Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reimagined the World

Be the first to write a review

All Available Formats + Editions

——

$9.76

NOOK Book

——

$9.76

Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reimagined the World (eBook) Pub. Date: 4/27/2010 Publisher: Perseus Publishing
$3.99

$12.51

Paperback

$3.99

$12.51

Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reimagined the World (First Trade Paper Edition) Pub. Date: 8/23/2011 Publisher: Da Capo Press
$0.01

——

Hardcover

$0.01

——

Leonardo's Legacy: How Da Vinci Reimagined the World Pub. Date: 4/27/2010 Publisher: Da Capo Press

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

Advertising

Overview

Revered today as, perhaps, the greatest of Renaissance painters, Leonardo da Vinci was a scientist at heart. The artist who created the Mona Lisa also designed functioning robots and digital computers, constructed flying machines and built the first heart valve. His intuitive and ingenious approach—a new mode of thinking—linked highly diverse areas of inquiry in startling new ways and ushered in a new era.

In Leonardo’s Legacy, award-winning science journalist Stefan Klein deciphers the forgotten legacy of this universal genius and persuasively demonstrates that today we have much to learn from Leonardo’s way of thinking. Klein sheds light on the mystery behind Leonardo’s paintings, takes us through the many facets of his fascination with water, and explains the true significance of his dream of flying. It is a unique glimpse into the complex and brilliant mind of this inventor, scientist, and pioneer of a new world view, with profound consequences for our times.

Editorial Reviews

Michael Sims

Leonardo da Vinci has so long been sanctified that it's easy to forget he was human. Fortunately, Stefan Klein paints a fresh portrait rather than further gilding an already blinding lily. Leonardo the artist and inventor are here, of course, but Klein devotes his most enthusiastic attention to Leonardo the naturalist…Klein's vivid journeys on Leonardo's trail help create a sense of the man behind the red chalk self-portraits…
—The Washington Post

Kirkus Reviews

A lucid examination of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), emphasizing his immense secret journal. In an excellent translation by Frisch, German science writer Klein (The Secret Pulse of Time: Making Sense of Life's Scarcest Commodity, 2008, etc.) states that early da Vinci scholars were mostly art historians. However, as they assembled thousands of pages, notebooks and fragments scattered across the world after his death, scientists and engineers joined in extolling his insights. The author traveled across Europe and America, considering along the way da Vinci paintings, manuscripts and a few remaining engineering works that reveal the scope of his genius. Besides describing da Vinci's research in anatomy, physics, hydraulics, military weapons and flight, Klein also highlights enthusiasts devoted to building the inventions whose beautiful diagrams have long graced coffee-table histories. The long chapter on the Mona Lisa shows da Vinci's exhaustive curiosity-he worked on it for 15 years. Dozens of journal pages illustrate his study of light, color and human anatomy, all of which contribute to the painting's brilliance. Flying also fascinated da Vinci, and many of his extraordinarily precise analyses of bird flight were only confirmed by 20th-century stop-motion photography. Klein describes da Vinci as the first modern scientist, obsessed with understanding the world as it actually worked, which turned out to be different from the explanations by traditional authorities. This richly illustrated, engrossing account makes a good case that da Vinci was not only ahead of his time but ahead of our own.

More Reviews (2) Fewer Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Every year more than 5 million people line up to see Leonardo Da Vinci's Mona Lisa-but why? In his latest, German science writer Klein (The Secret Pulse of Time) seeks to understand why "this portrait of a Florentine housewife of no more than average beauty" is so "deeply penetrating." Klein makes a compelling case that DaVinci's ability to trigger an empathetic physical response in the viewer lay in his scientific acumen: the asymmetry of the Mona Lisa's smile, for instance, deliberately reflects the asymmetry of the human brain. While Leonardo is remembered primarily as an artist, his accomplishments as a scientist were at least as important; among other work, he studied the motion of water, worked out the trajectory of missiles, and designed impregnable fortifications, all with just a bare-bones knowledge of arithmetic. Klein insists that "the Mona Lisa so riveting because it incorporated many of the optical rules that Leonardo discovered," such as the way proportions change in relation to distance and colors transform as light passes through the atmosphere. Including a detailed chronology of the artist's life, this makes an illuminating new look at Leonardo's unique genius. 70 B&W photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Library Journal

Artists' work is their legacy to society—seldom do they provide us notes on their life and thoughts as they are in the process of living and creating. Luckily, Leonardo jotted down thousands of pages of ideas, sketches, thoughts, and more. Roughly half of this prodigious output exists today, though fragmented, in museums and private collections, and occasionally new pages surface. In this book, originally published in Germany in 2008, Klein (The Science of Happiness) masterfully connects Leonardo's tangible work (for example, paintings) to his ideas in his notebooks within the political and economic world where he functioned. What is most amazing is Klein's ability to show readers how Leonardo's powers of observation could make up for his lack of mathematical knowledge or engineering training. Equally incredible are Leonardo's drawings of the human body—so insightful that they still provide us with information today. VERDICT In short, Klein successfully enters Leonardo's mind through his notebooks and includes readers along the way. Highly recommended and required reading for history of science scholars and enthusiasts.—Michael D. Cramer, Schwarz BioSciences, RTP, NC

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780306820083
Publisher: Da Capo Press
Publication date: 8/23/2011
Edition description: First Trade Paper Edition
Pages: 304
Sales rank: 335,685
Product dimensions: 6.00 (w) x 8.90 (h) x 0.90 (d)

Meet the Author

Stefan Klein is a leading European science writer whose influential publications have won numerous awards. He is the author of the international bestseller The Science of Happiness and The Secret Pulse of Time. He lives in Berlin, Germany.

Customer Reviews

Be the first to write a review

( 0 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(0)

4 Star

(0)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble