Leonardo da Vinci for Kids (eBook)

His Life and Ideas, 21 Activities

Janis Herbert (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

1998 | 1. Auflage
104 Seiten
Chicago Review Press (Verlag)
978-1-56976-524-1 (ISBN)

Infos

The marriage of art and science is celebrated in this beautifully illustrated four-color biography and activity book. Kids will begin to understand the important discoveries that da Vinci made through inspiring activities like determining the launch angle of a catapult, sketching birds and other animals, creating a map, learning to look at a painting, and much more. Includes a glossary, bibliography, listing of pertinent museums and Web sites, a timeline, and many interesting sidebars.

Textauszug

A Boy in Vinci

The baby's mother rushed out to the yard, waving her arms. A hawk was perched on her child's cradle. 'Shoo!' she cried. The bird lifted its wings and flew off. For a moment she thought it would grasp the baby in its claws to carry him away over the hills- but the child was safe. When she reached down to pick him up, he was following the hawk's flight with his eyes and smiling.

The child, Leonardo, was born on April 15, 1452, in a mountainous region of Italy called Tuscany, near the small village of Vinci. His mother, Caterina, was a young peasant woman, beautiful and poor. His father, Ser Piero, was an ambitious young man from a wealthy family, who was just beginning his career as a notary. Leonardo's parents did not marry each other. As a baby, Leonardo stayed with his mother. When he was almost two years old he was taken from her home and raised on his father's estate.

Ser Piero was often away on business, traveling to neighboringtowns. Eventually he met and married a young, wealthy woman, Albiera di Giovanni Amadori, and they settled in her home in the city of Florence. It was decided that Leonardo would remain in Vinci, and he was raised by his grandparents and his uncle Francesco.

Uncle Francesco was only sixteen years older than Leonardo. Though he was young, he ran the family estate. He supervised the work in the fields, where they raised olives, grapes, and wheat. Leonardo adored his uncle and followed him everywhere. It seemed to Leonardo that Francesco knew everything. As the boy and his uncle tramped through the vineyards and fields, Francesco taughtLeonardo the names and uses of plants and herbs, the signs of approaching weather, and the habits of the wild animals who lived in the hills around Vinci. Francesco never tiredof the curious boy's constant questions. 'Tell me,' Leonardo would say, 'where the river begins.' 'Tell me what makes lightning.' 'Tell me what happens to the caterpillar inside its cocoon.'

The local priest taught Leonardo how to read and write and how to use an abacus, but that was the only education Leonardoreceived. Instead, he spent many of his days wandering the countryside and studying nature. He explored the rocky crevasses of the hills around Vinci. He climbed along thebanks of the river Arno and behind the crashing waterfalls. He walked through the fields of red poppies and blue cornflowers. He would jump on the bare back of one of his grandfather's horses and ride furiously downthe dusty roads. Sometimes he would lay for hours beneath a tree, watching leaves move against the blue sky. He envied the birds as they soared over the hills and vineyards.

Sometimes he would turn his horse pastthe home of his mother. She had married since he was taken from her thatch and mud home. With her husband, Accattabriga the Quarreller, she raised crops on a few acres of land outside of town. She had another sonand four daughters. She was always kind to Leonardo, but whenever he saw her, he felt sad and left out. She had her new family, and his own father was so far away and concerned with other things. Ser Piero's youngwife, Albiera, died and he soon remarried another Florentine woman, Francesca. Leonardo barely knew this family of his.

Instead, Leonardo concerned himselfwith the world around him. He found everything interesting and everything he saw made him want to know more. He tookpaper and chalk with him on his walks to make sketches...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 1.10.1998
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Literatur
• Themenwelt: Kunst / Musik / Theater ► Malerei / Plastik
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Bilderbücher
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Jugendbücher ab 12 Jahre
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Sachbücher ► Kunst / Musik
• Themenwelt: Kinder- / Jugendbuch ► Spielen / Lernen
• Themenwelt: Schulbuch / Wörterbuch ► Lexikon / Chroniken
• ISBN-10: 1-56976-524-3 / 1569765243
• ISBN-13: 978-1-56976-524-1 / 9781569765241