Leonardo's Notebooks

$23.99 at National Gallery of Art.

Leonardo da Vinci -- artist, inventor, and prototypical Renaissance man -- is a perennial source of fascination. His astonishing intellect and boundless curiosity about both the natural and man-made world influenced his numerous works of art, theories, and sentiments -- all of which were kept in his voluminous notebooks. This book is a collection of da Vinci's intricately detailed artistic and intellectual pursuits, and highlights the classic pieces of art he produced in connection with his writings…