
INTRODUCTION À LA MÉTHODE DE LÉONARD DE VINCI - PAUL VALÉRY - Deuxième Édition - Paris - Éditions de la Nouvelle Revue Française - 35 et 37, Rue Madame
INTRODUCTION À LA MÉTHODE DE LÉONARD DE VINCI
A thoughtful essay opens by acknowledging the difficulty of capturing Leonardo da Vinci’s restless curiosity. The writer, still young when he began, confesses both admiration and humility, positioning the master as a bridge between the precise world of calculation and the boundless realm of imagination. Through a series of reflective digressions, the text sketches the intellectual comedy that surrounds a figure who never fully surrendered to either discipline alone.
The narrative then turns to Leonardo’s countless notebooks, where sketches, marginalia and experimental notes reveal a method that intertwines observation, geometry and poetic inquiry. By tracing these fragments, the author invites listeners to see how the act of seeing can become a form of reasoning, and how creative practice can be an engine for discovery. The prose remains lyrical yet analytical, offering a fresh lens on a Renaissance mind whose approach still resonates with anyone seeking a balanced dialogue between art and science.
Language
fr
Duration
~2 hours (119K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Laura Natal Rodriguez & Marc D'Hooghe at Free Literature (Images generously made available by the Internet Archive.)
Release date
Jul 20, 2018
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1871–1945
A master of French letters, this poet and essayist brought precision, music, and restless curiosity to everything he wrote. Best known for poems like The Graveyard by the Sea and for his vast notebooks, he turned thought itself into an art form.
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