vinci, his years as a young apprentice, his period of greatest productivity in Milan, and his final years in Venice and France.The volume is illustrated with dozens of pictures of Leonardo's paintings and sketches, and the back of the book includes a Glossary, Biographies of key Renaissance artists (Botticelli, Michelangeo, etc.) and historical figures (Cesare Borgia, Ludovico Sforza, etc.), Web Sites to Explore, places where you can see some of Da Vinci's work, a Bibliography, Credits, and an Index.

The other half of the book are the 21 activities and the art lessons, because in addition to detailing da Vinci's life Herbert talks about perspective, vanishing points and the like.Some of these are just basic art lessons, such as sketching things by observing nature, painting birds, decorating a jar for holding paintbrushes, and making a small picture frame.Others are specific to the artwork of da Vinci, such as making a life mask, lute, notebook, a parachute kite, and learning to measure human bodies the way Leonardo did.You can even make a minestrone soup in honor of Leonardo the vegetarian or Salai's aniseed sweets.Still others deal with the history of the time, such as making a banner.

The net result is that "Leonardo da Vinci for Kids" does more than tell the story of his life and show examples of his great artwork, but provides young readers with an opportunity to try and do the same things.This book is also of great use to teachers doing units on Leonardo, the Renaissance, or art, who will be able to find both information and activities they can use in class.

Interesting, pretty pictures
Knowing little about art, I found this book easy to understand, enjoyable and informative.However, it is too advanced ("boring") for my almost 8 year old daughter.My opinion is that this book would be great for 10 and up. ... Read more

Product Description

An unwanted child. A brilliant genius.

Born in 1452 to a peasant woman and a country gentleman, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the most amazing people who ever lived. He grew up to be a great painter, sculptor, architect, scientist, and inventor.

As a boy, Leonardo was apprenticed to a famous artist. But he quickly became more skillful than his teacher, and his passionate interests went far beyond art. Fascinated with the human body, he carried out his own experiments in secret. He filled thousands of pages with plans for incredible inventions including a submarine, an air-cooling system, "glasses to see the moon large," and even a flying machine!

In this magnificent addition to a distinguished series that includes Cleopatra, Joan of Arc, and Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare, award-winning author-artist Diane Stanley blends wonderful storytelling with gorgeous illustrations to convey the

A 1996 ALA Notable Book
A 1997 Boston Globe-Horn Book Honor Book for Nonfiction
A 1997 Orbis Pictus Award
A 1996 Publishers Weekly Best Books Award

Customer Reviews (8)

Great book for kids
I bought this for a summer reading project for my daughter and she loved it from the first sentence.Great book.

www.lazyreaders.com book club recommendation for April 2006
I get this feeling that interest in Leonardo da Vinci is going to really increase next month (there's this little film called "The Da Vinci Code" coming out, based on a modestly-selling book). If you are too lazy to read an adult biography on Leonardo (and I am), this book provides an excellent glimpse into da Vinci's life and artwork. Kids love the pictures, and I love subversively introducing students to paintings (even though art is no longer taught in most schools). For more cool adult, young adult and children's book recommendations (under 250 pages), visit www.lazyreaders.com.

His name is Leo
Leonardo Da Vinci is, in many ways, the perfect subject for a children's biography.Above and beyond his myriad of accomplishments (scientist, inventor, artist) his life is one of adventure and interest.The illegitimate son of a leading man of Vinci, Leonardo went into the artistic life precisely because he was considered too base for a, "noble profession".

This book is a combination of good artistry and confounding problems.On the one hand, Stanley has drawn beautiful accompanying pictures for each point in Leonardo's life.On the other hand, these pictures sometimes take liberties with the few details of the artist's life we know of.When the text states that Leonardo, "found a loving friend in his young uncle Francesco", the accompanying picture shows the boy piggyback on his uncle.It would be nice if such facts were given appropriate footnotes, but all sources are listed in the end of the book without any references to pages.Also, the aging of Leonardo is a little haphazard.One moment he's a young man writing a letter.The next moment he's bearded and about to slice up a corpse.The Duchy of Milan is described as having black hair and dark skin, but appears to be more of a slightly tan Italian.These are tiny details, but they distract from an otherwise interesting text.

Undoubtedly, the actual drawings and sketches Leonardo made in his lifetime are some of the best parts of this book.It would have been nice if Stanley had included more of them in the story.Leonardo's paintings are nicely presented, but they're usually seen from a distance.At no point do we get a detailed and close look at any art that Leonardo created.Finally, a timeline would have been helpful in this story, but it has not been included.

None of this is to say that Stanley hasn't taken a difficult subject and made an interesting book out of it.The final product is a bit too advanced for those children accustomed to reading picture books, but older kids may shy away from the type of book they would consider "babyish".Open minded children may be the best audience for this piece of non-fiction.For those of you who would like something a little more in depth and interesting, I recommend "Leonardo: Beautiful Dreamer".In interesting book that suffers from an array of tiny nagging problems.

Leonard Da Vinci, the quintessential Renaissance Man
The cover of this excellent juvenile biography of Leonardo Da Vinci is quite interesting because it shows him as a young man in front of the background from his most famous painting, the "Mona Lisa."I saw a story once that compared the face of the "Mona Lisa" with the famous red ink drawing of Da Vinci as an old man, which did size comparisons and argued they were the same.In other words, the "Mona Lisa" is really a self-portrait of Da Vinci.This makes a bit of sense since the artist worked on it for years, obviously with the benefit of a model.Diane Stanley's cover painting, intentionally or not, references this intriguing hypothesis.

Stanley does some fascinating things with the art throughout this book.She puts reproductions of Da Vinci's actual paintings into her own works and includes various drawings by Da Vinci to complement her text.Young readers will learn about the highlights of Da Vinci's life, both as an artist and as an inventor.Consequently, they will see not only the painting of "The Last Supper" but the flying machine he designed.In a fascinating postscript Stanley details what happened to the grave of Da Vinci and what few of his paintings remain.Stanley provides an excellent introduction to the life of the original Renaissance Man.

A typical Diane Stanley Book!
For those who do not yet know, Diane Stanley writes the best kid-level biographies out there, and Leonardo da Vinci is no exception. She carefully traces his life from birth (including alluding to the legitamacy question) to death. Worked into the illustrations are many of Leonardo's works (so that you needn't buy a separate book for your child to appreciate them). A wonderful book that should be mandatory reading! ... Read more

Product Description
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) possessed one of the greatest minds of all time; his importance and influence are inestimable. This XXL-format comprehensive survey is the most complete book ever made on the subject of this Italian painter, sculptor, architect, engineer, scientist and all-around genius. With huge, full-bleed details of Leonardo's masterworks, this highly original publication allows the reader to inspect the subtlest facets of his brushstrokes.

* Part I explores Leonardo's life and work in ten chapters, drawing upon his letters, contracts, diary entries, and writings. All of his paintings are presented and interpreted in depth, with The Annunciation and The Last Supper featured on fold-out pages.

* Part II comprises a catalogue raisonne of Leonardo's paintings, which covers all of his surviving and lost painted works and includes texts describing their states of preservation. Each and every painting that can be justifiably attributed to Leonardo is included here; thanks to new findings and scientific research, this is the first time his definitive painting oeuvre is being published.

* Part III contains an extensive catalogue of his drawings (numbering in the thousands, they cannot all be reproduced in one book); 663 are presented, arranged by category (architecture, technical, anatomical, figures, proportion, cartography, etc). Over half of the drawings included were provided by Windsor Castle, marking the first time that the Castle has allowed a publisher to reproduce so many of their drawings.

This sumptuous TASCHEN offering is the most thorough and beautifully produced Leonardo book ever published.Amazon.com Review
Lying open, this unutterably wonderful book is almost the size of the Mona Lisa and about as hefty as a slab of The Last Supper's monastery wall. All 34 paintings are here (including what we know of the lost ones), many with huge and immensely illuminating details, plus 663 drawings. The reproductions are stunning, on paper sturdy enough to serve as wings on some of the flying machines depicted on pages 644 to 671. The precision of the images amazes: the delicate petals fingered by the larger-than-life-size baby Jesus in Madonna of the Carnation; the wailing, dismembered victims of Leonardo's scary scythed chariots; Mary's transparent drapery in the Annunciation; the bands of sunlight streaking each swirling curl of Ginevra de Benci; Mona Lisa's gossamer veil and intricately embroidered gown; even, unless my eyes deceive me, one of the fingerprints Leonardo famously left while daubing paint by hand.

Customer Reviews (25)

leonardo davinci is the greatest genius for all times
This is the best most spectacular book on leonardo to date.What can i say that hasnt already been said in the reviews above except that i cant believe that a couple of reviews gave 3 outof5 stars for this book. I think the book deserves 10 out of 10. The book is a masterpiece in itself. Keep up the great work.

awesome
this book is a daily source of admiration, exposed on our table and we change the page practically every day to have a new work of wonder to admire every day. combined with more and deeper information on leonardo da Vinci the true art becomes clear.

Masterful Book
I first saw this outstanding book at the Palm Springs Air Museum's Da Vinci exhibit last month. It is a comprehensive and beautiful tribute to Da Vinci's genius that young and old alike can enjoy for decades. Spending an hour glancing through its pages is a visual treat; reading it to more deeply appreciate his multiple talents will take years. Though the price of the book may seem high, it is an unique volume and worth the price.

Art Education Wouldn't Be Complete
without studying Leonardo da Vinci, one of the greatest Italian Renaissance artist and would-be inventor of all time.He left us a legacy of paintings, drawings, diagrams, inventions, and even sculpture for all to see.He's known more than the Mona Lisa painting, he's an inventor of sorts as well as a very fine draughtsman.

This book should be a required course for art students everywhere.

WOW what a book!
The massive size of this book is only dwarfed by the enormous amount of information it contains.Did you know Leonardo Da Vinci conceptualized the helicopter...or the x-ray machine...or even the engine???? He did indeed and it's all in this comprehensive anthem.I highly recommend this book for the Da Vinci neophyte as well as the most avid "Leo scholar" as both will be awed and amazed. ... Read more

Product Description
The remarkable record of the workings of what many consider to be the greatest human mind thathistory has ever witnessed. The complete notebooks have been translated and edited by the most distinguished Da Vinci scholar of his generation. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The first Renaissance man
Nothing of Leonardo DAVinci's sketchbooks were published until the 20th century.These are some of the most important documents of the Renaissance, and they did not become known until the 20th century.There are still people who do not know how important this work was.His anatomical studies were a watershed moment, because they introduced visual diagrams as the standard for communicating knowledge of the body and self.This was no more and no less than the conviction that the true knowledge of the shape of any body could only be arrived at by seeing it from different aspects.The truth of the body, the truth of the human being can only be discovered by looking at the body from multiple aspects, like; level, motion, perspective, transformation and growth.He opened up the body, it had always been closed, now its open.Now, what goes on inside the body is going to give us the essence of what it means to be human.It is the internal struggle, the self with the self, within .you.When you look at his sketchbooks, you see just one place where the whole world opens up.

Leonardo DAVinci-- Leonardo DAVinci invented the modern self.He invented the modern self precisely in this way, through the perspective of disappearance.What he tells reality and us about the self is that it only exists by that which is perceived by the eye.Reality is a product of nature; reality is that which we perceive by the eye.Reality is only that by which we can see.Moreover, in his notebooks he gives us another foundational belief about the human subject and its form.That the sound rules are the issue of sound experience and observation.Experience and observation can only be our best teacher.Of course, this is also, what Voltaire is telling us to by the way.The challenge comes when we realize that we are both to the subject observing and the object that is observed.In our search for self, we experience a kind of division between our constitutions as objects and our constitution as subjects.However, when we look at the human form, when we look at the self we find that the body is in harmony with nature, and that it is in harmony within nature.How does DA Vinci make these kinds of claims?Alternatively, how does he ground these kinds of claims with the function of the eye or the power of the eye?Well, one of the ways he does it is thru the camera obscura.Earliest record of use of camera obscura is in DA Vinci's writings.The camera obscura gave birth to the science of optics, the science of seeing.It is with DA Vinci, that the science of seeing became the foundation of self-representation, a representation called the self, thus the representation of the human form.Now DA Vinci embodied his own concept of the painter, as philosophers.He saw painters principally as natural philosophers.To him, nature was all important, absolute, the image of the eternal.In one very significant passage of his notebooks, he defines the relationship of art to nature and its process of evolution."The painter will produce pictures of small merit, if he takes for his standard the pictures of others.If he will study from natural objects, he will bear good fruit, as was seen in the painters after the Romans always imitating each other until their art constantly declined from age to age.Therefore, this was paramount for him in some ways what he was doing, and thinking was very radical and revolutionary and in other ways, it was very traditional.He appears to be quite a traditionalist, he studied ancient sources, Greeks, medieval sources, he studied anatomy, and these traditions get him to compare the microcosm of the body and the macrocosm of the world.These analogies extend to everything that he attempted to trace, to record and to know about the human form.Comparisons between the arteries in the body and the underground rivers of the earth.The flow of blood to the head in relation to the circulation of water to the summits of mountains.How does blood get to your head?If you want to understand that then understand how water flows up to mountains.Blood when it bursts in the veins of your nose and water rushing out of a vein in the earth.Almost everything that occurs in the human body can be found in the natural world.His interest in these analogies becomes very evident in the notebooks and sketchbooks.Scholars argue that these microcosm and macrocosm analogies are more than outright comparisons that belong to a pre scientific age, they lead him to compare the study of the body and Ptolemy's study of the earth.Consequently to use Ptolemy's method in the geography as the starting point for his own systematic study of anatomy.Therefore, anatomy and geography here become one in DA Vinci's mind.The forms of the earth and those of the human body have a parallel. "Thus in 15 entire figures you will have set before you the microcosm on the same plan as was before me adapted by Ptolemy in his cosmology, and so I shall afterwards divide them into limbs as he divided the whole world into processes.Then, I will speak of the function of each part in every direction putting before your eyes a description of the whole form and substance of man as regards his movements from place to place by means of these different parts.Thus if it please our great author I may demonstrate the nature of men and their customs in a way I describe this figure."Therefore, within the human form and within the kind of intricate details of human anatomy he discovered a way of describing and recording, not only the geographical construction of the natural world, but of Divinity itself.And when you look more closely at the system he devised to study the body, the more carefully you look at his drawings of the human form the more clearly you begin to recognize how strikingly stunningly original it is.

Earlier authors had relied exclusively on verbal descriptions of the human body.The human body had been a verbal entity but he emphasis visual description and some of the illustrations he has to bring visual dimensions to the philosophy of Plato, Aristotle the descriptions put forward by these men he presents in visual terms in these kind of body scapes.In the course of 20 years, roughly from 1489 to the end of his life, he dissected about 19 corpses and became very much obsessed with dissection.He drew these parts of bodies in minute detail every part of the human anatomy, he would draw each piece separately, together and at different angles.He laid out bodies in his drawings to mime classical poses in painting.He is referencing the history of art with the poses and the visual representation of the human subject.It is presented to us that deeply challenge these values of human nature, of life and death of living form and the cadaver it really raises some profound questions.The problem is in order to get to those questions, in order to explore some of the deeper philosophical implications of his work you have to get past the gross factor and the moral and ethical questions that his work raises.He is an artist that works very consciously with the sense of the ethical lines that he is crossing; he is not an artist that wants to make you comfortable.He sees that blood gets in the way of his observations, so he advises that you make a model of the body part and then you draw it.Model making and scientific art go hand in hand for him.You have to reconstruct reality before you can represent it.Therefore, before you can draw what is real you have to make it yourself.One of the most striking features of the notebooks is the manner in which he presents his work to us.There are no criticisms of the shortcomings that he has discovered in earlier authors, he does not boast about his own accomplishments, his writing style is pedagogical, and he is writing a teaching manual with descriptions and advice.Therefore, if you want to draw a lung, here is how you should do it.What he is trying to do is to convey to a larger audience this method of presentation and by representing human form, he relies on diagrams, and his reliance apparently causes some serious problems for the printing presses of the day.It also caused real issues for publishers because of the graphic nature of the work.

This was very important for medicine.He shows us we can separate human emotions and passions from the human body in understanding human form, and what it means to be human.There is a purely clinical dimension and this other dimension of feelings and emotions, and they do not have to come together at all, this is radical.

Thus again, this inside outside, you see it everywhere in his work.Why are we fascinated with the painting of the Mona Lisa?Because of the question we always ask, what is going on inside?The study of the Mona Lisa, it seems to me has always been organized around precisely the question that drove DA Vinci in his research.All his sketches in this obsessive and fanatical devotion to drawing every part of the body in relationship to every other part of the body at multiple levels and multiple perspectives and in motion, outside inside.There is the outside, what is going on inside, isn't that why we are obsessed with this?This painting just demands that we try to find out what is going on underneath.The truth is underneath, behind her smile, something she is keeping from us.Yet she is revealing just enough of it to make us have to find out what is going on inside of her.It is that relationship once again between the inside and the outside.

I read this book for a graduate class in the Humanities.Recommended reading for anyone interested in history, psychology, philosophy, art, and science.

Text Only
Just be warned that this volume contains the text of the notebooks, none of the drawings.Leonardo's thoughts on 50 topics are gathered together under topical headings from his many manuscripts.Thus, this work is arranged, rendered into English and introduced by Edward MacCurdy.As such, it is a lovely book with large, readable type.Well-bound in red boards with gold lettering on the spine.It is a book to be dipped into from time-to-time rather than one you might read from cover-to-cover.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci
This definitive translation of Leonardo's notebooks brings together into one volume the famous reflections and speculations of the greatest mind of the Renaissance. It is a result of a lifetime of study and research by the outstanding authority on the life and works of the great Florentine.
Because of the unique and diverse character of Leonardo's achievements, the reissue of The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci is an event of enduring importance in the fields of art, literature, science and technology. And the general reader can once again glimpse the inner workings of the mind of the towering figure of the renaissance, "perhaps the most richly gifted by nature among all the sons of men."

... Read more

Product Description
Leonardo has succeeded in producing the effect of the coup de theatre at the moment when Jesus said "One of you shall betray me." Instantly the various apostles realise that there is a traitor among their number, and show by their different gestures their different passions, and reveal their different temperaments. On the left of Christ is St. John who is overcome with grief and is interrogated by the impetuous Peter, near whom is seated Judas Iscariot who, while affecting the calm of innocence, is quite unable to conceal his inner feelings; he instinctively clasps the money-bag and in so doing upsets the salt-cellar. ... Read more

Product Description
Hardcover Folio 1609 gravure illustrations with 12 color plates, 518 pages. This volume is the most complete and authoritative work ever produced in Italy by the Instituto Geografico De Agostini just before the war, in conjunction with the famous exhibition of Leonardo's work in Milan 1938. Recently Emil Vollmer (publisher) joined with the Instituto and re-edited the volume making entirely new illustration plates from which this edition is printed. ... Read more

Product Description
As the success of blockbusters like The Da Vinci Code shows, the incomparable and enigmatic Leonardo da Vinci continues to captivate. In this widely acclaimed biography, Charles Nicholl uncovers the man behind the myth of the "Renaissance master." Painter, sculptor, inventor, draftsman, anatomist—Leonardo’s life and career encompassed so many of the creative achievements that made his era spectacular. Nicholl skillfully captures it all while tracing his subject’s journey from an illegitimate child in Tuscany to his service with some of the most powerful families of Renaissance Europe. Rich with historical background, packed with black-and-white and color illustrations, and utterly engaging, this is the definitive look at a figure whose genius reaches out to us through the centuries. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (17)

Just about all you could ask for...
...in a book about Da Vinci.I mean, the guy lived half a millenium ago, for crying out loud -- you think it's easy piecing together information about his life?I think Nicholl did an amazing job assembling a slice of an image here, a quotation there, a passing reference written by somebody else over here, a hunch of a guess over there....

...Really, this book feels as close as we'll ever get to "the truth" about what Da Vinci did and thought, year to year.No, we'll probably never understand just how and why his mind worked the way it did, what made him who he ultimately was, but Nicholl wonderfully illuminates the world he lived in, and the paths he crossed along the way.If you're like me, you know a bit about the man, but not much.Well, this takes "not much" and expands it out significantly so that, by the end of the book, you feel that you have some glimmer of who this fellow was, that you'd recognize (and appreciate) him if you passed him on a street in Milan in the early 1500s.

The only thing holding me back from giving this 5 stars is the images.There were plenty, yes, but I think the color-plate paintings needed more space than they received, a full page rather than being squeezed 2-4 to a page. There must be some way to give better visuals to a book without turning it into a coffee table variety.Maybe enclose a CD?

Interesting insight into Da Vinci as a man
This is the first book on Da Vinci that I have read.Some of the other reviewers have commented that the book has shortcomings, notably that it only covers a limited set of all of Da Vinci's accomplishments.This is true, but what I found interesting about this book is Nicholl's descriptions of Da Vinci's humanity.Here was a man, born illegitimately, who strove his whole life for fatherly approval and never got it.Da Vinci had little formal education and regretted it - he studied under many men who advanced the arts and sciences and it is remarkable what Da Vinci achieved with such informal training in many areas.Da Vinci was a polymath - he had so much going on inside his head all the time- limitless imagination.It really is amazing he managed to complete anything.Also somewhat amusing is how Da Vinci did not always like his patrons, and Nicholl describes his lengthy relationship with one benefactress who Da Vinci continually put off or avoided, despite the promise of a hefty payment for an art work.I was also surprised to learn that Da Vinci was not really very financially successful.

I recommend this book if you want to get a picture of Leonardo complete with all human failings.Nicholl's book provides such insight.I enjoyed reading it.

Informative, but boring
The book "flights of the mind" by charles Nicholl, it one that has a lot of research behind it. I respect that, although when reading, I found a few problems. First of all, nicholl throws facts at you like a text book, and so you can lose track of where you are, and how it adds to Leonardo's legacy. Nicholl also tended to get sidetracked when explaining in depth something that had nothing to do with Leonardo. He also made a lot of assumptions that I feel he didn't make. I think he used a lot of information directly from other books, not that theirs anything wrong with that. He also would at times begin to repeat himself. The book had a huge amount of information within it. I found it was hard to pick out the important information and the information added as an overall picture. All in all, the book was heavy in facts, but with this it became a chore to read.

Reads like a text book
I was looking to learn more about this fascinating man.This book gave me details, but really no story.It was a laborious read.It read like a text book.It is filled with so many facts, that you lose track of what da Vinci accomplished.Really a waste of time.

Maybe it's just me
There are more life details in this book than I ever wanted to read.This made for a bit of a slow, boring read.I'm still looking for a good biography on Da Vinci. ... Read more