“A stylus was a metal-tipped drawing instrument widely used by artists before the invention of the pencil (graphite was not discovered until… — Ross King Art Copy Share Image
“Quite amazing how determined kings and emperors have been to destroy books. But civilization is built on such desecrations, is it not?… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“In fact, the figure in The Last Supper is not a woman: only the most partisan reading can place Mary Magdalene in… — Ross King Last supper Copy Share Image
“…Because every ruler celebrated his conquests by setting torch to the nearest library. Did not Julius Caesar incinerate the scrolls in the… — Ross King Julius Caesar Copy Share Image
“It’s amazing — and poignant — to think that Leonardo (da Vinci)did consider himself as something of a failure. He didn’t believe… — Ross King Failure Copy Share Image
“And as I surveyed the clutter of his study I was pleased to see that he was a man after my own… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“That one of history’s greatest brains struggled with amo, amas, amat should be consolation to anyone who has ever tried to learn… — Ross King History Copy Share Image
“Buttresses were one of the prime structural features of Gothic architecture: by accommodating the thrust of the vaults transferred to them from… — Ross King Dreams Copy Share Image
“There was nothing so dangerous to a king or an emperor as a book. Yes, a great library—a library as magnificent as… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“Yes, a great library — a library as magnificent as this one — was a dangerous arsenal, one that kings and emperors… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“While running simple errands I often became hopelessly confused in the maze of crowded, filthy streets that began twenty paces beyond the… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“The Black Death was a faithful visitor to Florence. It arrived, on average, once every ten years, always in the summer.” — Ross King Black death Copy Share Image
“At times Leonardo was troubled by his lack of achievement. As a young man he appears to have developed a reputation for… — Ross King Friendship Copy Share Image
“The soft throb and glow roused in my breast by the gilt letters of four or five different languages winking at me… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“Let no one read my principles who is not a mathematician,” he famously declared (less famous is the fact that the principles… — Ross King Books Copy Share Image
“On August 19, 1418, a competition was announced in Florence, where the city's magnificent new cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, had been… — Ross King Architecture Copy Share Image
“Every person wishes to know of the proposals, the learned, and the ignorant. The learned understands the work proposed-he understands at least… — Ross King Ignorance Copy Share Image
