About the Author

Marco Versiero is a research doctor in political philosophy and in modern Italian literature; he obtained the national scientific qualification as associate professor and has taught History of political doctrines at the University of Naples 'L Orientale'. Under the direction of Professor Pietro C. Marani, he edited the catalogues of two of the twenty-four exhibitions on Leonardo's Codex Atlanticus at the Ambrosiana Library in Milan: Politics and Allegories (2010) and The Floods and Prophecies (2012). He contributed to the catalogue of the exhibition Leonardo da Vinci, 1452-1519: the drawing of the world, curated by Pietro C. Marani and Maria T. Fiorio (Milan, Palazzo Reale, 2015). He is an ordinary member of the Vinciana Collection Authority in Milan and a member of the Leonardo da Vinci Society in London; he is also the author of: The Gift of Freedom and the Ambition of Tyrants. The art of politics in the thought of Leonardo da Vinci (Naples, Italian Institute for Philosophical Studies, 2012) and Leonardo in "chiaroscuro", between Savonarola and Machiavelli, c. 1494-1504 (Mantua, Il Rio Art, 2015). His writing is passionate, visual, and engaging.