Leonardo Da Vinci: Renaissance Man (New Horizons)

click here for more details, find new or used items	Alessandro Vezzosi Our price £5.99 (£6.95) New from £0.49 Used from £0.24 Pages: 160 (Paperback) ISBN: 050030081X Pub: Thames & Hudson Ltd Pub date: 1997-11 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 261643

Reader Reviews:

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Ths is rather in the vein of the Oxford University Press series A Very Short Introduction To. It's pocket sized, it purports to give an overview of a complex subject, in this case the life and works of Leonardo Da Vinci and it provides references for further study at the back.

My issue with the book is that it is highly graphic, which is fine in some ways but means that the text suffers somewhat. The actual body of text is fairly minimal, and incredibly dumbed down. It vacillates between giving us a biographical run down of Leonardo's life and addressing his interests such as military engineering, geometry, anatomy and aviation, as well as his art. Because so much space is given to illustrations it fulfils neither brief well.

Whereas the main body of text is fairly weak, the notes accompanying the pictures are copious and often intrude into the main text, making it very difficult to read as a narrative. They eye is constantly being interrupted by text boxes.

The notes on works about Leonardo at the back of the book are good. The illustrations are good as they are in full colour and not only show entire paintings but also close up details and other notes and drawings from his works.

It is quite interesting if you don't know anything about Leonardo, and if you can put up with the poor layout it is worth looking at.

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