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The end product of a genius writing about another, Leonardo da Vinci is the only biography ever composed by Sigmund Freud. Summary Of The Book Leonardo da Vinci is an enigma from the middle ages who needs no introduction. The complexity of Leonardo da Vinci’s persona was long suspected to be hidden in clues over his paintings. Who better to attempt to decode this secret than Sigmund Freud, the founding father of Psychoanalysis, another undeniable genius in his era. Leonardo da Vinci is the result of what Freud called the only beautiful thing he had written in his life. Leonardo da Vinci, originally Eine Kindheitserinnerung des Leonardo da Vinci, is a psychoanalytic and detailed study of da Vinci’s life, based on his paintings, most notably and controversially The Virgin and Child with St. Anne, which according to Freud provides clues to the Vinci’s passive homosexual leanings. In Codex Atlanticus, da Vinci writes of his obsession with vultures after a childhood fantasy where a vulture opens his mouth and strikes him with its feathers. Though later proven to be a mistranslation from the original work where da Vinci was actually referring to a kite, some scholars have still propounded the theory’s merits and attempted to repair it incorporating the vulture. The preface of the book ponders over this theory in its entirety as it explores how a man with a natural scientific mind like Leonardo’s could have embarked on such an astonishing career, as if the key to all his misfortunes lay hidden in one single childhood dream. Many believe that the translations found in Leonardo da Vinci could have gone unnoticed by mankind if not for Freud. About Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud was a neurologist and author. Some of Freud’s other works include The Interpretation of Dreams, Delusions and Dreams in Jensen's Gradiva, and The Unconscious. Sigismund Schlomo Freud, who came to be known as Sigmund Freud was born in 1856 in Austria. Freud qualified as a Doctor of Medicine in 1881 from the University of Vienna before carrying out research in various subjects in the Vienna General Hospital. He became a professor in 1902. Sigmund Freud is widely known as the founding father of psychoanalysis and is unparalleled in the amount of controversy and discussion his work instigated. Freud was married to Martha Bernays and lived in London, England till 1939, where he died of buccal cancer probably due to his habit of smoking, one that he refused to give up even after repeated requests from his close friends. He was widely applauded and awarded the Goethe Prize in 1930 and was made a Foreign Member of the Royal Society. He has influenced innumerable people, most notably, Derrida, Firestone, Perls and Solms.