Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image: The Untold Story of the World's Most Famous Drawing [Hardcover]

Little is known about Leonardo Da Vinci's drawing known as Vitruvian Man (drawing of naked man, limbs spread, square in a circle...you know). The author argues that it is possibly the most recognized drawing in existence, but it lives within a folder locked away in Venice, and little is known about its history. Seldom seen, little understood, yet an immediately recognizable iconic reference to the Italian Renaissance and its humanist ideals. Lester sets for himself a difficult double quest, and I believe he has fulfilled each fairly well.

This quest is to explain the importance of Vitruvian Man by placing it in historical prospective, and also explaining how it fits into the life of Leonardo. There are three main hurdles the author must overcome in order to succeed in this quest.

The first hurdle is that the author attempts to tell a complex story in a very, very short book: 225 pages plus another 70 pages of notes, index, etc. The second is that it assumes that the reader knows no European history, and thus absolutely anything he wants to include of historical significance, he must explain. Medieval Europe, guilds, Augustus, Hildegarde of Bingen. Long list of fairly basic historical facts needing definitions, not much space in which to accomplish this. Third hurdle, we know almost nothing of Leonardo's life outside what he left in his notebooks. This requires a seemingly endless number of 'it is probable that' 'the odds are good that'...

Why I like this book is the audacity of its author to set himself such a difficult task, and to work so hard, and write so well, in making this difficult and important story known, and to write it with a vibrancy that makes you want to read more, to follow the endless minor stories he introduces with the aid of his extensive Works Cited section.

An example of the virtuosity of his descriptions is that he succinctly explains Ptolemy's latitude/longitude plotting of coordinates and then neatly ties this to Alberti's mapping of body coordinates.

Because the author covers such an insane swatch of history with an insistence on explaining everything, those who have some grounding in the applicable history will find many of the explanations annoyingly simplistic. Description of Medieval Europe? "Europe as a whole had devolved into a grimly feudal place" and "so-called Dark Ages."

If you enjoyed Brunelleschi's Dome and The Swerve, you will most probably also find this book engaging.

KINDLE UPDATE: The original Kindle version of the book lacked the plates. The publisher recently updated the Kindle version, eliminating this problem. If you purchased the plate-less version, you must contact Kindle Customer Service to receive the updated version. Deleting and downloading will simply download another copy of the plate-less version.

A gem of a book! Lester takes strands from history, theology, art, science, architecture, and medicine and weaves a tapestry that had me turning the pages. I enjoyed every word and illustration. And Lester creates a memorable - and economical - portrait of Leonardo and his times.

I loved The Fourth Part of the World: An Astonishing Epic of Global Discovery, Imperial Ambition, and the Birth of America, and now I loved Da Vinci's Ghost: both books will really stick with me.

I can't wait so see what Lester does next. I rank him with Charles Mann, Adam Hochschild, and John M. Barry on my list of brilliant and thought-provoking nonfiction writers and thinkers.

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"He from whom nothing is hidden created me, and I have all measure in me, both of what is heavenly above and what is earthly and infernal. And who understands himself understands much." --Plate 7 Caption

It was a hot summer day, as I approached Castello Sforzesco, a 15th century castle that served as a residence for Milan's ducal family. The curators of Michelangelo's art collection and Leonardo DaVinci*'s Codex are located in a majestic contoured garden, not far from La Scala, Milan's center. I was taken by the artistic posters of the Vetruvian man, Da Vinci's ingenious creation, whom the Milanese did not cease, all summer to pay homage to Leonardo's creative genius. The unique Vitruvian design became the substitute icon of the cosmos, in human form. Leonardo's geometric perfection and vivid anatomy, may have opened the scope of his design, to include a metaphysical parameter as well as the mundane dimension. Vitruvian Man provides an integral perspective of the dual makeup of humanity, in a unique visual expression.

The story of Vitruvian Man, in a circle and a square, has become the Renaissance's cultural icon. It celebrates the nature of 'Leonardo's genius', the beauty of the human form, and the character of the human spirit. Leonardo did not summon Vitruvian Man out of the blue, he was meditating on the universal concept, that the human body could be fitted in a circle's circumference, the mystical symbol of eternity, and a square that represented the four material elements of earthly life. It was prescribed by a Roman architect, Vitruvius who implied that the human body was a microcosm, an idea that fascinated Europeans the religious and astronomers for centuries, and Leonardo got hooked to it in an intellectual trap.

In telling the story, award winner Toby Lester cross-weaves a century long legend of people and ideas, brought together in a cast of fascinating characters. Renaissance anatomists, sculptors, art renovators, with Leonardo himself, the starring role, whose ghost resurrects in a surprisingly strange surroundings of his own times. Lester's "Da Vinci's Ghost" is written with intellectual sweep, and narrative flair rekindling the wonder of imagination that only a ghost can inspire! Like Vitruvian Man itself, the book captures a rare time in the history of European thought while the Middle Ages give way to the Renaissance waves of invigoration, while the arts, sciences and philosophy seemed to be converging in a reverberating whole. It seemed then to Leonardo Da Vinci, that Vitruvian Man could personify universal humanism.
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* Leonardo da Vinci
The hand of Leonardo da Vinci has produced images that have inspired and haunted us for centuries, but for many of his admirers, the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, or the Vitruvian Man are his best. Leonardo studied various other natural phenomena, from the flight of birds to the movements of currents. Leonardo da Vinci had an unlimited desire for knowledge, and visual perception was the main tool he used in pursuit of that knowledge, that he even performed dissections, providing a comprehensive account of the anatomy of the human body. Leonardo is known to conceive many novel ideas well ahead of his time; the submarine, the helicopter, and the parachute. Art and science combined in his investigations of the human form, pursued to its limits. Working from his codices, Italian Artisans crafted interactive and life-size machine inventions, bringing back to life his genius as inventor, artist, engineer, anatomist, architect, sculptor and philosopher. These works include the first concepts of a car, bicycle, helicopter, glider, parachute, Scuba, submarine, armored tank to name a few.