What do you think?
Rate this book
Leonardo
"A considerable work of assimilative scholarship and common sense...races along merrily."—The Boston Globe.
493 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1988
54 people are currently reading
1142 people want to read
About the author
Serge Bramly
51 books9 followersSerge Bramly is a French-language writer and essayist.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews
September 2, 2019
I think this (along with Fox's Alexander the Great) was one of the first biographies I ever read. I have always been amazed by the genius and legend of Leonardo and learned enormous amounts about him from this beautiful biography by Serge Brambly. After reading it, you will want to visit the Loire Valley and enjoy his double-helix staircase at Chambord and the love shack Le Clos Lucé that François I built for him. In Italy, you need to reserve in advance, but it is more than worth it to see The Last Supper in Milan. As for his extant paintings, I have seen all of them except - ironically enough - the ones in the National Gallery in Washington, DC. This book provides priceless insight into his life and his work and how he defined the Renaissance Man in every sense of the term.
This biography was chosen along with the more recent Vecce one for the epic Leonardo exposition at the Louvre. Please read this one and not the horrible Isaacson one!
This biography was chosen along with the more recent Vecce one for the epic Leonardo exposition at the Louvre. Please read this one and not the horrible Isaacson one!
March 15, 2020
I should have rated this more highly but unfortunately I read it after Walter Isaacson's much more readable book. Had I read Bramly's first, I probably would not have loved Isaacson's quite as much. This author did much of the research Isaacson presented in his more engaging manner, winning more praise upon publication in 2017 probably than Bramly did in 1988. This read was rather dry, more a recitation of facts without the richness of detail that I wanted. And the paintings were mostly in black and white in my paperback english translation, sadly. Still a worthy read but far from what I had hoped which maybe is unfair to the author.
February 10, 2016
Honestly, I knew next to nothing about Leonardo going into this, and now I'm fascinated by his talent, the breadth of his interests, and his inability to finish most of what he started. He was possibly the greatest painter in an age of brilliant artists, but his reputation is based on such a small number of surviving works, many of which suffer from serous issues of decay or poor restoration attempts. His insatiable curiosity led him to investigate anatomy to levels which hadn't been done before, as well as to study water and its methods of movement, the potential of manned flight, and many other subjects. Bramly's research, considering it was done in the late 80s, is extraordinarily detailed, and he tells a fascinating story, allowing for the great amount of information which simply doesn't exist. I bought another Leonardo bio the same day as this one, and will read it soon. It's also fascinating to see how his life intersected with so many famous figures of the 15th and early 16th Century.
January 8, 2026
One cannot blame this book too much for including so much psychological speculation just to stress its uncertainty, but it piles up to create an uninspiring image of its great protagonist. All is well in Leonardo's boyhood, when the author happily treats on medieval Italian culture, but the moment his individuality swims into ken, the narration proves itself quite incapable of doing justice to the hero. One gets the facts—about Leonardo, and about the speculations of so many auxiliary wits—but the sense of the man is unattainable. Arcane utterances from his codices are trotted out to suggest attitudes towards family drama.
Perhaps it was my fault for seeking out a historically critical biography. The historian deals with fact, cause and effect, general cultural pattern; the biographer spins an individual narrative from uncertain speculations. He is more like a poet than a scientist. And in this case, the poetry is much inferior to its materials.
Perhaps it was my fault for seeking out a historically critical biography. The historian deals with fact, cause and effect, general cultural pattern; the biographer spins an individual narrative from uncertain speculations. He is more like a poet than a scientist. And in this case, the poetry is much inferior to its materials.
December 22, 2024
Een druk, episodisch genot. De bronnen voor een biografie van het genie Da Vinci zijn een onvulbare gatenkaas; aan zijn schilderkunst op doek en muur is eveneens geknabbeld door de tand des tijds of restaurateurs wiens enthousiasme niet in verhouding stond tot hun kunnen.
Bramly brengt hiertegen de sterkte van de romancier om in de eerste plaats ons onder te dompelen in de wrede maar kleurrijke wereld van de Renaissance elites. Temidden van praalzucht en geweld zwerft het genie van de ene onvoltooide opdracht naar de andere.
Zijn rusteloze geest poogt de werking van water, brons, het menselijk lichaam, het heelal en de vlucht der vogels te doorgronden. Op papier raakt hij de 19e eeuw, maar buiten zijn atelier botst hij telkens op de beperkte theorie en technologie van zijn eigen tijd, zoals hij in zijn eigen hoofd blijft worstelen met wiskunde en Latijn.
Bramly brengt hiertegen de sterkte van de romancier om in de eerste plaats ons onder te dompelen in de wrede maar kleurrijke wereld van de Renaissance elites. Temidden van praalzucht en geweld zwerft het genie van de ene onvoltooide opdracht naar de andere.
Zijn rusteloze geest poogt de werking van water, brons, het menselijk lichaam, het heelal en de vlucht der vogels te doorgronden. Op papier raakt hij de 19e eeuw, maar buiten zijn atelier botst hij telkens op de beperkte theorie en technologie van zijn eigen tijd, zoals hij in zijn eigen hoofd blijft worstelen met wiskunde en Latijn.
September 22, 2020
An interesting speculative biography. I read this as an antidote to Damn Brown...
June 29, 2009
Great book on Leonardo da Vinci's life showing that he really wanted to be an engineer rather then a painter.
January 5, 2020
One of the finest biography of Da Vinci, very informative and well read.
August 17, 2013
Serge Bramly's biography of Leonardo da Vinci is a number of very different books rolled into one. It is an abstruse, highly literary treatise on a Renaissance artist and scientist, but also a tender, intimate portrait of a man Bramly clearly admired. It is a portrait of late 15th century Florence and Milan, and a biography, indeed, of the very conception, in da Vinci's time, of the artist as a tradesperson, rather than the artist-construct that exists in the present western cultural zeitgeist.
Bramly begins, from the outset, to deliberately put a healthy distance between himself and other biographers, clearly being of the opinion that he has managed to avoid many of the errors common to this type of work. He blasts others for descending into hagiography. Others, it would seem, did a great deal of extrapolating, deducing, supposing and guessing in the process of obtaining certain histories, orders of events, details from the life of the man in question. Many gaps do exist in da Vinci's personal history, things that are hard to ascertain from patchy municipal records and subjective epistolary accounts. Harder still is the process of teasing out the character and spirit of a man who wrote prolifically on his many subjects of scientific inquiry, but hardly anything about his inner state.
Bramly very convincingly picks apart fact from extrapolation, and is forthright in disclosing how he arrived at the many conclusions drawn throughout the book. He draws you in with his deep convictions, and his profound respect for da Vinci as a whole human being, with brilliant, glaring flaws, a man who, by dint of taking on spectacular challenges, often failed spectacularly. Through Bramly's often snobbish, but meticulous accounting of his subject, runs a vein of bittersweet, highly nuanced, loving obsession over a strange and fascinating subject. One can't help but be drawn into this labyrinth of conjecture. To watch Bramly try to divine the meaning in many things others might gloss over, to find such haunting depth in the life and work of someone who lived in a distant world so different from our own and yet so strikingly similar, often feels like walking in on something too private to witness.
It bears mentioning that the superb quality of the writing is even more striking considering the book I read is a translation from French, and credit is due to the translator, Sian Reynolds, for a marvellous work. Reynolds was working with a book that featured multiple languages in situ, names, places, concepts, in Italian and French, Latin, German... I can't even begin to imagine how one tackles such a task.
Bramly begins, from the outset, to deliberately put a healthy distance between himself and other biographers, clearly being of the opinion that he has managed to avoid many of the errors common to this type of work. He blasts others for descending into hagiography. Others, it would seem, did a great deal of extrapolating, deducing, supposing and guessing in the process of obtaining certain histories, orders of events, details from the life of the man in question. Many gaps do exist in da Vinci's personal history, things that are hard to ascertain from patchy municipal records and subjective epistolary accounts. Harder still is the process of teasing out the character and spirit of a man who wrote prolifically on his many subjects of scientific inquiry, but hardly anything about his inner state.
Bramly very convincingly picks apart fact from extrapolation, and is forthright in disclosing how he arrived at the many conclusions drawn throughout the book. He draws you in with his deep convictions, and his profound respect for da Vinci as a whole human being, with brilliant, glaring flaws, a man who, by dint of taking on spectacular challenges, often failed spectacularly. Through Bramly's often snobbish, but meticulous accounting of his subject, runs a vein of bittersweet, highly nuanced, loving obsession over a strange and fascinating subject. One can't help but be drawn into this labyrinth of conjecture. To watch Bramly try to divine the meaning in many things others might gloss over, to find such haunting depth in the life and work of someone who lived in a distant world so different from our own and yet so strikingly similar, often feels like walking in on something too private to witness.
It bears mentioning that the superb quality of the writing is even more striking considering the book I read is a translation from French, and credit is due to the translator, Sian Reynolds, for a marvellous work. Reynolds was working with a book that featured multiple languages in situ, names, places, concepts, in Italian and French, Latin, German... I can't even begin to imagine how one tackles such a task.
August 2, 2012
Leonardo the Artist and the Man
This book was an excellent biography of an exceedingly complex man. It is very readable. While including information on daily life and politics of Italy during Leonardo's life, it avoids going into minute detail. The author clearly indicates when he is speculating on some aspect of Leonardo's life and work. His life was certainly one of constant investigation and imagination. He was an illegitimate child, he worked as an apprentice in Verrochio's studio, he felt unappreciated in Florence & relocated to Milan. The book includes many little vignettes which give the reader a flavor of what life was like at the time and even more what Leonardo was like. For example, he signed a contract with a certain monastery to produce a very staid, stiff Madonna and Child but it was obvious from the beginning that he had no intention of producing such a painting; what he did produce was the masterpiece, The Madonna of the Rocks. His interests were as varied as can be imagined--from anatomy to astronomy to machines of war to horses of bronze--everything interested his inventive mind.
I am neither an artist nor an art historian. I found this book a wonderful introduction to the genius that was Leonardo da Vinci. My only wish is that there had been more color plates included in the book.
This book was an excellent biography of an exceedingly complex man. It is very readable. While including information on daily life and politics of Italy during Leonardo's life, it avoids going into minute detail. The author clearly indicates when he is speculating on some aspect of Leonardo's life and work. His life was certainly one of constant investigation and imagination. He was an illegitimate child, he worked as an apprentice in Verrochio's studio, he felt unappreciated in Florence & relocated to Milan. The book includes many little vignettes which give the reader a flavor of what life was like at the time and even more what Leonardo was like. For example, he signed a contract with a certain monastery to produce a very staid, stiff Madonna and Child but it was obvious from the beginning that he had no intention of producing such a painting; what he did produce was the masterpiece, The Madonna of the Rocks. His interests were as varied as can be imagined--from anatomy to astronomy to machines of war to horses of bronze--everything interested his inventive mind.
I am neither an artist nor an art historian. I found this book a wonderful introduction to the genius that was Leonardo da Vinci. My only wish is that there had been more color plates included in the book.
April 14, 2016
I could not finish this book. I read the first 130 pages, but could not make it. It is too analytic and scholarly. I just want a decent biography--I don't need someone to compare three conflicting sources and argue why he believes one way and not the others. Not at this point in time, anyway.
This is the second attempt to learn about Leonardo that has failed. I just want a simple primer; an intro in to the life of the man. Any recommendations?
This is the second attempt to learn about Leonardo that has failed. I just want a simple primer; an intro in to the life of the man. Any recommendations?
September 14, 2008
The worst written book about one of the most interesting subjects in history. The writing style here is so ponderous and long winded it's a struggle to read. I had to read pages over and over again just to make sense of what the author was trying to say. Hence, I say I read this book 125 times.
August 23, 2009
Now I REALLY need to go to Florence. Rome would be OK too.
December 27, 2023
“Kot dobro izpolnjen dan prinaša blažen sen, dobro uporabljeno življenje prinaša blaženo smrt.” (Leonardo, Tr. Tav. 28)
Široko zastavljena biografija prepleta kronološke podatke Leonardovega življenja s komentarji iz njegovih beležnic, analizami njegovih del, mnogimi raziskavami ter z Leonardom inspiriranimi umetniškimi manifestacijami. Leonardo in njegova dela so zaradi pop industrije potrebni predvsem demistifikacije - in to Bramly v veliki meri tudi počne. Kljub temu pa nedoumljivost in zagonetnost “renesančnega človeka” ostajata neuničljiva elementa Leonardove (resnične) enigmatičnosti - nasprotja med željo in strahom, med kreacijo in destrukcijo, med neskončno zmožnostjo in impotenčno nesposobnostjo izgotovitve… Leonardo ni šifra, je pa misterij.
Široko zastavljena biografija prepleta kronološke podatke Leonardovega življenja s komentarji iz njegovih beležnic, analizami njegovih del, mnogimi raziskavami ter z Leonardom inspiriranimi umetniškimi manifestacijami. Leonardo in njegova dela so zaradi pop industrije potrebni predvsem demistifikacije - in to Bramly v veliki meri tudi počne. Kljub temu pa nedoumljivost in zagonetnost “renesančnega človeka” ostajata neuničljiva elementa Leonardove (resnične) enigmatičnosti - nasprotja med željo in strahom, med kreacijo in destrukcijo, med neskončno zmožnostjo in impotenčno nesposobnostjo izgotovitve… Leonardo ni šifra, je pa misterij.
October 6, 2017
Hij wordt een "uomo universale" genoemd. Leonardo da Vinci probeerde het universum te vatten als kunstenaar, wetenschapper en uitvinder.
In deze meesterlijk geschreven biografie gaat de franse schrijver Serge Bramly terug naar de bronnen. Hij traceert het leven van de grote italiaan in diens eigen geschriften, gaat te rade bij tijdgenoten en rivalen als Botticelli, Miche Angelo en Machiavelli en zoekt het spoor terug in de verschillende woonoorden van de Renaissance-kunstenaar.De dod is voor hem het grootste kwaad : "Elk kwaad laat een droefheid achter in het geheugen, behalve de dood, dat tegelijk met het geheugen het leven vernietigt;"
In deze meesterlijk geschreven biografie gaat de franse schrijver Serge Bramly terug naar de bronnen. Hij traceert het leven van de grote italiaan in diens eigen geschriften, gaat te rade bij tijdgenoten en rivalen als Botticelli, Miche Angelo en Machiavelli en zoekt het spoor terug in de verschillende woonoorden van de Renaissance-kunstenaar.De dod is voor hem het grootste kwaad : "Elk kwaad laat een droefheid achter in het geheugen, behalve de dood, dat tegelijk met het geheugen het leven vernietigt;"
May 19, 2021
This is a comprehensive portrait of the life of Leonardo. The author displays a passion for his subject that invigorates the presentation while never descending into hagiography. From the workshop of Verocchio to his own working quarters in Florence, Milan, and beyond we are presented with the details of a life of curiosity and wonder that all too infrequently leads to completed masterpieces.
I appreciated the thoroughness of the biography while also enjoying its objectivity and the wealth of references and notes that provide the ballast needed to come to some understanding of the life of a Renaissance man. If you can read one book about Leonardo da Vinci this should be the one you read.
I appreciated the thoroughness of the biography while also enjoying its objectivity and the wealth of references and notes that provide the ballast needed to come to some understanding of the life of a Renaissance man. If you can read one book about Leonardo da Vinci this should be the one you read.
April 22, 2022
Este libro es tedioso, está lleno de suposiciones que hace el autor y de preguntas retóricas que no aportan nada.
Desde el inicio el autor nos deja claro que es muy complicado tener datos fehacientes de la vida de Leonardo y trata de llenar los vacíos con hechos y personajes históricos de la época y aunque son interesantes de alguna manera los datos de Leonardo los narra de forma aburrida y enredosa, incluso el final de la obra es enredoso.
Desde el inicio el autor nos deja claro que es muy complicado tener datos fehacientes de la vida de Leonardo y trata de llenar los vacíos con hechos y personajes históricos de la época y aunque son interesantes de alguna manera los datos de Leonardo los narra de forma aburrida y enredosa, incluso el final de la obra es enredoso.
April 18, 2025
El autor, más inclinado a la conjetura que a la comprobación, se entrega con ligereza a los caprichos del psicologismo. La precisión en la cita es escasa, y el análisis técnico de la pintura, casi inexistente. Lo que se presenta como biografía se revela más bien como un ensayo biográfico, no sin aspiraciones a la altura de Chesterton, aunque carente de su ingenio, su humor, su erudición y, sobre todo, de su estilo.
June 10, 2025
I ended up reading the whole book, and enjoyed it thoroughly.
The biography by Walter Isaacson might be a bit more up to date, easily accessible and with an inspiring perspective to Leonardo's psychology as an artistic scientist and scientific artist. But Serge Bramly goes deeper into the mysterious figure's possible motivations and historical context.
The biography by Walter Isaacson might be a bit more up to date, easily accessible and with an inspiring perspective to Leonardo's psychology as an artistic scientist and scientific artist. But Serge Bramly goes deeper into the mysterious figure's possible motivations and historical context.
March 13, 2017
Je ne suis peut-être pas aussi enthousiaste que les critiques mais c'était quand même très intéressant, donnant une vue assez complète du personnage, mais plus de l'artiste que de l'homme lui-même dont on ne sait pas grand chose...
July 28, 2017
A book thats hard to put down. So much to learn about a man that largely remains still a mystery.
October 27, 2017
Excellent biography of the man his context and accomplishments without delving into lionization.
November 8, 2018
Excellent biography
Read
July 29, 2019La meilleure biographie sur Léonard de Vinci.
Read
June 16, 2021Water, flight, magi;
Verrocchio and Salai;
Like a well-filled day
Verrocchio and Salai;
Like a well-filled day
December 3, 2021
Interesting. Well researched and has some examples of Leonardo's works.
August 8, 2024
Interesting fella
July 1, 2025
A very pleasant read, not only giving insight to Leonardos life but also thoughts and the context in which he worked.
February 5, 2026
Viaggio ispiratore nella vita del più grande poliedrico della storia.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 54 reviews