Product Description

Building on the success of The Da Vinci Code--a bestseller in 48 countries--this book brings inventions from the artist's original coded notebooks alive. There's more interest than ever in Leonardo Da Vinci, and here readers will find a rare glimpse into the innovator's brilliant mind, with:

-Gorgeous color artwork that breathes life into Leonardo's inventions--from flying and war machines to musical instruments

-Annotated diagrams that show exactly how each contraption would have worked

-A look at how the inventions would be used in modern life

With incredible detail and mechanical accuracy, Leonardo's Machines unlocks the mystery of the artist's notebooks in a way that's both fascinating and educational!

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34312 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 200 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780715324448
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

About the Author
Domenico Laurenza has devoted his working life to the research of Renaissance history and scientific iconography, and worked here with Mario Taddei and Edoardo Zanon, both industrial designers specializing in multi-media and computer graphic communications. They live in Italy.

Customer Reviews

Great Book - Only a how-to if you are VERY experienced!
I bought this book because I have tickets to see the traveling exhibit, "The Da Vinci Experience", in a couple months. It is a gorgeous book. Each machine covered has copies of the Da Vinci original plans, plus the editor's illustrations breaking the machine into it's components, with the placements of said componenets. Each machine has explanations of how components and the full machine work (or are supposed to work). Also, each machine has a history of Leonardo's drawings, purpose, client or personal notebooks, etc. It's a great book and looks gorgeous. I wouldn't think it would be a how-to for a school project unless the kid/parent had a lot of mechanical experience beforehand. All drawings show "real" components that you'd need a full shop to put together. There are no measurements, per se, just comparative sizes shown in the drawings. In the case of Leonardo's original drawings, it looks like this was deliberate. For example, the book's Introduction tells of Leonardo's problems with Giorgio Tedesco, an assistant of a prominant Medici. He wanted Leonardo to build him wooden models of several inventions. Leonardo successfully argued that he could only give Tedesco the scaled drawings. Historians surmise that Leonardo suspected that Tedesco would take the models back to his country, and take them apart to make full-sized machines out of iron without Leonardo's help. Job security was no laughing matter in the 1500's! Love the book. Can't wait to see the working full-sized (except for the half-size helicopter)models made from the drawings in the exhibition.

Great book for budding engineers
Facinating book with gorgeous drawings. We bought it for our 8 year old son who has always loved inventing and drawing machines of his own creation and were so impressed with it that we bought a copy to donate to his school library too.

Very Practical book. useful for school projects
excellent illustrations. this book is a must for anybody contemplating building any of Leonardo's machines. Particularly for school projects. Disappointed that the crossbow wasn't included. Otherwise probably one of the best books available on his machines.