The Writings and Drawings of Leonardo da Vinci: Order and Chaos in Early Modern Thought

This study examines why writing and drawing were so important to Leonardo da Vinci, who, over the course of his lifetime, filled about 15,000 pages with texts and images. Focusing on the fragmentary and chaotic character of his notes, Robert Zwijnenberg investigates important cultural developments, such as the renewed interest in classical rhetoric which occurred during the Italian Renaissance, as well as the work of scholars and artists who influenced Leonardo, including Cusanus, Alberti, Taccola, and Francesco di Giorgio Martini. Zwijnenberg's study also sheds new light on linear perspective and anatomy, the artist's most favoured fields of study. Through this synthetic approach, Zwijnenberg demonstrates that Leonardo's obsessive writing and drawing enabled the artist to capture the infinite complexity of the world; and that the physical acts of writing and drawing played an independent role in the intellectual process of making sense of the world around him.