Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, (April 15, 1452 – May 2, 1519) was an Italian polymath; a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician and writer.

Born as the illegitimate son of a notary, Piero da Vinci, and a peasant girl, Caterina, at Vinci in the region of Florence, Leonardo was educated in the studio of the renowned Florentine painter, Verrocchio. Much of his earlier working life was spent in the service of Ludovico il Moro in Milan. He later worked in Rome, Bologna and Venice, spending his final years in France at the home given to him by King François I.

Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the "Renaissance man", a man whose seemingly infinite curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest painters of all time and perhaps the most diversely talented person ever to have lived.

It is primarily as a painter that Leonardo was and is renowned. Two of his works, the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper occupy unique positions as the most famous, most reproduced and most parodied portrait and religious painting of all time, their fame approached only by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam.

Leonardo's drawing of the Vitruvian Man is also iconic. Perhaps fifteen paintings survive, the small number due to his constant, and frequently disastrous, experimentation with new techniques, and his chronic procrastination.[b] Nevertheless these few works, together with his notebooks, which contain drawings, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting, comprise a contribution to later generations of artists only rivalled by that of his contemporary, Michelangelo.

As an engineer, Leonardo conceived ideas vastly ahead of his own time, conceptualising a helicopter, a tank, concentrated solar power, a calculator, and the double hull, and outlining a rudimentary theory of plate tectonics. Relatively few of his designs were constructed or even feasible during his lifetime, but some of his smaller inventions, such as an automated bobbin winder and a machine for testing the tensile strength of wire, entered the world of manufacturing unheralded. As a scientist, he greatly advanced the state of knowledge in the fields of anatomy, civil engineering, optics, and hydrodynamics. (Wikipedia.org)

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By Dmitri Merejkowski
Author of " The Death of the Gods."
Authorised Translation from the Russian By Herbert Trench

Two Volumes in One
G. P. Putnam's Sons
New York and London
The Knickerboker Press

You can download the entire publication. Format: djvu, PDF, TXT, B/W PDF, Flip Book.

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PART I CONTENTS PAGE
BOOK I
THE WHITE SHE-DEVIL—1494 .... 3
BOOK II
ECCE DEUS— ECCE HOMO—1494 ... 56
BOOK III
THE POISONED FRUITS—1494 . . . . 90
BOOK IV
THE WITCHES' SABBATH—1494 . . . 129
BOOK V
THY WILL BE DONE—1 494 . . . . 163
BOOK VI
THE DIARY OF GIOVANNI BOLTRAFFIO—I494-I495 202
BOOK VII
THE BONFIRE OF VANITIES—1496 . . .237
BOOK VIII
THE AGE OF GOLD—I496-I497 . . . 272
BOOK IX
THE SIMILITUDES—I498-I499 . . . 333

BOOK IX {Continued)
THE SIMILITUDES—I498-I499 . . . . 3
BOOK X
CALM WATERS—I499-I5OO . . . .46
BOOK XI
THERE SHALL BE WINGS—I5OO . . . 110
BOOK XII
"AUT CAESAR AUT NIHIL" 1—I5OO-I503 . . 141
BOOK XIII
THE PURPLE BEAST—1503 .... 206
BOOK XIV
MONNA LISA GIOCONDA—1503-1506 . . . 245
BOOK XV
THE HOLY INQUISITION—1506-1513 . . . 287
BOOK XVI
LEONARDO, MICHELANGELO, AND RAPHAEL— 1513-1515 . . .309

BOOK XVII
DEATH— THE WINGED PRECURSOR—I516-I519 . 328
EPILOGUE ....... 362

ILLUSTRATIONS
PART I
Leonardo da Vinci (by himself, Uffizi Gallery, Florence) . . Frontispiece
Photo by Anderson.
LuDovico Sforza (Leonardo da Vinci, Milan) 102
Photo by Anderson.
Leonardo da Vinci , Uffizi Gallery, Florence  140
Photo by Alinari.
Lucrezia Crevelli (LEONARDO DA VINCI, Louvre) . . . . . .280
Photo by Neurdein.
Beatrice D' Este (Leonardo da Vinci, Milan) 332
Photo by Anderson.

PART II
Mona Lisa (Leonardo da Vinci, Paris) . 4
Photo by Mansell.
St. Anne and the Virgin (Leonardo da Vinci, Paris) 234
Photo by Mansell
Bacchus (Leonardo da Vinci, Paris) . 336
Photo by Alinari.

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