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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. In what year did Savonarola lead what became known as the Bonfire of the Vanities?

2. Leonardo insisted that all boundaries within both art and nature were what?

3. In the mid-1490s, Leonardo halted his study of anatomy, and would not return to the subject for how many years?

4. The center of medical research in Milan during the Renaissance was what university?

5. What was Leonardo's main reason for studying anatomy?

Short Essay Questions

1. What was the cause of Friar Savonarola's death and when did it occur?

2. What types of commissions did Leonardo refuse to accept?

3. What were the two colors most favored by Leonardo in the tailoring of both his clothes and the clothes of Salai?

4. What novel idea did Leonardo come up with for protecting a port, an idea which he never brought to fruition?

5. What is the significance of the inventory Leonardo made of a trunk of clothing sometime between 1500 and 1506?

6. How does Walter Isaacson link the qualities of genius and the qualities of obsession within the chapter about Leonardo's first round of anatomy studies?

7. What evidence does Walter Isaacson provide for his claim that much of Leonardo's thinking was collegial?

8. While Leonardo came to the court of Ludovico Sforza hoping to work primarily as a military and civil engineer, what was the nature of most of the work he completed in the decade he was in service to Ludovico Sforza?

9. In one of Leonardo's notebooks, he professed his intention to understand what he called universale misura del huomo. What did Leonardo mean by this?

10. What reasons did Leonardo have for always wanting to portray portrait subjects facing the viewer or in three-quarters view, contrary to the customary profile pose?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the author's message regarding human flaws?

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the author's treatment of the suspenseful unfolding of the story behind La Bella Principessa and what techniques he uses in order to build suspense for the reader.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss three different women that appear within the book's narrative and compare and contrast their characteristics. How do their roles differ and how are their roles similar? Taken together, what depiction of women is present in the overall narrative of Walter Isaacson's book? Choose concrete details about all three women to support your points.

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