For fans of rich and vivid historical novels like Girl with a Pearl Earring and Code Name Verity, Laura Malone Elliott delivers the stunning tale of real-life Renaissance woman Ginevra de' Benci, the inspiration for one of Leonardo da Vinci's earliest masterpieces. The young and beautiful daughter of a wealthy family, Ginevra longs to share her poetry and participate in the artistic ferment of Renaissance Florence but is trapped in an arranged marriage in a society dictated by men. The arrival of the charismatic Venetian ambassador, Bernardo Bembo, introduces Ginevra to a dazzling circle of patrons, artists, and philosophers. Bembo chooses Ginevra as his Platonic muse and commissions a portrait of her by a young Leonardo da Vinci. Posing for the brilliant painter inspires an intimate connection between them, one Ginevra only begins to understand. In a rich and vivid world of exquisite art with a dangerous underbelly of deadly political feuds, Ginevra faces many challenges to discover her voice and artistic companionship—and to find love.

The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci by Leonardo Da Vinci: This classic volume collects a wide range of Leonardo Da Vinci's notes and musings, offering a glimpse into the mind of one of history's greatest artists and inventors. With its rich insights into art, science, and the human experience, "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci" is a must-read for fans of intellectual history and biography. Key Aspects of the Book "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci": Insights into Art and Science: The book offers rich insights into the worlds of art and science, highlighting the complex and interrelated nature of these two fields. Musings and Reflections: The book features a wide range of notes and musings, showcasing Da Vinci's playful and curious spirit and his unending quest for knowledge. Historical Biography: The book provides a rich biography of Da Vinci, offering insights into his life and times and his enduring legacy in art and science. Leonardo Da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance artist and inventor who lived from 1452 to 1519. He was a leading figure in the worlds of art and science, known for his insights into human anatomy, his groundbreaking work in engineering and design, and his stunning masterpieces of painting and sculpture. "The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci" is a testament to his enduring impact on human culture and history.

When her beloved father mysteriously disappears, Portia Hadley is determined to discover why...even if it means charging straight into the arms of the Earl of Branford. Known as the "Black Cat" when he was a spy for England, Branford is no stranger to secret missions or mysterious ladies. Branford senses that Portia is not as innocent as her jade-green eyes suggest and a game of cat and mouse begins. Little does Portia know that Branford has his own secret agenda -- one that could ignite a sparking passion...and a deadly danger.

A singular fatality has ruled the destiny of nearly all the most famous of Leonardo da Vinci's works. Two of the three most important were never completed, obstacles having arisen during his life-time, which obliged him to leave them unfinished; namely the Sforza Monument and the Wall-painting of the Battle of Anghiari, while the third—the picture of the Last Supper at Milan—has suffered irremediable injury from decay and the repeated restorations to which it was recklessly subjected during the XVIIth and XVIIIth centuries. Nevertheless, no other picture of the Renaissance has become so wellknown and popular through copies of every description. Vasari says, and rightly, in his Life of Leonardo, "that he laboured much more by his word than in fact or by deed", and the biographer evidently had in his mind the numerous works in Manuscript which have been preserved to this day. To us, now, it seems almost inexplicable that these valuable and interesting original texts should have remained so long unpublished, and indeed forgotten. It is certain that during the XVIth and XVIIth centuries their exceptional value was highly appreciated. This is proved not merely by the prices which they commanded, but also by the exceptional interest which has been attached to the change of ownership of merely a few pages of Manuscript. That, notwithstanding this eagerness to possess the Manuscripts, their contents remained a mystery, can only be accounted for by the many and great difficulties attending the task of deciphering them. The handwriting is so peculiar that it requires considerable practice to read even a few detached phrases, much more to solve with any certainty the numerous difficulties of alternative readings, and to master the sense as a connected whole. Vasari observes with reference to Leonardos writing: "he wrote backwards, in rude characters, and with the left hand, so that any one who is not practised in reading them, cannot understand them". The aid of a mirror in reading reversed handwriting appears to me available only for a first experimental reading. Speaking from my own experience, the persistent use of it is too fatiguing and inconvenient to be practically advisable, considering the enormous mass of Manuscripts to be deciphered. And as, after all, Leonardo's handwriting runs backwards just as all Oriental character runs backwards—that is to say from right to left—the difficulty of reading direct from the writing is not insuperable. This obvious peculiarity in the writing is not, however, by any means the only obstacle in the way of mastering the text. Leonardo made use of an orthography peculiar to himself; he had a fashion of amalgamating several short words into one long one, or, again, he would quite arbitrarily divide a long word into two separate halves; added to this there is no punctuation whatever to regulate the division and construction of the sentences, nor are there any accents—and the reader may imagine that such difficulties were almost sufficient to make the task seem a desperate one to a beginner. It is therefore not surprising that the good intentions of some of Leonardo s most reverent admirers should have failed.

DIVDIVDIVAn intriguing look inside the mind of the Renaissance genius/div/divDIV /divDIVDIVLeonardo da Vinci stood on a bridge between medieval thought and the modern mind. In this selection of entries from his dozens of coded notebooks and unpublished manuscripts, his unending curiosity in the universe and deep knowledge come through in his energetic style. The self-educated da Vinci developed a philosophical system that set him apart from his contemporaries and marked him as the oracle of a new age, and his vivid imagination and straightforward writing style capture the reader’s attention whether he is writing about his scientific analysis, his opinion of necromancy, discoveries in nature, or the nature of man. Accompanied by a thorough introduction, The Wisdom of Leonardo da Vinci unveils the man’s deepest thoughts and musings and proves why he remains an intriguing and enduring figure./div/divDIV /div /div