The Mathematical Works of Leon Battista Alberti / Edition 1

by Kim Williams, Lionel March, Stephen R. Wassell

Overview

Leon Battista Alberti was an outstanding polymath of the fifteenth century, alongside Piero della Francesca and before Leonardo da Vinci. While his contributions to architecture and the visual arts are well known and available in good English editions, and much of his literary and social writings are also available in English, his mathematical works are not well represented in readily available, accessible English editions have remained accessible only to specialists. The four treatises included here – Ludi matematici, De Componendis Cifris, Elementi di pittura and De lunularum quadratura – are extremely valuable in rounding out the portrait of this multitalented thinker. The treatises are presented in modern English translations, with commentary that is intended to make evident the depths of Alberti’s knowledge as well as address the treatises’ mathematical, historical and cultural context, their classical Greek roots, and their relationship to later works by Renaissance thinkers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783034604734
Publisher:	Springer Basel
Publication date:	09/08/2010
Edition description:	2010
Pages:	221
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 0.70(d)

Table of Contents

Foreword Robert Tavernor vii

Introduction Kim Williams Lionel March Stephen R. Wassell 1

Leon Battista Alberti, Ex ludis rerum mathematicarum

Transcription Codice Galileiana 10 fols. 1r-16r 10

English translation of Ex ludis rerum mathematicarum 11

Transcriber's note Angela Pintore 71

Translator's note Kim Williams 72

Commentary on Ex ludis rerum mathematicarum Stephen R. Wassell 75

Leon Battista Alberti, Elementi di pittura

Elements of Painting Kim Williams Richard Schofield 142

Commentary on Elements of Painting Stephen R. Wassell 153

Leon Battista Alberti, De componendis cifris

On Writing in Ciphers Kim Williams 171

Commentary on On Writing in Ciphers Lionel March 189

Notes on the Translation of On Writing in Ciphers Kim Williams 200

Leon Battista Alberti, De lunularum quadratura

On Squaring the Lune trans Kim Williams 203

Commentary on On Squaring the Lune Lionel March 209

Bibliography 215

About the authors 223

Editorial Reviews

From the reviews:

“The book under review contains, in parallel translation and with extensive commentary, Alberti’s short treatise On Painting. … The commentaries in the book are thorough and interesting. … a useful source for project work in the history of mathematics, parts of it being well suited to students with only modest mathematical understanding; others, such as the areas of lunes, leading into demanding ideas from later times.” (Peter Giblin, The Mathematical Gazette, Vol. 96 (536), March, 2012)

From the Publisher