Leonardo da Vinci

Isaacson follows Leonardo from his birth in 1452 as the illegitimate son of a notary in the Tuscan town of Vinci, which kept him out of a formal education and, Isaacson suggests, freed him to learn from experience. As an apprentice in Andrea del Verrocchio's workshop in Florence, he learned painting, sculpture and engineering, and he later spent many years in Milan at the court of Ludovico Sforza, designing festivals, weapons and canals as well as painting.

The book moves through his major works, including the Last Supper and the Mona Lisa, and explains the techniques behind them, such as his subtle blending of light and shadow. Just as much space goes to his notebooks: studies of birds and flying machines, the Vitruvian Man, careful anatomical drawings made from dissections, and observations of water and geology. Isaacson is honest about Leonardo's habit of leaving projects unfinished and presents it as part of his perfectionism. The final chapters follow him to France, where he died in 1519, and close with lessons readers can take from his curiosity.

Lively and generously illustrated with color images. About 624 pages in the Simon & Schuster paperback.