Da Vinci's Ghost: Genius, Obsession, and How Leonardo Created the World in His Own Image

by Toby Lester Narrated by Stephen Hoye

Overview

Everybody knows the picture: a man, meticulously rendered by Leonardo da
Vinci, standing with arms and legs outstretched in a circle and a
square. Deployed today to celebrate subjects as various as the grandeur
of art, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human
spirit, the drawing turns up just about everywhere: in books, on coffee
cups, on corporate logos, even on spacecraft. It has, in short, become
the world's most famous cultural icon-and yet almost nobody knows about
the epic intellectual journeys that led to its creation. In this modest
drawing that would one day paper the world, da Vinci attempted nothing
less than to calibrate the harmonies of the universe and understand the
central role man played in the cosmos.

Journalist and storyteller
Toby Lester brings Vitruvian Man to life, resurrecting the ghost of an
unknown Leonardo. Populated by a colorful cast of characters, including
Brunelleschi of the famous Dome, Da Vinci's Ghost opens up a
surprising window onto the artist and philosopher himself and the
tumultuous intellectual and cultural transformations he bridged. With
sparkling prose, Lester
captures the brief but momentous time in the history of western thought
when the Middle Ages gave way to the Renaissance, art and science and
philosophy converged as one, and all seemed to hold out the promise that
a single human mind, if properly harnessed, could grasp the nature of
everything.

Editorial Reviews

Jonathan Lopez

…richly rewarding history…
—The New York Times Book Review

Publishers Weekly

Before The Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, Leonardo da Vinci created what would become one of the most reproduced images in the world, known formally as Vitruvian Man. A “man in a circle and a square,” the image continues to be “deployed variously to celebrate all sorts of ideas,” but it also represents da Vinci’s particular preoccupations. Da Vinci, writes Atlantic contributing editor Lester, wanted to “to investigate the makeup and function of everything.” One of the great contributions of books like this is to keep the reader from taking for granted a familiar object. Lester’s detective story has a satisfying number of insights, such as that Leonardo’s drive to accurately represent the human body was grounded in a desire to find the location of the soul. Lester (The Fourth Part of the World) also covers a broad swath of history, suggesting, for instance, that Hildegard of Bingen was one of da Vinci’s main precursors in believing the human body to be a microcosm of the world. Finally, Lester braids intellectual threads—philosophy, anatomy, architecture, and art—together in a way that reaffirms not only Leonardo’s genius but also re-establishes the significance of historical context in understanding great works of art. Illus. (Feb.)

From the Publisher

"Lester braids intellectual threads---philosophy, anatomy, architecture, and art---together in a way that reaffirms not only Leonardo's genius but also re-establishes the significance of historical context in understanding great works of art." ---Publishers Weekly Starred Review

Library Journal - Audio

Lester, a contributing editor to The Atlantic, goes back to ancient Rome and the influence of first-century architect Vitruvius for a history of Leonardo da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man," the famous image depicting a man fitting his body into a square and a circle by adjusting his arms and legs. Enlightening and carefully researched, this account of Leonardo's life and work reveals the human qualities of the self-taught genius as it discusses the scientific, theological, philosophical, and artistic beliefs of the early Renaissance that led to the drawing. VERDICT Narrator Stephen Hoye does a credible job of bringing this exciting historical period to life. Art enthusiasts, history buffs, and those wanting to know more about the great Leonardo, as well as the idea of man as a microcosm for the world, will appreciate this audiobook. ["A book for anyone who has wondered about the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance," read the review of the Free Pr: S. & S. hc, LJ 2/1/12.—Ed.]—Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo

Library Journal

Leonardo da Vinci set out to incorporate a perfect interpretation of the universe through his drawing Vitruvian Man, a male nude with four outstretched arms—perhaps indicating motion, perhaps measuring—and four outstretched legs proportioned within a circle in a square. It is one of Leonardo's best-known images, and Lester (contributing editor, Atlantic; The Fourth Part of the World: An Astonishing Epic of Global Discovery, Imperial Ambition, and the Birth of America) uses it as a device to celebrate the life and work of the artist and to pull together the philosophical, cosmic, and aesthetic influences on this prototypical Renaissance man and his profound effect on art and invention. Lester tells of Leonardo's childhood; apprenticeship in Andrea del Verrocchio's studio; ambition to break with the pack and decision to keep his mysterious notebooks; fascination with how things are made and work; interest in the classics, including Vitruvius's Ten Books on Architecture; and military designs. VERDICT A book for anyone who has wondered about the genius of Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian Renaissance, it will enlighten students and specialists as well as the reading and museum-going public.—Ellen Bates, New York

FEBRUARY 2012 - AudioFile

Toby Lester has created a remarkable mélange of history, biography, intrigue, and philosophy. Beginning as an examination of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing of a man within a square within a circle, this involving book ends up taking us deep into many aspects of the Renaissance world. As we encounter a panoply of fifteenth-century artists, politicians, and thinkers, including da Vinci, we are thrust into a time of tumult. It’s an exciting ride, for which narrator Stephen Hoye is well suited. He reads rather like a newscaster, lifting the ends of sentences and sounding upbeat, as if he’s on the scene. Just right for a report from the end of one world and the start of another. A.C.S. 2013 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Reviews

Atlantic editor Lester (The Fourth Part of the World: The Epic Story of History's Greatest Map, 2009, etc.) returns with another narrative-on-crank, this time about Leonardo da Vinci's ubiquitous drawing known officially as his Vitruvian Man. The author has a fondness of superlatives (see his subtitles), but in the case of da Vinci, it's hard to avoid them. Vitruvian Man--the drawing of a man, arms and legs in two different positions inside a circle and a square--is named for Marcus Vitruvius Pollio, a Roman military and civil engineer, whose Ten Books on Architecture proposed the idea that the human body was a microcosm--learn the body's secrets and design and you learn the universe's. Providing many useful illustrations, Lester shows how versions of this idea appeared in the works and drawings of numerous others before da Vinci eventually pinned it down on a sheet of paper not much larger than a standard piece of office stationery. The author charts da Vinci's career, noting his autodidacticism, his phenomenal desire to know everything, and his decision to keep notebooks and fill them with ideas, drawings, plans and observations. We also see a man who had trouble with deadlines: Da Vinci's own work interested him far more than his commissions. Lester is fond of the bait-and-switch tactic. For example, he tells us about a visit to an archive in Venice to see the original drawing; then, at the threshold, he changes the subject, and we wait about 200 pages for the viewing, which, oddly, is underwritten and anticlimactic. The author also likes portentous endings and beginnings to chapters. Leonardo-lite, but the illustrations are illuminating and da Vinci's life is inspiring.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171268763
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	02/07/2012
Edition description:	Unabridged

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