A fan's travel guide to the Parisian areas depicted in Dan Brown's bestseller includes tours through the Louvre, the Ritz, Chartres, and other locales, in a reference complemented by a glossary of terms, introductions to the themes and controversies in the book, and detailed maps.

A short look at the life of a genius.

Leonardo da Vinci was a brilliant artist, scientist, engineer, mathematician, architect, inventor, and even musician—the archetypal Renaissance man. But he was also a profoundly modern man. Not only did Leonardo invent the empirical scientific method over a century before Galileo and Francis Bacon, but Capra's decade-long study of Leonardo's fabled notebooks reveals that he was a systems thinker centuries before the term was coined. At the very core of Leonardo's science, Capra argues, lies his persistent quest for understanding the nature of life. His science is a science of living forms, of qualities and patterns, radically different from the mechanistic science that emerged 200 years later. Because he saw the world as an integrated whole, Leonardo always applied concepts from one area to illuminate problems in another. His studies of the movement of water informed his ideas about how landscapes are shaped, how sap rises in plants, how air moves over a bird's wing, and how blood flows in the human body. His observations of nature enhanced his art, his drawings were integral to his scientific studies, and he brought art, science, and technology together in his beautiful and elegant mechanical and architectural designs. Capra describes seven defining characteristics of Leonardo da Vinci's genius and includes a list of over forty discoveries he made that weren't rediscovered until centuries later. Capra follows the organizational scheme Leonardo himself intended to use if he ever published his notebooks. So in a sense, this is Leonardo's science as he himself would have presented it. Obviously, we can't all be geniuses on the scale of Leonardo da Vinci. But his persistent endeavor to put life at the very center of his art, science, and design and his recognition that all natural phenomena are fundamentally interconnected and interdependent are important lessons we can learn from. By exploring the mind of the preeminent Renaissance genius, we can gain profound insights into how to address the complex challenges of the 21st century.

Looks at the theories about Christian origins and church history suggested in the novel, The Da Vinci Code, and explains how they ignore or misinterpret the available information as it has been understood in Catholic tradition.

Author Michael Gelb ignited the current fascination with all things Da Vinci with his runaway bestseller, How to Think like Leonardo da Vinci: Seven Steps to Genius Every Day. Just as that book showed readers how to use the seven Da Vincian principles to develop their creative potential, his new book, Da Vinci Decoded, will help you use the same principles to cultivate your spiritual potential. Wonder. Appreciation. Awareness. Wholeness…In the Western world of the fifteenth century, these personal qualities were all boldly embodied in one extraordinary man. From art to botany, anatomy to mechanics, Da Vinci was a profoundly original thinker fully in tune with the world of man and nature, and with the divine spirit that bridges the two. In this bold new guide to awakening the soul, Michael Gelb draws on Leonardo’s writings, inventions, and works of art to show how you, too, can practice the seven essential principles by which Leonardo lived and worked: Filled with practical exercises that will help you put each of the seven principles into use, a series of reflective questions designed for self-assessment, and inspirational sayings drawn from the world’s great wisdom traditions, Da Vinci Decoded offers a wide range of tools to use in your spiritual quest. Now you can let Leonardo and this book be your personal guides to creating your own personal spiritual renaissance today.

It's an irresistible combination: Brad Meltzer, a born storyteller, counting down the world's most intriguing unsolved mysteries. And to make this richly illustrated book even richer, each chapter invites the reader along for an interactive experience through the addition of facsimile documents—the evidence! It's a treasure trove for conspiracy buffs, a Griffin and Sabine for history lovers. Adapted from Decoded, Meltzer’s hit show on the HISTORY network, History Decoded explores fascinating, unexplained questions. Is Fort Knox empty? Why was Hitler so intent on capturing the Roman “Spear of Destiny”? What’s the government hiding in Area 51? Where did the Confederacy’s $19 million in gold and silver go at the end of the Civil War? And did Lee Harvey Oswald really act alone? Meltzer sifts through the evidence; weighs competing theories; separates what we know to be true with what’s still—and perhaps forever—unproved or unprovable; and in the end, decodes the mystery, arriving at the most likely solution. Along the way we meet Freemasons, Rosicrucians, Nazi propagandists, and the real DB Cooper. A riveting adventure through the compelling world of mysteries and conspiracies.

For the 500th anniversary of Leonardo da Vinci’s death comes an immersive journey through five centuries of history to define the Leonardo mystique and uncover how the elusive Renaissance artist became a global pop icon. Virtually everyone would agree that Leonardo da Vinci was the most important artist of the High Renaissance. It was Leonardo who singlehandedly created the defining features of Western art: a realism based on subtle shading; depth using atmospheric effects; and dramatic contrasts between light and dark. But how did Leonardo, a painter of very few works who died in obscurity in France, become the internationally renowned icon he is today, with the Mona Lisa and the Last Supper the most visited artworks in the world, attracting nearly a billion visitors each year, and Salvator Mundi selling as the most expensive artwork of all time, for nearly half a billion dollars? This extraordinary volume, lavishly illustrated with 130 color images, is the first book to unravel these mysteries by diving deep into the art, literature, science, and politics of Europe from the Renaissance through today. It gives illuminating context to both Leonardo and his accomplishments; explores why Leonardo’s fame vastly overshadowed that of his contemporaries and disciples; and ultimately reveals why despite finishing very few works, his celebrity has survived, even thrived, through five centuries of history.

Da Vinci Codeis a modern-day publishing phenomenon. With millions of copies in print, it is the most popular adult novel of the 21st Century. In an introductory note, author Dan Brown tells us that “all descriptions of documents and secret rituals . . . are accurate.” But are they? Many scholars and theologians have attacked the book and the “facts” on which it is based. Some claim that Brown is anti-Catholic. Book clubs, reading groups, dedicated web-sites and countless reviews and articles in magazines and newspapers worldwide have fueled the fire, makingDa Vinci Codenot only the most successful book of its kind ever, but also the most controversial. Now Martin Lunn, an expert historian, reveals the truth behind Dan Brown’s research. The reality of Catholic offshoot Opus Dei . . . the hard facts about the bloodline of Christ and King David . . . the origins of the Knights Templar and the infamous Priory of Sion . . . the secrets of Temple Church and Rosslyn Cathedral . . . the real Saunière . . . the mysteries of Rennes-le-Château and much more. Da Vinci Code Decodedalso provides an exhaustive tour of the locations visited by the novel’s characters: The Louvre Museum, l’Eglise de Saint-Sulpice and Rue Haxo in Paris; Château Villette; Temple Church; Westminster Abbey; Newton’s tomb; Chapter House; St. Faith’s Chapel; Rosslyn Chapel and many others. Martin Lunnis a recognized expert in the Davidic bloodline and other issues presented inDa Vinci Code. He has a masters degree in history and an extensive background in journalism. He has lived throughout the Far and Middle East, the US and several countries in Europe, currently residing in Barcelona. He is also Grand Master of the Dragon Society, founded originally in 1408 by King Sigismund of Hungary.

This new edition of Leonardo Da Vinci's Codex Leicester is the most comprehensive scholarly edition of any of Leonardo's manuscripts. It contains a high-quality facsimile reproduction of the Codex, a new transcription and translation, accompanied by a paraphrase in modern language and a page-by-page commentary, and a series of interpretative essays.The Codex Leicester deals almost exclusively with science, water and hydraulics. There are also studies on the subjects of astronomy, cosmology, geology, with important notes regarding the composition and nature of the "body" of the earth. This codex is now comprised of 18 loose double sheets, with densely compiled script in Leonardo's characteristic mirror writing and over 300 small illustrations in the margins.

The book rests on the premise that the woman in the painting "Mona Lisa" is indeed the person identified in its earliest description: Lisa Gherardini (1479-1542), wife of the Florence merchant Francesco del Giocondo. Dianne Hales has followed facts from the Florence State Archives, to the squalid street where Mona Lisa was born, to the ruins of the convent where she died