This book traces the story of the world's greatest treatise on painting - Leonardo Da Vinci's "Treatise of Painting". It combines an extensive body of literature about the Treatise with original research to offer a unique perspective on: Its origins, and history of how it survived the dispersal of manuscripts; Its contents, their significance and how Leonardo developed his Renaissance Theory of Art; The development of both the abridged and complete printed editions; How the printed editions have influenced treatises and art history throughout Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean, and America from the Seventeenth to the Twentieth Centuries.