Just Finished Reading: Leonardo – The First Scientist by Michael White

This was a biography of the great Renaissance genius and polymath Leonardo Da Vinci. Tracing his life from rather humble beginnings as an illegitimate son of a wealthy man to the heights of his powers the book concentrated more on his scientific and technological thoughts rather than on his more well known artistic achievements. It also gave a flavour of the chaotic times he lived though together with the other notables of Renaissance Italy he rubbed shoulders with.

As a fan of Leonardo and the Renaissance I was looking forward to reading this book. I was however rather disappointed by its lack of substance. White freely admits that little is known of Leonardo’s private life but does not let this restrict his speculations regarding it. He draws what I regarded as profound implications from sketchy information and pseudo-scientific psychoanalysis in an attempt to understand Leonardo’s often passionate motivations. I was also disappointed by the lack of analysis of Leonardo’s inventions – such as the parachute and (arguably) the helicopter – as well as the rather wide interpretation of what the profession of science is. Whilst it does indeed appear from Da Vinci’s writings that he had some idea of the scientific method he was also very much a man of his time and although his experimental work did prompt his questioning of received wisdom he often drew the wrong conclusions because of his medieval mind-set. Da Vinci may have been an early proto-scientist but White fails to make the case that he was the ‘first’ scientist. Interesting in parts, but ultimately a rather disappointing book.