For everyone who has read Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code, here is an exceptional insight into da Vinci's inner world in his own words and images—a dazzling array of invention and observation from perhaps the greatest genius of Western civilization. Towering across time as the painter of the Mona Lisa, forever famous as a sculptor and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci was one of the greatest minds of both the Italian Renaissance and Western civilization. Dan Brown's The Da Vinci Code and recent in-depth biographies have stimulated renewed interest in da Vinci and his complex and inquiring intelligence. This brand-new selection of sketches, diagrams, and writings from his notebooks is a beautiful and varied record of da Vinci's theories and observations, embracing not only art but also architecture, town planning, engineering, naval warfare, music, medicine, mathematics, science, and philosophy. The notebooks—a treasure trove of unparalleled ingenuity, curiosity, and creative energy—have inspired readers for centuries. This new selection is the perfect introduction to the mysteries of da Vinci.