Inside the Mind of Leonardo is based on Leonardo da Vinci's private journals dating from the Italian Renaissance, which contain more than 6,000 pages of handwritten notes and drawings. The comprehensive documents chronicle the work of the world's most renowned inventor, philosopher, painter, and genius.

From the artist's birth as a bastard peasant to his thwarted ambitions, hurt, anger, and sexual desire as documented within his diaries, the film also tells of the mundane events in his everyday life: his shopping lists, health tips, and bawdy jokes.