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Arrives
Sunday, Oct 18
Format: Paperback, Unabridged
Description
Now a docuseries from Ken Burns on PBS! The 1 New York Times bestseller from Walter Isaacson brings Leonardo da Vinci to life in this exciting new biography that is “a study in creativity: how to define it, how to achieve it…Most important, it is a powerful story of an exhilarating mind and life” (The New Yorker). Based on thousands of pages from Leonardo da Vinci’s astonishing notebooks and new discoveries about his life and work, Walter Isaacson “deftly reveals an intimate Leonardo” (San Francisco Chronicle) in a narrative that connects his art to his science. He shows how Leonardo’s genius was based on skills we can improve in ourselves, such as passionate curiosity, careful observation, and an imagination so playful that it flirted with fantasy. He produced the two most famous paintings in history, The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. With a passion that sometimes became obsessive, he pursued innovative studies of anatomy, fossils, birds, the heart, flying machines, botany, geology, and weaponry. He explored the math of optics, showed how light rays strike the cornea, and produced illusions of changing perspectives in The Last Supper. His ability to stand at the crossroads of the humanities and the sciences, made iconic by his drawing of Vitruvian Man, made him history’s most creative genius. In the “luminous” (Daily Beast) Leonardo da Vinci, Isaacson describes how Leonardo’s delight at combining diverse passions remains the ultimate recipe for creativity. So, too, does his ease at being a bit of a misfit: illegitimate, gay, vegetarian, left-handed, easily distracted, and at times heretical. His life should remind us of the importance to be imaginative and, like talented rebels in any era, to think different. Here, da Vinci “comes to life in all his remarkable brilliance and oddity in Walter Isaacson’s ambitious new biography…a vigorous, insightful portrait” (The Washington Post). Read more
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Publication date : October 2, 2018
Edition : Unabridged
Language : English
Print length : 624 pages
ISBN-10 : 1501139169
ISBN-13 : 61
Item Weight : 1.92 pounds
Dimensions : 6.13 x 1.5 x 9.25 inches
Best Sellers Rank: #14,766 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #3 in Historical Italy Biographies #5 in Biographies of Artists, Architects & Photographers (Books) #8 in Scientist Biographies
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Kindle
I didn’t buy this book because I was fascinated by Leonardo. I bought it because several people whose opinions I value said it was a great book and because the other books I’ve read by Walter Isaacson were excellent. I’m glad I bought it and read it. Before I started reading, I thought I knew the basics. Leonardo was the painter of perhaps the two most famous paintings in history: The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa. I had that right. But most of the rest of what I thought I knew turned out to be either wrong or incomplete. The man certainly was a creative genius, but a lot of the things that I’d read about him, like that bit about the “first helicopter,” turned out to be wrong. I didn’t know how much he did beyond painting and how deep he went on so many topics. Leonardo was certainly the prototype of the Renaissance Man, and looking back, we can see that he was born at the right time for someone with broad interests and many talents. Leonardo was born in 1452 and died in 1519. That gave him a long, productive life of 67 years. He was a bastard, which wasn’t a problem in Florence when he was born and may even have given him some advantages. He didn’t get a lot of formal schooling, which meant that he started to learn on his own and developed methods that worked for him. He started out in Florence, where he was apprenticed to an excellent master, and learned the craft of painting. But early in his life, he moved to Milan. That turned out to be a good thing, too. Florence was more artistic, but Milan had a much more diverse culture of people interested in the sciences. And it was in the sciences and engineering that Leonardo would do a lot of work I knew nothing about and now shake my head at, in wonder. Leonardo’s work in science included the development of thinking on perspective. I always thought perspective was a kind of geometric thing about painting. But it turns out that he developed three views of perspective. One was the standard vanishing point thing, but the others were the way color changes as distance increases, and the way that we lose detail on things the further they are away. He made contributions to anatomy by doing dissections of cadavers of both humans and animals. He certainly learned from his dissections, and he also captured what he observed in drawings and notes. He may have made even more contributions to engineering. He did a lot of military engineering, and a lot that revolves around water flows, including water systems for cities and diverting rivers. By the time I got to the end of the book, it seemed like Leonardo had done some work in almost any area of human knowledge. Not all of that work was great, or groundbreaking, but an awful lot of it was. So, the question is, how did he do it? That’s where I got my biggest takeaways from the book. Leonardo was very smart. Okay, we got that out of the way. Most of the people we call geniuses are very smart. But there are an awful lot of very smart people who aren’t geniuses. What really separates geniuses from the rest of the pack is what they do, not raw brainpower. The good news is that we have a pretty good idea of what Leonardo did. Isaacson developed his book primarily from the 7,000+ pages we have from Leonardo’s notebooks. That’s a lot, but it’s probably only about a quarter of the total he created. Here’s what Leonardo did to produce the quantity of quality insight and production that characterized his life. Leonardo captured his ideas. Early in his life, he developed a habit of walking around with a notebook that he used to jot down observations and make quick sketches. He even developed a shorthand that would help him recreate things he’d seen when he got back to his studio and wanted to draw them in detail. Leonardo was an acute observer who trained himself to be better. It helped that he was also a facile drawer. But the main driver of his close observations was curiosity. He developed his own process for observing things. It began with what Isaacson calls “marching orders.” Leonardo described what he needed to do to learn or properly observe something. Then he would go and observe. Leonardo learned by experimenting. Besides observing, Leonardo was an avid experimenter and he recorded both the experiments and what he learned from them. Leonardo got ideas and sharpened ideas through his reading. The printing press was invented the year Leonardo was born. By the time he was 40, books were increasingly common, and an autodidact like Leonardo could learn and get ideas from books. Leonardo had many friendships and collaborators over the years. This was not the lone genius retiring to his studio and producing bursts of insight. This is a man who went out into the world to observe, made careful observations, and then hone his understanding with reading, discussion, and experiment. Isaacson includes a final chapter in the book about things you can learn from Leonardo, and it’s a chapter worth reading. But there’s a statement of Isaacson’s near the beginning of the book that sums up the takeaway for me. “His genius was of the type we can understand, even take lessons from. It was based on skills we can aspire to improve in ourselves, such as curiosity and intense observation.” And, I would add, experiment and collaboration. Before you read the book straight through, read that final chapter about what you can learn from Leonardo. It will give you a frame for learning as you go. In A Nutshell This is a thorough and well-written biography of one of history’s most fascinating individuals. You’ll enjoy the read. You’ll learn a lot. With a little effort, you can improve the way you see the world and develop some discipline so that you can be more like Leonardo than you are today.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2018 by Wally Bock
Format: Hardcover
Perhaps the finest test for a non-fiction book is whether reading it sparks a desire for more information. Leonardo da Vinci, as written by Walter Isaacson, is as good as it gets in this regard. Both the man and the writer share credit, but one gets the feeling that even a novice writer would have a hard time diminishing the fascinating life of Leonardo. Strive to think, and live, like Leonardo da Vinci. He was a man that never lost that childlike wonder we all seem to grow out of. What does a woodpecker's tongue look like? When you next see a bird, do its wings flap downward faster than upward? Does this vary from bird to bird? These are the types of questions that filled his notebooks. A surprising trait of da Vinci, one that in my estimation makes him more accessible and understandable, was his tendency to leave work unfinished. He would regularly set out to create vast manuscripts of detailed analysis on the human body, or hydraulics or even how to paint. None of which would ever reach publication. Luckily though, a large percentage of his notebooks have survived and we can see his unfinished genius at work. He left a similar trail of unfinished artistic works, including paintings and sculptures, which if completed would no doubt stand next to the Mona Lisa and his other works as some of the greatest in all of human history. Understanding why this was his tendency is key to understanding his genius. As is typical of an expert biographer, the history of Leonardo da Vinci is not written as if it is a sure thing. Isaacson clearly presents the known information on a particular topic and offers what he considers to be the truth of the matter. In the end it is up to the reader to decide what to believe. I have never read a book that analyzed art in such depth. I have gained a new respect for art history and wish I could revisit all the museums I have been to in my life. I would be doing so with a newfound appreciation as well as a more critical eye thanks to Isaacson. Of course, I wish more than anything else that I could see the Mona Lisa again. My knowledge and respect of the painting when I was luckily enough to see it was severely lacking (to say the least, but can you blame a 20 year old?). Mona Lisa smile... the depth of this subject is astounding. Sfumato, maybe the most important word when it comes to understanding what made da Vinci different. To understand the genius of Leonardo is to understand sfumato. There are no clear delineations between subjects, whether in a painting or in life and philosophy. How much of life is a Mona Lisa smile... shifting... unclear upon inspection... confounding... ever changing. I could go on and on... suffice to say, read this book. You'll be better off for it.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 4, 2020 by Brian K
Format: Hardcover
Well-written, easy book to read about the fascinating Leonardo da Vinci. Physically, this book is made of the best materials, and is quite exquisite. However, it's also its drawback. The semi-glossy paper used makes the book quite heavy to hold, somewhere between 5-10lbs perhaps. Its weight can tire your hands and arms easily while holding to read. Also, the semi-glossy paper creates a glare from a reading light. Maybe this time, the publisher should have gone with traditional book paper.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 12, 2026 by Paul D
Format: Hardcover
Walter Isaacson is on a quest. To understand his Leonardo Da Vinci you have to understand something of why he choose to write a biography about him at all, after writing biographies of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein. Thankfully, Isaacson is explicit about what interests him in these personages and so there is no need for reading between the lines. What Isaacson wants to understand is what makes some men and women people of genius. Not the silly way genius is portrayed in the movie Amadeus, in which it is simply some innate talent, but the character traits which enable rare individuals with the capacity to permanently change the world with the mere power of their mind. With that goal in mind, one is ready to appreciate Isaacson’s Leonardo Da Vinci. The book begins discussing his early achievements in art and the investigation of nature within the first forty pages, fairly quickly for a 525 page tome. And the book is dominated by appreciations of his work, both artistic and scientific (to use a modern distinction unrecognized by Leonardo). Along the way there is a wonderful resonance between Isaacson describing the characteristics of Leonardo that led to his peculiar type of genius and then seeing that genus instantiated in a particular unpublished treatise on anatomy or in a work of art such as the Mona Lisa. If you are interested in this quest, in both seeing what led to Leonardo being a genius, and then seeing that genius expressed in his creative work, you will love Isaacson’s Da Vinci. Many biographers prefer to dwell on a lengthy account of the culture and history of the time and focus on the personal life of their subject. Others choose to try to psychoanalyze their subject and allow the reader to understand the subconscious drives which led to their accomplishments. None of that is to be found in Isaacson’s work. Though a summary doesn’t do the book justice, Isaacson sees Leonardo as unusually perceptive of the world around him, with an insatiable curiosity, a proper understanding of how to balance theory and experiment and a disdain for doctrines handed on by the past. These traits, and others, led him to understand the effect of light in creating the illusion of three dimensions in painting, which muscles are used to smile, how men and women might one day be able to fly and all the many other prescient things expressed in his art and notebooks. If there is anything to criticize, it is that Isaacson is almost universally positive, almost effusively, about Leonardo. But this is because the book focuses mostly on the factors that led to this genius and the actual fruits of his intellect. Admittedly, it is hard to be critical of those aspects of Leonardo’s life. One final point to make to potential readers: Isaacson writes in clear and simple English. Though the book is 525 pages long I read it in less than a day. If he had chosen to adopt the tone of many academics this would have been a far less pleasurable, and longer, read. Isaacson set out to determine both what made Leonardo a genius and why he is considered one. While every reader can form their own opinion as to whether he was successful, I think both the importance of the quest and its achievement in the case of Leonardo will be doubted by few readers of this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2017 by Aran Joseph Canes
Format: Kindle
October 11, my last day in Florence, I wondered upon a small, private museum called Leonardo daVinci's Machines, where one can view reconstructions of ideas Leonardo put to paper, but did not necessarily build. Gripped by the breadth and depth of his intellect, I decided I would read a complete biography when I got home. What timing! Isaacson's book came out October 17th, and I have just now completed it, along with savoring Christie's record-breaking sale of Leonardo's Salvatoi Mundo for 450 million dollars in the middle of reading it (I wrote a notation in the book above this painting). Isaacson has a talent for biography (this book is my third of his), especially in bringing to life, in a wonderful, readable way, people of extraordinary genius. Isaacson studied deeply, and really knows his subject; as I read, I was awed by Leonardo's work across multiple disciplines, yet amused by his tendency not to finish work---there is a reason there are only 20 or so extant daVinci paintings. Isaacson is careful to provide detailed assessment of his major work, as well as bemoan his failure to ever put his thousands of pages of notes and observations into any published format, leaving students of his life to do their best. I especially enjoyed Isaacson's conclusion, an application for readers to understand what made Leonardo's genius, and to learn from him. If I have any complaint, it is that perhaps Isaacson discounted Leonardo's spiritual dimension. Yes, he was a scientist, and not a fervent deist, but in an age saturated with belief in God, and his ability to see unity and analogy in creation, perhaps there was more to Leonardo's spiritual side than Isaacson would prefer to cede as a thoroughgoing humanist.
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Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2017 by MA Stolz
Format: Kindle
The Smartest Person Who Ever Lived By Bob Gelms In my “it does not count” opinion, the smartest person who ever lived was, unquestionably, Sir Isaac Newton. An awful lot of people disagree with me. The preponderance of their opinions puts Leonardo da Vinci in the number one spot. For the purposes of this issue we will confine our investigation to da Vinci as number one. Mostly because America’s number one biographer, Walter Isaacson, has just published Leonardo, the best biography I have ever read on Leonardo da Vinci. When I was in 4th grade in St. Thomas Moore grade school on the south side of Chicago, we had a series of biographies written for grade school kids. Most of the series was taken up with the saints. They had, however, a few biographies of famous people in history. The bookcase that housed this series was right next to my desk. One day, as was usual, I was bored so I reached over and pulled out the book on da Vinci. It didn't take long before I was hooked. The term “Renaissance Man” was new so I asked the kindly, ever so patient, Dominican nun who was only interested in the welfare and intellectual growth of her students. (sarcasm) She pronounced it for me and told me what it meant. Up to that point in my life it, for sure, was the coolest thing I had ever heard. From that point on I was fixated on Leonardo da Vinci. There were a lot of surprises in store for me because the biography I read in that Catholic grammar school of course didn’t mention that da Vinci was vegetarian, gay, illegitimate, left-handed, a heretic who produced some of the finest religious paintings in history and the world’s leading procrastinator. When I heard that Walter Isaccson was publishing a new biography, Leonardo, my first thought was, “Does the world really need ANOTHER biography of Leonardo da Vinci? After all there are only about 32,000 of them!” My second thought was that if there was any writer who could bring something fresh, exciting, and surprising to the subject of da Vinci's life, it was, without a doubt, Walter Isaccson. Mr. Isaccson does not shy away from difficult subjects. He has written about Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin. His biography of Leonardo da Vinci is dazzling. In Leonardo, Mr. Isaccson gives us a superb scrutiny of of the master's paintings. It is to our everlasting benefit that the author seems to possess an extraordinarily discerning eye for these works in addition to an erudite mind capable of critical analysis. This brings a whole new aspect to the career of Leonardo da Vinci. According to Mr. Isaccson, da Vinci looked at the world around him and saw that everything was related to everything else, something of a theme during the High Renaissance. Da Vinci, however, took it to regions unknown. For example, he didn’t see that there was much of a difference between science and art or between art and the study of nature. All you need to get an idea of the relationship between art and science is to take a look at his breathtaking rendition of Vitruvian Man. The sensitive viewer will see a spectacular work of art but also the ideal of human proportions and geometry. Sfumato is a painting technique invented by da Vinci to give depth to the edges of his subjects. It gives a sense of three dimensions. Coupled with the glazes he used, he got that smoky hazy feeling that seems to pervade his paintings. Mr. Isaccson points out that da Vinci got this effect by carefully smearing the paint. It has been thoroughly documented that on a few of his works, Leonardo da Vinci inadvertently left his fingerprints, which have been used to confirm that he painted a few that weren’t, at first, attributed to him. This book is filled with little gems like that. The amount of detail Mr. Isaccson provides is prodigious. Buy Leonardo, if for no other reason than to read the chapters on the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. They are just riveting and well worth the price of admission. I can’t fit all of da Vinci's interests in this review but the eminent art historian Kenneth Clark’s comment on Leonardo da Vinci seems to encapsulate his whole personality. Clark called him, “the most relentlessly curious man in history.”
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Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018 by Robert P Gelms
Format: Hardcover
Worthwhile read, and definitely a book which should be enjoyed in the hardback, to experience it with as many sense as possible! But I'm not as thrilled as I expected to be after the glowing reviews. Leonardo da Vinci is fascinating. And Isaacson has done some serious scholarship pulling it all together. But, the book reads like a list, a catalogue of "this and that" about Leonardo. There's a section on birds, and all the cool things he did to study birds, a section on water, etc. etc. There isn't a strong narrative movement towards anything, except maybe towards the Mona Lisa as the culmination of many interests. Even the chronology becomes blurry as he pursues this and that interest of Leonardo's. His themes he draws from Leonardo's life are clear, convincing, and repeated, many, many, many times, starting in the introduction. Also, while Isaacson does a good job of showing the technical innovations Leonardo introduced to painting, he has an off-putting tendency to voice his subjective opinion about the quality of the paintings as if he has a special gift for recognizing quality -- he doesn't --and he tosses around terms like "expression" with a very loose sense of what they actually mean. In short, I'm not thrilled with the book's instrinsic qualities as a book, be Isaacson deserves credit for pulling together and organizing so much material about such a fascinating character, and because of that I'm glad I read it.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2018 by ms from Philly
Format: Hardcover
Mr. Isaacson is an excellent biographer. His book on Albert Einstein is fantastic. This volume on da Vinci is equally informative and enlightening and readable. I definitely feel I have more knowledge about the facts of Leonardo’s life and I definitely understand better why he had a huge impact on art. Mr. Isaacson’s explanations of painting technique and history are clear and the number of photographs that fill this beautiful book are useful in developing this understanding. There is only one problem: I’ve always felt that da Vinci was overrated, and this book hasn’t changed my opinion much. It’s not necessarily the biographer’s prerogative to try to change the opinion of his readers about his subject but, with his continual excusing of da Vinci’s inability to finish commissions and his constant noting of his “perfectionism”, it does seem that this is part of Mr. Isaacson’s goal here. On the other hand, these are the very qualities that practically reduced da Vinci’s impact on the future to nil. He did impact art but, in science, math, and engineering, his mind was wide-ranging but impractical. These impacts are an important quality a person must have to earn the title “genius”. There is little doubt that da Vinci had a fascinating mind and an eventful life and that he had a great intelligence. I learned much I didn’t know in this book. For example, I had no knowledge of his extensive work in theatricals, which is nice; however, not that important to history. Mr. Isaacson made Leonardo more of a man for me but didn’t impress me with his ability to use his intelligence for great things.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 21, 2020 by Timothy Haugh