The World of Leonardo: 1452-1519

Rating:
Summary: You cannot help but be in awe of his talents
Review: One of the greatest accolades that can be bestowed on a person is, if you will pardon my sexist language, "A Renaissance man." This is of course a reference to the ideal behind the statement, Leonardo da Vinci, in my opinion, the most talented person who has ever lived. The range of his talents is incredible. The "Mona Lisa" and "The Last Supper" are two of the most recognized pieces of art in the world, so they alone would have made a career. From this book, you can learn of his enormous achievements, as well as see glimpses of what might have been lost.
He was also in more ways than one a visionary. His drawings of the turbulence of water as it flows across obstructions describe it precisely, something that was not verified until the invention of slow motion photography. He helped invent the science of human anatomy, and his drawings were so precise that they can still be used in anatomy classes today. Some of the other scientific achievements listed in this book where he was most likely the first to describe the phenomenon are:

* The laws of phyllotaxy, which governs the distribution of leaves in plants.
* The laws of heliotropism and geotropism, which govern the growth of plants towards the sun and into the earth.
* He was able to determine the age of plants and trees by studying their features such as the annual rings.
* He described features of the human heart and was very close to the discovery of the circulation of blood, something that was not accurately described until a century later.
* There is a passage in one of his notebooks, "Make glasses in order to see the moon large." This, in conjunction with his demonstrated knowledge of optics, indicates that he perhaps knew how to build or perhaps even did build a telescope.
* He correctly identified fossils for what they are and was the first to describe the formation of sedimentary rock.
* His sketch of a photometer to measure the intensity of light was just as functional as the actual one invented three centuries later.
* While he didn't quite get there, it is clear from his writings that he was very close to describing the physical principle of inertia. In fact, the principle of inertia was called the principle of Leonardo for many years.
* He sketched out what was the equivalent of a piston moving in a cylinder, apparently the first time such a device was described.

This list could be continued, and it must be noted that much of his written work has in fact been lost. It is simply mind-boggling to speculate on the number of additional marvels that he conceived and described in his notebooks, but will probably remain forever unknown.
He was also the first to construct an aerial view map. His sketch of the watershed of the Arno River, complete with elevations, has a quality that was not exceeded until the advent of manned flight and photography. Leonardo was also a first rate military and civil engineer. He was the first to describe modern artillery; he anticipated many of the weapons of modern warfare and was capable of designing effective defensive structures.
In reading this book, I was simply in awe of his talents. Had he been only an artist, or even only an inventor, or only a scientist, he would have gone down in history as one the greatest intellects of all time. However, all of them in combination make his productive life one of the most interesting throughout all of history. Reading this book has been one of the most humbling experiences of my life. Even through centuries of history and human achievement his greatness still emerges stronger than ever.