Leonardo da Vinci is the most mysterious of all the great artists, continuing to inspire and intrigue centuries after his death. Who lies beneath the legend of the 'Renaissance genius'? What is the real story behind his elusive masterpieces and tantalizing notebooks?

 Charles Nicholl's compelling, lyrical biography opens up Leonardo's life-from his beginnings as an illegitimate child in Tuscany to the creation of his great works and his final days - as never before. Delving into hidden corners of his manuscripts and unravelling years of myth and mystery, he brilliantly illuminates the man behind the enigma.

Author's Note

Introduction: The Cooling of the Soup

   PART ONE

   Childhood: 1452-1466

Birth

The da Vinci

Caterina

'My first memory...'

At the Mill

Speaking with Animals

The 'Madonna of the Snow'

Education

 PART TWO

 Apprenticeship: i466-z477

The City

Renaissance Men

Andrea's Bottega

Learning the Trade

Spectaculars

On the Lantern

First Paintings

The Dragon

Ginevra

The Saltarelli Affair

'Companions in Pistoia'

  PART THREE

  Independence: 1477-1482

Leonardo's Studio

The Hanged Man

Zoroastro

The Technologist

'Poets in a Hurry'

The Musician

St Jerome and the Lion

The Gardens of the Medici

The Adoration

Leaving

 PART FOUR

 New Horizons: 1482-1490

Milan

Expatriates and Artists

The Virgin of the Rocks

Ways of Escape

The First Notebooks

Tall Tales, Small Puzzles

Architectural Projects

The Moor's Mistress

The Milanese Studio

The Anatomist

The Sforza Horse

At the Corte Vecchia

   PART FIVE

   At Court: 1490-1499

Theatricals

'Of shadow and light'

Little Devil

Hunting Bears

Casting the Horse

'Caterina came...'

Echoes of War

The Making of the Last Supper

The 'Academy'

Leonardo's Garden

'Sell what you cannot take...'

  PART SIX

  On the Move: 1500-1506

Mantua and Venice

Back in Florence

The Insistent Marchioness

Borgia

Autumn in Imola

A Letter to the Sultan

Moving the River

Mistress Lisa

The Anghiari Fresco (I)

Michelangelo

A Death and a Journey

The Anghiari Fresco (II)

The Spirit of the Bird

PART SEVEN

Return to Milan: 1506- 1513

The Governor

'Good day, Master Francesco...'

Brothers at War

Dissections

Back in the Studio

The World and Its Waters

Fetes Milanaises

La Cremona

The 'Medical Schools'

Cbez Melzi

Portrait of the Artist at Sixty

  PART EIGHT

  Last Years: 1513-1519

Heading South

At the Belvedere

The Baptist and the Bacchus

The Deluge

Sickness, Deception, Mirrors

Last Visit to Florence

Maistre Lyenard

The Cardinal Calls

'Night was chased away'

The Great Sea

Notes

Sources

Illustrations

Index