Lady with an alien : an encounter with Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci, taking a break from the frustrating portrait of a rich man's mistress and her accursed cat, hears something...something small somewhere in his studio.

After much searching, he discovers a bizarre little animal hiding in a corner of his studio.

All his friends are impressed with his new pet, and Machiavelli has great ideas about selling it for top lira.

But soon the rightful owner of the creature appears: Mario, a young boy from the faraway future, taking a time-travel vacation in 2523.

For fear of influencing history and the future, he has vowed not to tell Leonardo - not to tell anyone - what the years ahead hold for science, for medicine, for art.

Will Mario reveal too much? Will he change the great Leonardo da Vinci, for better or for worse...and how will a "different" Leonardo da Vinci change the world? And, of course, how does that strange ermine end up in the painting?

About the painting, "Lady With An Ermine": What is that creature?

What is an ermine? For nearly 500 years, people have been puzzling over Leonardo da Vinci's great painting "Lady with an Ermine." The lady is lovely; she poses with her long hands stroking...a very odd-looking animal. Now award-winning science fiction author Mike Resnick answers the questions about this unforgettable painting in "Lady With An Alien", sure to be a top-seller in Watson-Guptill's acclaimed Art Encounters series.