"Leonardo's Intellectual Cosmos" with MPIWG Director Jürgen Renn

Leonardo da Vinci is commonly known as the great inventor of creative machines, the artist of the famous drawing of the Vitruvian Man. But Leonardo was also an avid reader: his personal library contained nearly 200 books on science and technology, literature, and religion. The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science (MPIWG), with the Museo Galileo and the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin, has reconstructed the lost book collection for the exhibition "Leonardo's Intellectual Cosmos," where visitors can now marvel at many of these outstanding old works.

What can his books and codices tell us about this world-renowned artist, scientist, and intellectual, who continuously crossed boundaries between disciplines? How did the Renaissance era in which he lived influence his thinking and ideas? And what can we learn from him about science and public trust in science today? In this podcast episode, host Stephanie Hood welcomes Jürgen Renn, MPIWG Director and one of the curators of the exhibition, which is now open to visitors at the Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. Due to the current pandemic situation, Jürgen Renn joins the podcast remotely.