Leonardo da Vinci:
The Mechanics of Man

Winner of the British Book Design and Production Awards

 

Hardback, 310 x 215 mm, 93 colour illustrations 
ISBN 978 1 905686 83 4

Complex Chinese, Simplified Chinese, Japanese and Polish rights sold

Leonardo da Vinci was not only one of the leading artists of the Renaissance—he was also one of the greatest anatomists ever to have lived. He combined, to a unique degree, manual skill in dissection, analytical skill in understanding the structures he uncovered, and artistic skill in recording his results. Leonardo’s campaign of human dissection during the winter of 1510–11, concentrating on the muscles and bones, was recorded on the pages of a manuscript now in the Royal Library at Windsor Castle. These are arguably the finest anatomical drawings ever made.

This book reproduces the entire manuscript, and for the first time translates all of Leonardo’s copious notes ‘on the page’ so that the unfolding of his thought may readily be followed.

Martin Clayton is Head of Prints and Drawings, Royal Collection Trust. He has published extensively on the work of Leonardo da Vinci.

Ron Philo was Senior Lecturer in the Department of Cellular and Structural Biology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and is now retired.