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The Geometry of an Art

The History of the Mathematical Theory of Perspective from Alberti to Monge

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Authors:
  1. Kirsti Andersen

    1. Department of History of Science The Steno Institute, University of Aarhus, Denmark

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  • Two bibliographies: the first containing all the original works on perspective to which the author refers, and the second listing supplementary literature
  • Text is based on more than 200 books on perspective

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Table of contents (14 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-xxvii
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  2. The Birth of Perspective

    Pages 1-15

  3. Alberti and Piero della Francesca

    Pages 17-80

  4. Leonardo da Vinci

    Pages 81-113

  5. Italy in the Cinquecento

    Pages 115-160

  6. North of the Alps Before 1600

    Pages 161-236

  7. The Birth of the Mathematical Theory of Perspective Guidobaldo and Stevin

    Pages 237-289

  8. The Dutch Development after Stevin

    Pages 291-367

  9. Italy after Guidobaldo

    Pages 369-399

  10. France and the Southern Netherlands after 1600

    Pages 401-487

  11. Britain

    Pages 489-598

  12. The German-Speaking Areas after 1600

    Pages 599-634

  13. Lambert

    Pages 635-705

  14. Monge Closing a Circle

    Pages 707-711

  15. Summing Up

    Pages 713-721

  16. Back Matter

    Pages 723-814
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Keywords

About this book

Key Issues ver since the late 1970s when Pia Holdt, a student of mine at the time, and Jed Buchwald, a colleague normally working in another field, made E me aware of how fascinating the history of perspective constructions is, I have wanted to know more. My studies have resulted in the present book, in which I am mainly concerned with describing how the understanding of the geometry behind perspective developed and how, and to what extent, new insights within the mathematical theoryof perspective influenced the way the discipline was presented in textbooks. In order to throw light on these aspects of the history of perspective, I have chosen to focus upon a number of key questions that I have divided into two groups. Questions Concerning the History of Geometrical Perspective • How did geometrical constructions of perspective images emerge? • How were they understood mathematically? • How did the geometrical constructions give rise to a mathematical theory of perspective? • How did this theory evolve? Inconnectionwith the last question it is natural to takeup the following themes.

Reviews

From the reviews:

"The book in question is a survey of the history of this subject … . I do not know the author, but I came to trust her voice in the book, to trust her honesty and her judgments. I appreciated the clarity of her illustrations and her concern for the reader’s understanding. I found the book to be carefully written, and I was impressed with the immense amount of work that must have gone into writing it." (Greg St. George, Zentralblatt für Didaktik der Mathematik, Vol. 39, 2007)

"I was very pleased to find Kristi Andersen’s book on the history of the geometrical evolution of perspective. … Reading it from the point of view of someone who is interested in geometry as well as art, it is a fascinating book, but it also has much to offer the historian of mathematics. … it is extremely well produced and researched and makes an invaluable contribution to the literature on perspective as well as the history of geometry." (John Sharp, Journal of Mathematics and the Arts, Vol. 1 (4), 2007)

Authors and Affiliations

  • Department of History of Science The Steno Institute, University of Aarhus, Denmark

    Kirsti Andersen

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