This title presents a dazzling array of invention insight & observation from perhaps the greatest genius of Western civilisation. Towering across time as the painter of the Mona Lisa forever famous as a sculptor & an inventor Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of both the Italian Renaissance & Western civilisation. His celebrated notebooks display the astonishing range of his genius. Dan Browns The Da Vinci Code" & recent in-depth biographies have stimulated renewed interest in Leonardo & his complex & enquiring intelligence. This br&-new selection of sketches diagrams & writings from the notebooks is a beautiful & varied record of Leonardos theories & observations embracing not only art but also architecture town planning engineering naval warfare music medicine mathematics science & philosophy. Complete with a short biographical essay describing Leonardos life & achievements this is the perfect introduction to a mysterious & endlessly fascinating genius."