Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science.

Leonardo Lives: The Codex Leicester and Leonardo da Vinci's Legacy of Art and Science. Trevor Fair-brother and Chiyo Ishikawa. Seattle: University of Seattle Press, (800-441-4115) 1998. Illus. 70 pp., softcover, $19.95.

This book's imaginative binding and cover design invite the reader to enter into this unique book in search of both enlightenment and pleasure. The cover design has six die-cut circles in a reproduction of one of the pages from Leonardo's notebook. Two larger circles on metal hubs may be turned to bring a variety of the artist's works into view behind the cut-out circles. The contents of the book are equally rewarding.

The Codex Leicester, the only one of three remaining sketchbooks by Leonardo in private hands, was loaned to the Seattle Art Museum by Microsoft's Bill Gates. This book serves as a catalog for that exhibit, but it is much more. The first half of the book represents Leonardo's working record of observations and experiments in words, images, and diagrams. The close relationship between art and science that Leonardo promulgated is evident in the marvelous marginal sketches that adorn every page of written notes. The drawings range from precise anatomical drawing to exaggerated caricatures and grotesque heads born of fantasy.

The second half of the book is a surprising departure as it traces the impact of Leonardo's icons--especially the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper--in contemporary art and culture. In this essay we find references to Cole Porter songs, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and popular paint-by-number kits. Overall, this is a worthwhile acquisition for pleasure, encouragement of student sketchbooks, art-science experiences, and as a means to illustrate art history connections between the fifteenth and the twentieth centuries.