Artist, The Philosopher and The Warrior

In the autumn of 1502 three giants of the Renaissance period - Cesare Borgia, Leonardo da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli - set out on one of the most treacherous military campaigns of the period. Cesare Borgia was a ferocious military leader whose name was synonymous with brutality and whose reputation was marred with the suspicion of incest. Niccolo Machiavelli was a witty and subversive intellectual, more suited to the silken diplomacy of royal courts than the sodden encampments of a military campaign. And Leonardo da Vinci was a visionary master and the most talented military engineer in Italy. What led him to work for the monstrous Borgia? And what attracted him to the cunning Machiavelli?

In his extraordinary new book acclaimed historian Paul Strathern ingeniously focuses on this improbable collusion of three iconic figures of the Italian Renaissance to unite three mighty strands of the period - war, politics and art. As each man's life unfolds, so does the Italian Renaissance.

Review: A brilliant snapshot of Renaissance Italy... a triumph * Sunday Telegraph *
This is popular history at its narrative best... rich in colour, character and consequence * The Times *
This is a portrait of a fascinating trio, and an insight into the apparent paradox of why such turbulent times produced such an outpouring of human sentiment almost unparalleled in the history of the West -- Edward King * Sunday Times *
The story he has to tell is exciting and revealing...and the narrative has a natural arc, beginning in hope and fear and climaxing in deceit and bloodshed * Guardian *