The Book
The book consists of three individual manuscripts, which Pacioli worked on between 1496 and 1498.
The first part, Compendio Divina Proportione, studies and describes the Golden ratio from a mathematical point of view and also studies polygons. The work also discusses the use of perspective by painters such as Piero della Francesca, Melozzo da Forlì, and Marco Palmezzano.
The second part discusses the ideas of Vitruvius on the application of mathematics in architecture.
The third part, Libellus in tres partiales tractatus divisus, is mainly an Italian translation of Piero della Francesca's Latin writings On Five Regular Solids ("De quinque corporibus regularibus") and mathematical examples.
The book contains 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.
Read more about this topic: De Divina Proportione
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