Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) is one of the most popular artists ever.Who, for example, has never heard of the "Mona Lisa"?But did you know he was also an inventor and engineer who made drawings of flying machines and helicopters - and this was centuries ago?Rich in ideas, delighted to experiment, and a keen observer, he was truly an all-around genius.In this book you can explore all these aspects and of course meet the real Mona Lisa as well! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

(Adventures in Art) Leonardo Da Vinci: Dreams, Schemes, and Flying Machines
You can call me StoryMaker and I can call this product great! This book tells you about some of Leonardo Da Vinci's ideas, pictures, and life. It tells you all about Leonardo's unfinished work. One of the best parts is, it explains Leonardo's pictures and unbuilt machine ideas. It explains the portrait of the Mona Lisa, including the Mona Lisa's real name. It also explains Leonardo's techniques and interests. However, the only pictures are Leonardo's work and models of some of his unfinished work made many years later. This isn't so bad, but hey, reviews are better when they mention bad parts. I also must say that if you're looking for a book all about Leonardo's life, this isn't the best choice. Overall, a nice book aboutLeonardo Da Vinci that, although it has its poor parts, is a great choice for learning about the renaissance period. Signed, StoryMaker. "Gotta trust the kid's review!"

QUICK STUDY OF LEONARDO
If you are looking for a quick study of Leonardo da Vinci, this book will detail some of the masters outstanding accomplishments achieved throughout the course of his life.Using a inquiry format, a variety of questions areposed and answered in brief about the inventions, paintings and techniquesemployed by da Vinci.This book highlights important works, and providesthe reader of an overview of the incredible lifetime achievements (andquirks) of the artist.I really liked this book, and will use it as aquick reference. ... Read more

Product Description
Detailed biography of Leonardo da Vinci, translated from the Russian. ... Read more

Book Description
The original "Renaissance Man" was a scientist, a painter, a sculptor, an architect, a military engineer, an inventor, and a musician. Although he died in 1519, he left a rich legacy of learning in scores of notebooks. These included the first detailed drawings of the human anatomy, pioneering notes on the structure and growth of plants, and even detailed diagrams of machinery from which modern-day engineers have constructed prototypes. His 15th century imagination envisaged tanks and helicopters, and he even used mirror (or backward) writing to protect his ideas. The genius of Leonardo da Vinci continues to inspire and to intrigue each new generation of students throughout the world. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description
This masterly account of Leonardo da Vinci and his vision of the world is now widely recognized as the classic treatment of Leonardo's art, science, and thought, giving an unparalleled insight into the broadening and deepening of Leonardo's intellect and vision throughout his artistic career. Martin Kemp, one of the world's leading authorities on Leonardo, takes us on a journey through the whole span of the great man's career. From his early training in Florence, through masterpieces such as The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, to the work of Leonardo's last years, this book gives a fully integrated picture of his artistic, scientific, and technological achievements. Generously illustrated, and now including a new introductory chapter setting Leonardo's work in its historical context, this fully updated new edition provides an unparalleled insight into the marvellous works of this central figure in western art. ... Read more

Book Description
Leonardo da Vinci was born in Italy in 1452. During his childhood, Leonardo's interests were drawn in many directions. He grew up to become a great artist, inventor, and engineer-one of the great geniuses of all time. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

mediocre at best
The illustrations lacked interest for my three children. I thought there would be a listing and introduction of more of Leonardo's investions and paintings.

Excellent description of the man written for children
In my mind, there is no doubt that Leonardo da Vinci was the most talented person who ever lived. To the joy of us all, he was also one of the most prolific, drawing and painting everything in sight. Children need to learn about such people and how they enrich our lives from generation to generation. In this book, Hart and illustrator Susan Hellard capture the essence of da Vinci in a manner that is clear to children of elementary age. His passion for art and his diverse nature of exploration are clear and show how amazing he was. One can only wonder at how many patents he would have been awarded had there been such a thing when he lived. This is a book that should be read by all children. ... Read more

Amazon.com
Artist, theorist, scientist, and inventor--these words cannot capture the genius that is Leonardo DaVinci. However, curator and editor Carmen C. Bambach brings us a little closer to unlocking his mystery in Leonardo DaVinci: Mater Draftsman. The book comprises a collection of 11 essays by world-renowned Leonardo connoisseurs, along with 515 exquisite illustrations, to create a perfect balance between scholarship and aesthetics. Serving as the catalogue for the exhibition of the same name at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, the book focuses on Leonardo's drawings: his studies for some of his unfinished, lost, or unrealized paintings and projects, stunning anatomical and engineering studies, 8 pages from the Codex Leicester (Leonardo's draft for a treatise on the dynamics of water), and his studies of grotesque physiognomies, which taken together, reveal the master's notion that beauty and ugliness are reciprocally enhanced by their juxtaposition.The result also sheds light on his extraordinary contribution as a draftsman "to the design process of narrative composition."

Leonardo has left us a mere handful of mostly unfinished--albeit magnificent--paintings. Yet, as Bambach explains, the quantity of his extant drawings (about 4,000 or more) is about 4 times that of the most prolific 16th-century draftsman. To be sure, it is through these drawings, along with the eloquent commentary, that Leonardo's infinite and dynamic creative power can best be glimpsed. From the whimsical to the sublime, from the scientific to the mechanical, these drawings reveal Leonardo's dependence on observation and nature, as well as his tireless use of drawing as a means to explore and express his ever-probing mind. The catalogue takes us on a chronological journey, revealing the vast influence of Leonardo's teacher Andrea Verrocchio, and subsequently shows us Leonardo's influence on his students and beyond. The beauty, power, and scope of this book are evidence that there is no end to pondering his remarkable and enigmatic genius. --Silvana TropeaBook Description
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) stands as a supreme icon in the history of Western civilization. With much of his work lost or unfinished, the key to his legacy is without doubt to be found in the enormous body of his extant drawings and accompanying manuscript notes. Famous for their beauty and technical virtuosity, Leonardo's drawings were avidly sought by collectors even during his lifetime. This handsome book offers a unified and fascinating portrait of Leonardo as a draftsman, integrating his diverse roles as an artist, scientist, inventor, theorist, and teacher. A chronological framework is also provided in order to shed light on his extraordinary life and career. The essays and entries—written by the world's leading Leonardo scholars—survey the wide variety of drawing types that Leonardo used and also examine a small group of works by artists critical to his artistic development in Florence and to his multifaceted activity in Milan. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Keep looking
Not worth the money. The reproductions are good, but most of them are small and many of Leonardo's most famous drawings are not included.

Leonardo DaVinci-Master Draftsman by Bambach
This book is written for art enthusiasts. The potential
readership includes historians, artists, museum curators
and students of world culture, art and history. The work
is perfect for a term or class project.

It has many famous
drawings and paintings by DaVinci. For instance, the spectacular
"Adoration of the Magi" appears in full color. There are
numerous apprenticeship drawings and renditions on the anatomy
of humans and animals. For instance, there is a very detailed
rendition of a horse leg. This work would make a wonderful
gift for a teenager or art buff. The full-color drawings alone are worth several dollars
apiece. The book is a tremendous value .

The Definitive Tome on da Vinci as genius
LEONARDO DA VINCI: MASTER DRAFTSMAN is a magnificent addition to the library about this extraordinary Renaissance genius.Published as a 'catalogue' for the exhibition that just left the Metropolitan Museum in New York, the weighty book is successful on all levels.The Curator and driving force fo the exhibition, Carmen C. Bambach, has firmly established her credentials in this vast survey of da Vinci's drawings of human anatomy, both precise observations (eg 'Abdomen and Left Leg of a Nude Man Standing in Profile page 556) and artistic distortions ( the grotesque faces on pages 684 - 693), of his 'inventions' as a scientist, of simple observations ('A Copse of Trees'on page 469 for instance), of the technical aspects of drawing and painting (brilliantly executed examples of draping the figure as on pages 289 and 563), and sketches for numerous painting proposals.The first 225 pages of this elegant book are devoted to various essays about da Vinci, all written by erudite scholars who are immensely readable.The last half of the book is an in-depth presentation of the catalogue of the show, serenely annotated by Carmen Bambach.There are ample sections of documentation and easy references to the bibiliography and timeline for da Vinci's life.The drawings and paintings are beautifuly reproduced on first quality paper and the book, (though heavy as a lap book!), is artistically designed and produced.This magnificent volume will be the gold standard for da Vinci's drawings and should be part of every library on the Renaissance and on art history.Highly Recommended. ... Read more

Book Description
Towering across time as the painter of the Mona Lisa, forever famous as a sculptor and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of both the Italian Renaissance and Western civilization. Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code and recent in-depth biographies have stimulated renewed interest in da Vinci and his complex and inquiring intelligence. This brand-new selection of sketches, diagrams, and writings from his notebooks is a beautiful and varied record of da Vincis theories and observations, embracing not only art but also architecture, town planning, engineering, naval warfare, music, medicine, mathematics, science, and philosophy. The notebooksa treasure trove of unparalleled ingenuity, curiosity, and creative energyhave inspired readers for centuries. This new selection is the perfect introduction to the mysteries of da Vinci. ... 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.

Da Vinci where to begin and end
His all inspiring nature seems to outlive time.

My only probably with this book is the repeated assumption that he was gay. First of all who cares, second of all no one really knows aside from his paintings of gentlemen and the such. I feel the book would be stronger without Emma Dickens assumptions of his sexuality. If you wanna give us the facts, then gives us the facts. The main problem with any book like this, when talking about one of the great masters, is that they feelthe need to try and juice things up with unproven facts about them as if they were a screenplay for a movie that isn't quite exciting enough. And I definitely don't think that Da Vinci's story from his own writings scarcely needs assumptions like that to intrigue a reader.

Other then that, what can one say that hasn't been said before about Da Vinci!

Embraces all aspects of his creations, from art to science, medicine, music and even urban planning
The new collection of writings, sketches and diagrams from Da Vinci's notebooks embraces all aspects of his creations, from art to science, medicine, music and even urban planning. This new edition includes an essay on his life by Emma Dickens and is published to coincide with the film of THE DA VINCI CODE on May 19th.

Diane C. Donovan, Editor
California Bookwatch
... Read more

Customer Reviews (16)

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.

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.

Renaissance Sun
I turned to this books to get asecond opinionon Dan Brown's "The DaVinci Code."I found this book very helpful in dispelling some of the myths that Brown advocates, such as the nature of the two "Virgin Of The Rocks," the mysterious knife in "The Last Supper," and several hypothesis of "The Mona Lisa."

By the way, there is no mention of the Priory of Sion.

Bramly is very engaging. He can tell a tale that grips you.I suggest reading the first chapter about DaVinci's wizened self-portrait. The whole books reads like it. Admittedly, he read emotions into DaVinci that we cannot verify.This is no different that what Steven Ambose or Fawn M. Brodie have done with their biographies.It helps the presentation of the material, even if fudges the facts a bit. People do have emotional lives, and we would react similarly in similar situations.

Another of Bramly's strengths is that he puts DaVinci's life in the context of Renaissance Italy. The Boot was very different than today, made up of the independent city-states. It was the milieu that Machiavelli wrote about in "The Prince."It was among these warring princes, and DaVinci's patronage by the Medic family that helped underwrite his famous works.DaVinci's life is almost a political thriller and he moves from city-state to city-state and mingling with the great men.

Other reviews have commented on this books scanty biography material, and the many diversion into politics and so forth.This is because we have so few detail's about DaVinci's day-to-day life.We do not have the usual memories, diaries, and documents that we would have for a contemporar5y person.All we have are the notebooks, the biography made a few years after DaVinci's death, and the masterworks themselves.To his credit, Bramly works around this paucity of material in such a way that you do not notice it.

This book has B&W images from his astounding notebooks, and several pages of color inserts.There is only one flaw-the Mona Lisa is one of the images inB&W.This is more than a shame, and I hope it can be corrected in future editions.

Bramly devotes a hefty section dealing with DaVinci's homosexuality.He also includes some rather graphic images from his notebooks, and a rudely funny homage to the male member.Parents who home school their children may want to use another biography of DaVinci, since this material is college level.

I recommend this book.His has the right vide and fell for DaVinci's life and history.I think one of his best moments what when he made a connection between Massacio's painting of the inverted Peter being crucified, and the Virtuvian Man.After tracking down the images on the internet, I was dumbfounded about how right he was.Thank-you Bramly.

Horrible
This was a painful book to read.There was actually very little about Leonardo in this book ... rather it was filled with the historical happenings.I was sorely disappointed by the lack of valid material ... much of the book was the author surmising and assuming Leonardo's motives and thoughts.

I forced myself to finish this book - but it was extremely painful!

Best Bio of L available
This was the first of four Leonardo bios I've read and it is still the best for its distillation of the turbulent events in this paradigmatic genius' life. In a readable way it touches upon the amazing breadth of L's interests while keeping the temptation to psychological explanations to a minimum. In discovering Leonardo one must contend with at least three different Leonardos--mainly those creations of Renaissance painter/historian Giorgio Vasari, the 19th century art historian Walter Pater (who rediscovered Leonardo for modern audiences), and Sigmund Freud, each of whom gave rise to their own cottage industries of legend-building and hermeneutic veilings about the Tuscan polymath. Bramly wisely keeps the wiseacrings to a minimum and infuses the reader with the sense of wonder and passion this complex and daunting man must have felt towards the world around him.
... Read more

Product Description
The notebooks & manuscripts of Leonardo Da Vinci arranged, rendered in English and introduced by Edward MacCurdy. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

The Treasures of Leonardo da Vinci
I thoroughly enjoy this book, the inserts are great, text is well written and extremely informative.I received this book in a timely manner and in excellent shape.I would strongly recommend this book to anyone.
M. Day Hawk

Makes Leonardo live
This is a great hands on book.Being able to take out documents and feel that you have a connection with the time, place and people.Beautifully produced, great graphics and text.
It's a pick up and read bits book.Accessible to everyone.
I was thrilled when i received it, even if your not a Di Vinci fan its a beautiful book to own.

A book for Leo Lovers and the general public too!
After a long while, here comes a book that is actually exciting to go through page by page - and I mean that literally! Along with the highly informative text, the book offers a wonderfully collaborative balance of both scholarly and creative research - perhaps very much in the taste of Leonardo himself. This is a truly unique book for all us art lovers - who may or may not share a great fascination for the life and works of Leo. Landrus indeed offers an interesting and imaginative look into the life and passion of the great Renaissance Man!

An unsual, informed, and welcome approach to da man, da vinci
Amazon should have more pictures of this book, thanks to its unusual format.If you want to know more about Leonardo you've got to have a 'look' at this portfolio format, boxed, facsimile packed, well-written (IMO) book.I have a handful of titles about him, but few of them take this much of an interdisciplinary approach - so that it's as interesting to read as to look at.It seems to have the latest independent research (see info on the Annunciation, Last Supper, Vitruvian Man, Giant Crossbow) that you may not see elsewhere, and it recaps recent findings (see info on the Virgin of the Rocks, heart valve studies, and flying machine).In most places it's absolutely fresh (even the Mona Lisa info!), not a rehash of the usual Leonardo stuff.Just a couple oddities I've found:the tiny Franchino Gaffurius print on p. 19 is a negative print (not the positive that it's supposed to be), and the Last Supper perspective layout on p. 35 is only partially reproduced, missing the full diagram that might look like the author's diagram as reproduced in Martin Kemp's 'Leonardo da Vinci, The Marvellous Works of Nature and Man' (OUP 2006).Still, 'Treasures' is thorough, in-depth, very interesting, and concise, a rare treat.

A fresh look at an old master
Is there more to say and discover about Leonardo? And forget that novel by what's-his-name, this is really informative and a lot of fun. Fun? Yes! There are all these pockets and flaps, with facsimiles of documents and letters and drawings to pull out and pore over. Landrus makes Leonardo's life and work accessible--no mean achievement. An absolute visual feast. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (10)

Shame on Dover Art Library!
Absolutely horrible print quality. Did you get these pictures from internet?

Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci

was an Italian Renaissance polymath:



an architect, musician, anatomist, inventor, engineer, sculptor, geometer, and painter. He has been described as the archetype of the " Renaissance man" and as a universal genius, a man infinitely curious and infinitely inventive. He is also considered one of the greatest painters that ever lived.


Portrait in red chalk, circa 1512 to 1515, widely (though not universally) accepted as a genuine self-portrait.In his lifetime, Leonardo - he had no surname in the modern sense; "da Vinci" simply means "from Vinci" - was an engineer, artist, anatomist, physiologist and much more.



His full birth name was "Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci", meaning "Leonardo, of ser Piero from Vinci". Leonardo is famous for his paintings, such as the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper, as well as for influential drawings such as the Vitruvian Man. He designed many inventions that anticipated modern technology, such as the helicopter, tank, use of solar power, the calculator, etc., though few of these designs were constructed or were feasible in his lifetime. In addition, he advanced the study of anatomy, astronomy, and civil engineering. Of his works, only a few paintings survive, together with his notebooks (scattered among various collections) containing drawings, scientific diagrams and notes.

Don't waste your money
The print quality is so low and I can hardly see anything.forget it.

Digital download version is terrible
I was very disappointed in the quality of the Adobe Reader version I downloaded. I don't know if the other reviewers were reviewing hard copy versions or digital downloads. A hard copy version might be OK, but the digital version is not worth a cent in my opinion. I was hoping to be able to make some small letter-size posters for my office at work, but the resolution was so poor I don't think any of the drawings will be usable. My recommendation is don't waste your money on the download.

Not very good
The reprints in this book are of absoultely terrible quality. If you are planning to use them as sources for drawings forget it! There are other Dover books that are better such as Sargent's. This book is of no use at all. ... Read more

Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Not for me
If you are thinking that buying this book would help you learning a secret of leonardo's drawing, this is not that book you are looking for .You would learn better with bridgeman's anatomy book or somebody else.This book is pure anatomy and science.

If you like reading texts and texts, then this is probably for you, but not me.

Leonardo's Masterpiece
Leonardo Da Vinci's anatomical drawings, due to his extreme curiosity, became one of his most profound works to date. Published by Dover from the original text 1952. The book is set up in 2 columns and broken up intoheaders of different anatomical structures; either of bones, muscles,ventricles of the heart or brains. The chapters are broken into systems:nervous, cardiovascular, myological, osteological, respitory, alimentaryand others. Within the text there are italicized words. These are the wordswritten on the drawing itself, in Leonardo's usual backward writing style.Some of you might be curious, beyond the drawings themselves to read whatLeonardo thought at the time. And from there is the authors commentary. Forthose interested in anatomy, drawing, painting or anything in the artfield, this book is highly reccoemended, for it has limitless referencevalue. I continually look at it for my drawings. One will also notice thatmany of the "models" are of the same body or person. This isbecause Leonardo asked a friend on his deathbed if he could cut him up,dissect him and then draw him. The friend, of course, consented to this,and so we have Leonardo's masterpiece. Highly reccomended! Alsoreccomended is his Notebooks, also printed by Dover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Great Book Cover
The only good thing I can say about this book is it has great book cover. That is the only reason I am going to keep it. I was looking for information on Da Vinci's Codex Leicester and was poorly dissappointed with the information given me in this book. If you are into art and know anything about art history this book is not for you. This book is for someone who does not have much knowledge about art history or Da Vinci. Don't get me wrong - I am not being a snob- I just think the title and description are a bit misleading. This book barely has any images or information on the Codex Leicester. If you want a basic history of Da Vinci and how other artist have used his images then it is a good book otherwise I would suggest Leonardo da Vinci The Codex Leicester-Notebook Of A Genius.

festooned with drawings that amplify the texts.
The Codex Leicester is the only Leonardo manuscript owned in the United States and the only one in the world still in private hands. Since Microsoft chairman Bill Gates purchased it in 1994 for $30.8 million, ithas been exhibited in Venice, Milan, Rome,Paris and New York. ... Read more

Book Description
From Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa to Van Gogh's Sunflowers, budding artists will step inside the studio and discover some of the world's greatest artwork. Readers will learn about the famous artist, their influences, and why their peices are still important today. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

the king of drawing!!!!
this man is an excellent artist. he has his own style of painting, and that's what like most about him. i have two of his drawings in my house. they just bring out my whole house. ... Read more