There is so much that a multifaceted man who lived more than half a millennium ago can teach our modern world that desperately needs a second Renaissance. That’s one reason I’ve started a new blog devoted to Leonardo da Vinci.
Welcome to the first installment.
Here you will find all of my future writings about the quintessential Renaissance man—except for the book I will write about him. The mission of my book—with this blog as its aide—is to spotlight how da Vinci fundamentally thought and acquired knowledge, enabling him to study and make discoveries across a wide range of disciplines. But my blog's more practical purpose is to help me prepare to write the book and build audience interest in the published product.
Ideally, I’d like my writings here to be relevant to my readers’ lives and work—despite that our division-of-labor world is highly specialized, while da Vinci primarily earned his keep as a painter, sculptor, military and hydraulic engineer, architectural consultant, theatrical designer and inventor. That is, I’d rather muse less about the journalistic and historic aspects of the Italian polymath’s rich life and innovative work, intriguing as I find these, and more about how they can or do relate to your world.
“This blog’s more practical purpose is to help me prepare to write my book and build audience interest in the published product.”
At the same time, while my posts will certainly address matters that I’ll concentrate on in my book, nothing that I anticipate will go directly into my published book will appear here. I’m reserving the best material for that project. Some of the broad topics I expect I’ll blog about include da Vinci’s:
lifelong childlike curiosity and passion for learning.
independence in questing tradition and authority to discover and invent.
I’m sure I’ll also review books I’ve read as research for my book. Moreover, I’ll likely devote occasional posts to how my first book is developing and what I’ve learned from the process, which at least some of my readers (fellow writers) may find useful.
Lastly, I want this debut blog to provide some perspective on my interest in da Vinci which began in my teen years. So, I’ve posted below links to all of my past da Vinci-related writings since I “rediscovered” him in 2018.
Thanks for reading and I’ll do my best to earn your loyal or even semi-loyal readership. See you soon.
Leonardo Da Vinci by Walter Isaacson
May 10, 2019