The Science of Leonardo

Author: Fritjof Capra

Publisher: Doubleday

Pages: 274

Leonardo Da Vinci, the renaissance painter and engineer needs no introduction to any audience. Whatever unfamiliarity the general public had, had been effectively wiped out by Dan Brown’s classic, “The Da Vinci Code”. Brown’s colourful portrayal of the great man had created the wrong impressions on many minds, mine included regarding his religious affiliations. Till I read Capra’s eminently written biographical narrative portraying Leonardo as one of the pioneering scientists and a great military engineer, I was naturally inclined to side with Brown’s suggestions of a polytheist about da Vinci.

Da Vinci was born in Florence and rose to prominence due to his works in that city and others including Milan, Rome and France. Capra’s main intention in the book is to bring out those aspects which made da Vinci a pioneering scientist. So, those who reads this book for some of the background anecdotes regarding some of the world’s greatest paintings will be in for despair. Except one or two cursory references even to Mona Lisa, Capra focuses always on the making of a scientist. Leonardo was famous for the detailed drawings on human and animal anatomy, especially equestrian, his surgeries on dead animals and humans, studies on hydraulics and canals, designing costumes and royal emblems for entertainment shows and on and on.

Leonardo clearly anticipated some of the developments in science during the 16^th century, the era of Descartes and Newton. But Capra’s suggestions that had the background been sufficiently advanced during da Vinci’s time, he would have surpassed many of the great men may better be regarded as only his opinion and not based on any established fact. Also, the origins of medieval thought is given very briefly, but attractively. The following paragraph is one of them.

“In early Greek philosophy, the ultimate moving force and source of all life was identified with the soul, and its principal metaphor was that of the breath of life. Indeed, the root meaning of both the Greek ‘psyche’ and the Latin ‘anima’ is ‘breath’. Closely associated with that moving force – the breath of life that leaves the body at death – was the idea of knowing. For the early Greek philosophers, the soul was both the source of movement and life, and that which perceives and knows. Because of the fundamental analogy between micro- and macrocosm, the individual soul was thought to be part of the force that moves the entire universe, and accordingly the knowing of an individual was seen as part of a universal process of knowing. Plato called it the ‘anima mundi’ the ‘world soul’”. The resemblance to the theory of Advaita is so striking!

And finally, a note from da Vinci’s note book – “Just as a well-spent day brings a happy sleep, so a well-employed life brings a happy death”.

Rating: 3 star