Jabberwocky Bookshop
at The Tannery Marketplace
50 Water Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
Tel: 978-465-9359
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Jabberwocky Bookshop
at The Tannery Marketplace
50 Water Street
Newburyport, MA 01950
Tel: 978-465-9359
Email Us
Store Hours
Newburyport's finest shopping and dining experience awaits you. So if you are ready to see, taste, and touch the magic of these historic mills come to The Tannery Marketplace, nested aside the picturesque waterfront of Newburyport Harbor on the North Shore.
Visit The Tannery Marketplace to experience it for yourself.
Toby Lester, author of the award-winning "The Fourth Part of the World, "masterfully crafts yet another century-spanning saga of people and ideas in this epic story of Vitruvian Man, Leonardo da Vinci's iconic drawing of a man inscribed in a circle and a square. Over time, the nearly 550-year-old ink-on-paper sketch has transformed into a collective symbol of the nature of genius, the beauty of the human form, and the universality of the human spirit; it has also been replicated ad nauseam on mass-produced coffee cups, T-shirts, book covers, and corporate logos. With narrative flair and great intellectual sweep, Lester revives the rich history of Vitruvian Man and endows the drawing with renewed authenticity.
Not only did Leonardo subscribe to the idea--first conceived by the Roman architect Vitruvius--that the human body was a microcosm geometrically aligned with the divine circle and the earthly square, Lester reveals that by studying the body's proportions and anatomy, the artist also felt he could obtain a godlike perspective of the world's makeup. "Da Vinci's Ghost "captures a pivotal time in the history of Western thought, when the Middle Ages was giving way to the Renaissance, when art and science and philosophy all seemed to be converging as one, and when it seemed possible, at least to Leonardo da Vinci, that a single human being might embody--and even understand--the nature of everything.
Toby Lester is a contributing editor to and has written extensively for The Atlantic. A former Peace Corps volunteer and United Nations observer, he lives in the Boston area with his wife and three daughters. His previous book, The Fourth Part of the World (2009), about the map that gave America its name, was a finalist for the Barnes & Noble Discover New Writers Award and was picked as a Book of the Year by several other publications. His work has also appeared on the radio program This American Life.
"Every once in a while that rare book comes along that is not only wonderfully written and utterly compelling but also alters the way you perceive the world. Toby Lester’s “Da Vinci's Ghost” is such a book. Like a detective, Lester uncovers the secrets of an iconic drawing and pieces together a magisterial history of art and ideas and beauty."—David Grann, author of The Lost City of Z
"In reconstructing the forgotten story of Vitruvian Man, Toby Lester, a canny decoder of images and a great storyteller, sheds new light on the enigmatic Leonardo DaVinci."—Chris Anderson, Editor in Chief of Wired, author of The Long Tail and Free
"Erudite, elegant, enthralling. This is a wonderful book. Toby Lester understands, and makes us understand, the unique intensity with which Leonardo saw the world. He saw it not only in its infinite diversity but also as an impression of his own self, an explanation of what it means to be human. Hence Vitruvian Man."—Sister Wendy Beckett, author of The Story of Painting
“Da Vinci’s Ghost is both a beautiful and a brilliant book. After reading Lester’s account, you will never be able to look at Leonardo’s Vitruvian Man the same way again.”—Howard Markel, author of An Anatomy of Addiction
“Da Vinci’s Ghost is as ingeniously crafted as one of its namesake’s famous inventions. Like Leonardo himself, Toby Lester can take a single sheet of paper—in this case, the most famous drawing in all of art history—and make it teem with stories, characters, insights, and ideas.”—Adam Goodheart, author of 1861: A Civil War Awakening
“Like almost everyone, I've seen Leonardo's drawing of the nude man in the circle. But until I read Toby Lester's terrific new book, I had no idea about the story behind the picture—or even that there *was* a story behind the picture. Deftly weaving together art, architecture, history, theology and much else, Da Vinci's Ghost is a first-rate intellectual enchantment.”—Charles Mann, author of 1493
"Like Da Vinci's famous drawing, Toby Lester's book is a small wonder—a work of brilliant compression that illuminates a whole world of life and thought. Lester proves himself to be the perfect guide to the Renaissance and beyond—affable, knowledgeable, funny. Leonardo's Virtruvian Man turns out to be a road map that can take us to remarkable places—once you learn how to read it."—Cullen Murphy, editor at large, Vanity Fair
“One of the great contributions of books like this is to keep the reader from taking for granted a familiar object. Lester’s detective story has a satisfying number of insights…covers a broad swath of history…[and] braids intellectual threads—philosophy, anatomy, architecture, and art—together in a way that reaffirms not only Leonardo’s genius but also re-establishes the significance of historical context in understanding great works of art.”—Publishers Weekly, STARRED Review
Praise for Toby Lester's Fourth Part of the World
“Marvelously imaginative, exhaustively researched. . . . Guiding the reader Virgil-like through the Age of Discovery, Lester introduces a chronologically and conceptually vast array of Great Men (Columbus, Vespucci, Polo, Copernicus, et al.), competing theories, monastic sages, forgotten poets, opportunistic merchants, unfortunate slaves, and more. That he relates it all so cleanly and cogently—via elegant prose, relaxed erudition, measured pacing, and purposeful architecture—is a feat. That he proffers plentiful visual delights, including detailed views of the legendary document, is a gift. This map, Lester writes, ‘draws you in, reveals itself in stages, and doesn’t let go.’ Nor does this splendid volume.”—The Atlantic
“An intellectual detective story. By using the [WaldseemÜller] map as a lens through which to view a nexus of myth, imagination, technology, stupidity, and imperial ambition, Lester has penned a provocative, disarming testament to human ambition and ingenuity.”—The Boston Globe
