Review - Leonardo - The First Scientist - Michael White

It's rather apt that Michael White has written this insightful science biography of Leonardo da Vinci, as White himself is something of a renaissance man, transforming from a member (well, sort of) of the Thompson Twins pop group to an eloquent writer of popular science.

There have plenty of biographies of Leonardo, but this one is unusual, and stands out accordingly, for concentrating on da Vinci's scientific work, rather than his art and engineering.

To be honest, White's prime assertion that Leonardo was the first real scientist hasn't got much going for it - all his arguments apply equally well to the 13th century monk Roger Bacon (see his biography) who has a more than 200 year lead on the claim to being first, and Bacon concentrated much more on science than Leonardo did - but that doesn't really matter, because the content is excellent and like all the best popular science/bios manages to be an entertaining page-turner as well as an enlightening exploration of a great mind in a different age.

White comments in his introduction that Leonardo was his childhood hero and in many ways still is - this shines through in the writing, and the book is none the worse for it. Don't listen to frustrated authors with too many rejection slips who claim that this book isn't a serious study - getting the point across in an enjoyable way is a much higher achievement that producing a boring, indigestible collection of facts.

Also in hardback:

Reviewed by Brian Clegg

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