A Historical Novel About Leonardo da Vinci Leonardo da Vinci was not only a genius as an artist, but also as a scientist and engineer. If he were alive today he would hold the status of an Einstein or Hawking. He invented various ›flying machines‹, an early robot and pumps which are still in use today. But above all he left a fascinating legacy of artwork, the most famous of which is probably his Mona Lisa and her mysterious smile. Numerous art experts, historians and authors have courted or used the mystery-cloaked work of Leonardo da Vinci in their writing. John Vermeulen's main aim – as in all his historical novels – was to discover the man behind the name. He imagined what he was like, how he dealt with his loneliness as an illegitimate child and – surrounded by female admirers – with his homosexuality, how he perceived his models, patrons and clients and what it was like during his residences at the various rulers' courts. A historical novel, which is so gripping and vivid that you feel as though you were actually there.

He is known as the ›prince of modern geography‹. His discovery of the ›Mercator projection‹ allowed the earth's spherical form to be translated on to a two-dimensional map for the first time. The maps he made changed the world and made the oceans safer to navigate. We are speaking of Gerhard Mercator (1512 - 1594), humanist, scholar and cosmographer, whose life spanned one of the most interesting centuries in history, an era of breakthrough and change, of voyages of discovery – and of the merciless Inquisition, to which Mercator himself was to fall victim. Arrested for his Lutheran beliefs, he was incarcerated for several months; he owed his eventual release to influential benefactors at the court of Charles V. He subsequently left his Dutch home of Löwen and sought refuge with his family in the liberal city of Duisburg, where he was to develop his most significant ideas. John Vermeulen demonstrates his expert ability to intertwine fact and fiction. His aim is not to write a detached biography, but to allow the reader to experience the dramatic life of a man forced to battle against intrigue and ignorance, of a husband whose energy was drained by a difficult marriage, of a father who raised six children of whom only one would survive, of a scholar who discovered his heart's true desire late in life – and was only able to enjoy the fruits of his labours at a ripe old age.