A fifteenth-century Italian polymath of soaring imagination and profound intellect, Leonardo da Vinci left behind artistic works of staggering beauty as well as detailed anatomical sketches, studies of geology, gravity and water, and designs for machines of war and flying contraptions that today are marveled at for their ingenuity and foresight.

From his birth out of wedlock to a notary and a peasant woman and apprenticeship to a distinguished Florentine craftsman, to his days as a military architect, cartographer, painter and muralist for hire, Leonardo da Vinci tells the story of one of humankind’s most curious and innovative minds, a singular visionary whose Mona Lisa, The Last Supper and Vitruvian Man are among the most celebrated works of all time.