The Artist, the Philosopher, and the Warrior - Paul Strathern

Leonardo da Vinci, Niccolò Machiavelli, Cesare Borgia: a unique constellation —each, in his own way, emblematic of a distinct aspect of humanity. […] As the lives of these disparate individuals unfold, we see how each illustrates an aspect of the Renaissance—its art, its philosophy, and its wars. Borgia was the actor strutting the boards, Machiavelli plotted the devious scripts, while Leonardo painted the set and designed the ingenious mechanical devices that shifted the sceneries. The tempetous history of Italy during the Renaissance produced men of genious as well as ogres, many of the greatest works of art known to humanity, and ambitious schemes the like of which had never been seen before. Dark and horrendous events frequently underlay the glories of the Renaissance, and both horror and glory ran through the lives of Leonardo, Machiavelli and Borgia.