Some five centuries after his birth, readers still hungrily ponder the mysteries behind Leonardo Da Vinci's sketch-filled notebooks, radical inventions, and enigmatic paintings. This stunning book, like no other on the market, explores the master's insights and synthesizes his relationship with art and science in a magnificently illustrated and informative style. Every page resonates with Leonardo's genius, demonstrated by his own art and writings as well as modern diagrams and workable re-creations of his inventions.

Physicist and artist Bulent Atalay, author of Math and the Mona Lisa, deftly explains Leonardo's interest in topics ranging from architecture to botany to philosophy. Engaging prose and splendid images point up the science and mathematics underlying Leonardo's genius, showing how attention to proportions, patterns, shapes, and symmetries informed his art. The story flows chronologically, with quotations revealing the near-magical thoughts of a man who just before his death asked God's forgiveness for "not using all the resources of my spirit and art."

• Hardcover
• 250 pages; 235 illustrations
• 9 x 10 7/8"
• © 2008