Leonardo Da Vinci

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of antigay bias.

Walter Isaacson’s Leonardo da Vinci belongs to a continuum of deeply researched, accessibly written biographies that seek to humanize figures often mythologized by history. Best known for his best-selling portraits of Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, and Benjamin Franklin, Isaacson has developed a distinctive biographical voice—part historian, part storyteller, and part cultural interpreter. His choice to chronicle Leonardo fits squarely within his body of work, which consistently explores how intellectual creativity, interdisciplinary thinking, and emotional complexity intersect to shape innovation.

Isaacson was a natural fit to write this biography. As a former editor of Time magazine, head of CNN, and professor at Tulane University, he brings both journalistic rigor and narrative instinct to his writing. In Leonardo da Vinci, he draws on over 7,200 pages of Leonardo’s notebooks, numerous archival sources, and a rich body of art historical scholarship. What distinguishes Isaacson’s approach is not just the breadth of his research, but his ability to reconstruct Leonardo’s life without turning him into a caricature of “genius.” Instead, Isaacson emphasizes Leonardo’s habits of mind: his boundless curiosity, iterative thinking, perfectionism, and ability to synthesize seemingly unrelated disciplines.