Divina proportione


Divina proportione, later also called De divina proportione is a book on mathematics written by Luca Pacioli and illustrated by Leonardo da Vinci, composed around 1498 in Milan and first printed in 1509. Its subject was mathematical proportions and their applications to geometry, to visual art through perspective, and to architecture. The clarity of the written material and Leonardo's excellent diagrams helped the book to achieve an impact beyond mathematical circles, popularizing contemporary geometric concepts and images.

Contents of the book

The book consists of three separate manuscripts, which Pacioli worked on between 1496 and 1498. He credits Fibonacci as the main source for the mathematics he presents.

''Compendio divina proportione''

The first part, Compendio divina proportione, studies the golden ratio from a mathematical perspective and explores its applications to various arts, in seventy-one chapters. Pacioli points out that :File:Icosahedron-golden-rectangles.svg|golden rectangles can be inscribed by an icosahedron, and in the fifth chapter, gives five reasons why the golden ratio should be referred to as the "Divine Proportion":
  1. Its value represents divine simplicity.
  2. Its definition invokes three lengths, symbolizing the Holy Trinity.
  3. Its irrationality represents God's incomprehensibility.
  4. Its self-similarity recalls God's omnipresence and invariability.
  5. Its relation to the dodecahedron, which represents the quintessence
It also contains a discourse on the regular and semiregular polyhedra, as well as a discussion of the use of geometric perspective by painters such as Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì and Marco Palmezzano.

''Trattato dell'architettura''

The second part, Trattato dell'architettura, discusses the ideas of Vitruvius on the application of mathematics to architecture in twenty chapters. The text compares the proportions of the human body to those of artificial structures, with examples from classical Greco-Roman architecture.

''Libellus in tres partiales divisus''

The third part, Libellus in tres partiales divisus, is mainly an Italian translation of Piero della Francesca's Latin writings On Five Regular Solids and mathematical examples. In 1550 Giorgio Vasari wrote a biography of della Francesca, in which he accused Pacioli of plagiarism and claimed that he stole della Francesca's work on perspective, on arithmetic and on geometry.

Illustrations

After these three parts are appended two sections of illustrations, the first showing twenty-three capital letters drawn with a ruler and compass by Pacioli and the second with some sixty illustrations in woodcut after drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo drew the illustrations of the regular solids while he lived with and took mathematics lessons from Pacioli. Leonardo's drawings are probably the first illustrations of skeletonic solids which allowed an easy distinction between front and back.
Another collaboration between Pacioli and Leonardo existed: Pacioli planned a book of mathematics and proverbs called De Viribus Quantitatis which Leonardo was to illustrate, but Pacioli died before he could publish it.

History

Pacioli produced three manuscripts of the treatise by different scribes. He gave the first copy with a dedication to the Duke of Milan, Ludovico il Moro; this manuscript is now preserved in Switzerland at the Bibliothèque de Genève in Geneva. A second copy was donated to Galeazzo da Sanseverino and now rests at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. The third, which has gone missing, was given to Pier Soderini, the Gonfaloniere of Florence. On 1 June 1509 the first printed edition was published in Venice by Paganino Paganini; it has since been reprinted several times.
The book was displayed as part of an exhibition in Milan between October 2005 and October 2006 together with the Codex Atlanticus. The "M" logo used by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was adapted from one in Divina proportione.

Works cited