By Arch. Kim Williams, Prof. Lionel March (auth.), Kim Williams, Lionel March, Stephen R. Wassell (eds.)
Leon Battista Alberti (1404¬–1472) was once a hugely prolific polymath of the 15th century. even though his contributions to structure and the visible arts are renowned and to be had in reliable English variants, as are a lot of his literary and social writings, his mathematical works usually are not good represented. This current quantity was once deliberate to fill that hole, with totally new English translations and significant commentaries making the works simply obtainable for a large readership of experts and non-specialists alike. 4 texts are incorporated the following. even if Alberti’s Commentarii rerum mathematicarum seems to be misplaced, we now have his Ludi matematici . In those “games” Alberti describes twenty functional functions of arithmetic in an obtainable type. the interpretation is observed by way of a brand new transcript of the lately pointed out manuscript held within the nationwide Library in Florence upon which it was once dependent. In Elementi di pittura, Alberti presents a list of definitions and geometric buildings, utilizing Euclidean references yet drawing a contrast among theoria of mathematical entities and praxis of painterly purposes. Alberti’s most unusual mathematical contribution is a overdue paintings, De compendis cifris, first discussing the frequency of vowels, consonants, and diverse groupings in Latin, after which introducing a mode of polyalphabetic substitution. much more unique is his enciphered code which permutes 4 numerals in two-, three-, and four-digit teams. De lunularum quadratura rehearses the classical demonstration of squaring a lune via Hippocrates.
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Cfr. ’. 82 Cfr. ’. 83 Cfr. ’. 84 Cfr. Grayson: ‘É cosa prolissa e dotta’. 85 Cfr. ’. 86 Cfr. come qui vedete le loro varietà segnate’. 81 The Mathematical Works of Leon Battista Alberti 33 7v the north star, one of the big ones that you can easily recognise, and in like fashion take note of some marker where it is at this time. You know that in 24 hours that star will come back right to this place, even to this
Venti volte dieci fa duecento’. 96 Cfr. ’. 97 Cfr. ’. 98 Grayson concludes this paragraph with a further sentence: ‘Qui per darvi qualche similtudine posi essempio del modo di dividerli’. 93 The Mathematical Works of Leon Battista Alberti 35 If you want to measure, do like this. Let us begin with those that have sides all straight, and when they are all straight and the corners are right angles, it will be very easy to understand how many square feet there are in all, and you will do it like this.
Cfr. Grayson: ‘Annoverate questa somma quattro volte; sarà ottanta’. Translator’s note. Cfr. ’. 123 Translator’s note. Cfr. sarà circa a quarantaquattro’. 124 Transcriber’s note. Difficult to read; Translator’s note. Cfr. qualcuna attitudine rara’. 125 Translator’s note. Cfr. ’. 126 Transcriber’s note. Word illegibile. Translator’s note. Cfr. ’. 127 Translator’s note. Cfr. ’. 128 Transcriber’s note. Difficult to read because of sign used for ‘tr’; Translator’s note. Cfr. ’. 129 Transcriber’s note.