Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519)

Da Vinci was very specific.

On depicting a battle:
"The air must be full of arrows in every direction." (There follows several pages more of instructions, including bits like, "There must not be a level spot that is not trampled with gore.") (p. 26-28)

And his bits on anatomy are famous enough without me. The distance between the corner of your eye and your ear is the same as the height of your ear. Now you know.

But then, on the less specific side, there's this: "Of grotesque faces I need say show more nothing, because they are kept in mind without difficulty." (p. 131) So da Vinci's not so different after all, is he? His specificity varies in inverse proportion to his subject's attractiveness. I like boobs.

Unfortunately, "Women must be represented in modest attitude, their legs close together, their arms closely folded, their heads inclined and somewhat on one side" (p. 63), which is not at all what I heard on the internet.

Some of it's amazingly perceptive, and some of it's completely wrong, and some I don't understand at all, but the effect of reading his diary is weird and powerful; more than, say, reading an autobiography tends to be. While he probably knew his journals would be read (he actually addresses "Reader" off and on), he was still writing mainly for himself, so there's a directness.

What comes across most is his curiosity. He'll jot down some weird paragraph about shadows or something, and you understand that this is what he must have done all day today: measure shadows and build shapes and math formulas out of them, because he wanted to know how they work. True, his conclusion was that they send out "dark rays" that bounce into "reflex streams" or something, which I think might be gibberish, but still. What did you do today? I pretty much just thought about boobs. show less

The sheer scope of this man's thought is breathtaking. If not the smartest human that ever lived, then damn close. I thought I appreciated Leonardo before going through this - I had no idea. This is a book I will pick up again and again, browsing for inspiration or simple wonder. This belongs on every bookshelf.

A charming and very well packaged book of Leonardo da Vinci inventions, produced for younger readers (8 years plus). The text is written as if by da Vinci himself, though the odd anachronism creeps in (the worst one is referring to his well-known armoured fighting vehicle as a 'tank', which is the one word he would never have used as that was a 1916 code word adopted at the factory where the first tanks were built, specifically to conceal their nature and purpose). But this is nit-picking on show more my part.

The most spectacular part of the book are the pop-up cardboard models, a number of which can be made to move (though the flying machine takes a bit of figuring out, and one - the self-steering cart for stage spectaculars) didn't seem to work because of a tiny surfeit of glue in the wrong place). Again, these are minor issues.

Design and choice of typeface are excellently done, replicating the look and feel of da Vinci's original notes without going to the extreme of replicating his mirror writing, though that might have intrigued some of the more intelligent of the readership. The whole thing is a delight, and certainly kept me amused for quite a little while! show less

“Interesting work bringing a glimpse of the High Renaissance period to the present. The author’s intention was “to present Leonardo as a writer, and to include in this work all passages from the note-books of philosophical, artistic, or literary interest.” Writings may be a little dry at times, and at others’ profound. There is much discussion for an artist concerning his approach to artistic shadows and light. I particularly enjoyed the tiny glimpses of his reverence to God show more calling Him “marvelous Necessity”, and “stupendous Necessity”. Pulling back the curtain about the humanity and inspiration of Da Vinci makes for an interesting read.” show less