Machiavelli, Leonardo, and the Science of Power

“Roger Masters finds that the two men of genius collaborated on a Florentine project to divert the course of the river Arno and leave rival Pisa without water. Masters postulates, with good reason, that two such aggressively innovative thinkers must have exchanged more than their views on water channels, and suggests provocatively that Machiavelli’s notoriously objective analysis of power shows traces of Leonardo’s science.” —The New York Review of Books

“Roger Masters has aroused debate by arguing that Leonardo influenced Machiavelli’s thinking in a way that ultimately sparked the development of modern industrial society.” —The New York Times

“In this provocative interdisciplinary study, Masters offers a new interpretation of Machiavelli which helps us understand his ambiguous relation to modern political science.” —The Review of Politics

"Here is a book with which to plunge into a corner of the Renaissance while keeping that period's relevance to modern life and thought squarely at the center of attention. . . A fascinating element of the author's argument is the possibility that Machiavelli might have been an intellectual intimate of Leonardo, but that they kept their friendship entirely secret from both the world and posterity for reasons of their own. . .This book is very much worth reading." —The Jerusalem Post

"Masters' book illuminates our understanding of Leonardo and Machiavelli as individuals and as connected figures who established modern ways of thinking about science and society. For the first time it clearly defines their distinct legacies and their combined impact on the history of western culture. It points to how their combined impact was the basis for Hobbes and other moderns to grow their theories, which unfortunately oversimplified the originators. In proposing a provocative, enlightening, and challenging theory of modernity based on science and power, the book establishes a comprehensive critical approach to two of the most creative and influential thinkers and artists in human history." —Sixteenth Century Journal