Towering across time as the creator 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. His keen scientific imagination and, most of all, his aesthetic and creative genius have forever changed the course of our culture. Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code and recent in-depth biographies have stimulated renewed interest in da Vinci and his complex and inquiring intelligence.

He is a challenging figure easily defined only by his great works, but this revealing selection of sketches, diagrams, and writings from his notebooks is a beautiful and varied record of da Vinci’s theories and observations. They embrace not only art but also architecture, town planning, engineering, naval warfare, music, medicine, mathematics, science, and philosophy. The notebooks—a treasure trove of unparalleled ingenuity, curiosity, and creative energy—have inspired readers for centuries. The Da Vinci Notebooks is the perfect introduction to the mysteries of a master artist.