Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) was one of the preeminent figures of the Italian Renaissance. He was also one of the most paradoxical. He spent an incredible amount of time writing notebooks, perhaps even more time than he ever held a brush, yet at the same time Leonardo was Renaissance culture’s most fanatical critic of the word. When Leonardo criticized writing he criticized it as an expert on words; when he was painting, writing remained in the back of his brilliant mind. In this book, Joost Keizer argues that the comparison between word and image fueled Leonardo’s thought. The paradoxes at the heart of Leonardo’s ideas and practice also defined some of Renaissance culture’s central assumptions about culture and nature: that there is a look to script, that painting offered a path out of culture and back to nature, that the meaning of images emerged in comparison with words, and that the difference between image-making and writing also amounted to a difference in the experience of time.

An exploration of the compositional methods and sources of Leonardo’s fables to investigate their relationship with illustrations and scientific studies.

This work is a large, powerfully illustrated interdisciplinary natural sciences volume, the first of its kind to examine the critically important nature of ecological paradox, through an abundance of lenses: the biological sciences, taxonomy, archaeology, geopolitical history, comparative ethics, literature, philosophy, the history of science, human geography, population ecology, epistemology, anthropology, demographics, and futurism. The ecological paradox suggests that the human biological–and from an insular perspective, successful–struggle to exist has come at the price of isolating H. sapiens from life-sustaining ecosystem services, and far too much of the biodiversity with which we find ourselves at crisis-level odds. It is a paradox dating back thousands of years, implicating millennia of human machinations that have been utterly ruinous to biological baselines. Those metrics are examined from numerous multidisciplinary approaches in this thoroughly original work, which aids readers, particularly natural history students, who aspire to grasp the far-reaching dimensions of the Anthropocene, as it affects every facet of human experience, past, present and future, and the rest of planetary sentience. With a Preface by Dr. Gerald Wayne Clough, former Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution and President Emeritus of the Georgia Institute of Technology. Foreword by Robert Gillespie, President of the non-profit, Population Communication.

"An examination of the modern cultural mythology of Leonardo da Vinci that sheds light on the intersections of the academy, the commercial art world, and ideas about attribution and authorship"--

Here are clear reproductions of over 1,200 anatomical drawings by one of humanity's greatest geniuses — still considered, nearly five centuries later, the finest ever rendered. 215 plates.

Understanding Da Vinci’s Creative Genius The life and art of history’s most influential mind Bestselling author Leonard Shlain explores the potential for humankind through the life, art, and mind of the first true Renaissance Man, Leonardo da Vinci. His innovations as an artist, scientist, and inventor are recast through a modern lens, with Shlain applying contemporary neuroscience to illuminate da Vinci’s creative process. No other person in human history has excelled in so many areas of innovation: Shlain reveals the how and the why. Shlain theorizes that Leonardo’s extraordinary mind came from a uniquely developed and integrated right and left brain, which offers a model for how we too can evolve. Using past and current research, Leonardo’s Brain presents da Vinci as the focal point for a fresh exploration of human creativity. With his lucid style and remarkable ability to discern connections among a wide range of fields, Shlain brings the reader into the world of history’s greatest mind. Leonard Shlain is a bestselling author, inventor, and surgeon. Admired among artists, scientists, philosophers, anthropologists, and educators, he authored three bestselling books. He delivered stunning visual presentations based upon his books in venues around the world, including Harvard, the New York Museum of Modern Art, CERN, Los Alamos, the Florence Academy of Art, and the European Council of Ministers. Shlain died in May 2009 at the age of 71 from brain cancer shortly after the completion of this book. Visit LeonardShlain.com and LeonardosBrain.com.

“In this rich treasure trove of historical inspiration, contemporary ideas, and future-oriented how-to’s, Valerie Brown has brought together a lifetime of work synthesizing science, participatory processes, and action for sustainability. A seasoned explorer, she moves effortlessly between disciplines as she describes a comprehensive approach to tackling the great challenges of our time—together. Because together is the only way they can be tackled. Read, learn, and act.” - Alan AtKisson, author, Believing Cassandra, and Executive Director, Earth Charter International.