Michael White, in his new fascinating biography, argues that Leonardo da Vinci - with his inventions, his experimental method, and his desire to expand the boundaries of knowledge - was, in no small measure, the "first scientist". Few suspected the extent of his scientific inquiries and experiments - ranging from optics and mechanics to astronomy and anatomy - because, fearing possible theft of his ideas, Leonardo kept his findings hidden from the world. If he had shared them, they might have changed the course of scientific discoveries, as his work foreshadowed that of Newton, Galileo, and Kepler - on the contrary, after his death, his manuscripts were lost for almost 200 years, and some were never found again.
Michael White intertwines Leonardo's early scientific work with his adventurous personal life - his deprived childhood, his homosexuality, his relationship with Machiavelli and Cesare Borgia - and vividly shows how art and science merged in him.