Leonardo da Vinci by Walter Isaacson

If you like big books full of fascinating information about genius innovators who changed the world in which we live, then this is a book for you to pick up right now. Walter Isaacson has outdone himself with this da Vinci tome. Each chapter is a treat. We may think of Leonardo as an artist, but please don't forget he was an inventor, engineer, musician, and stager of pageants. I wasn't aware of that last thing, but I was astonished at how many times it was his skills staging pageants that got him noticed by prospective employers (dukes, kings, and popes, FYI).

I picked up this book because I was working on a 3-week Lifelong Learning course on the European Renaissance. I like to include details that my students may not be familiar with, and recent information. That this book had plenty of interesting lesser-known details was no surprise given Isaacson's reputation for fine research. But it also supplied me with the compelling account of the painting, "La Bella Principessa," newly discovered in New York. Paralleling da Vinci's own penchant for combining art and science or technology, Isaacson walks us through the process for authenticating paintings believed to have been created by a particular artist. I don't want to spoil the outcome should you be convinced to read the book, but I'll just say there's a crime lab involved, and infared photography, and good old-fashioned critical thinking.

Did you know Leonardo was a pioneer of oil painting and used multiple thin layers of oil paint to create his distinctive effects? Parts of the Mona Lisa's face were created with thirty thin layers of oil paint to give her that luminous look.

Leonardo saved his ideas either in words or sketches in books we now know as Leonardo's Notebooks. these books are actually Commonplace Books, a concept used by many historical thinkers (including Thomas Jefferson and Sherlock Holmes!). These books tend to be smash-ups of ideas, and work like slow cookers for ideas and inspiration. I based my nonfiction writing course on the Commonplace Book, requiring that my students keep a designated notebook in which they add research, observations, free-writing, and ideas for their assigned Long Essay. I assure them that if they check in with their Commonplace Books daily, they will indeed be slow-cooking their ideas. Imagine my joy at reading about Leonardo's notebooks, AKA Commonplace Books, AKA Zibaldone. Isaacson spent an early chapter describing this practice. I feel validated.

Did you know Leonard invented musical instruments and played them well? He invented this Viola organista below. It sounds like a gang of stringed instruments, but it is played with a keyboard which runs a bow over the strings.

Perhaps Leonardo preferred to think of himself as an engineer or inventor, but the truth is he was a phenomenal painter. This books pages are printed on fine, heavy paper, which shows off the details of his awesome work. The book has some weight to it, literally and figuratively. It is a treasure.