Divine Proportion

The 1509 Venice edition of Lucas Paciolis De Divina Proportione, with geometric illustrations based on the drawings of Leonardo da Vinci, is one of the most important books in the history of mathematics, art, and printing, presenting the principles of mathematical proportion that underlie Renaissance architecture, typography, and the visual arts. The Divine Proportion of the title refers to the golden ratio, the irrational number approximately equal to 1.618 that appears throughout nature and that Renaissance theorists believed was the key to harmonious proportion in art and architecture. Pacioli, a Franciscan friar and mathematician who was a close friend and collaborator of Leonardo da Vinci, wrote the text as a comprehensive treatise on proportion and its applications, while Leonardo provided the drawings of polyhedra and geometric figures that illustrate the books thesis that mathematical proportion is the foundation of visual beauty. The 1509 edition, printed in Venice by Paganinus de Paganinus, is the first edition of the work and contains woodcut illustrations of the regular polyhedra that Leonardo drew in both solid and skeletal form, allowing the reader to see the three-dimensional structure of each figure clearly. The letterpress and woodcut in black with hand lettering in red ink on ivory laid paper, bound in full buckram bookcloth, represents the highest standard of Venetian printing at the beginning of the 16th century, when Venice was the printing capital of Europe.

Paciolis De Divina Proportione is one of the most influential books in the history of art and mathematics, establishing the golden ratio as a principle of design and influencing the theory of proportion in architecture, painting, and typography from the Renaissance to the present. Leonardos polyhedra drawings are among the most accurate and beautiful geometric illustrations ever produced.

The 1509 first edition of Paciolis De Divina Proportione with Leonardo da Vincis polyhedra illustrations, a landmark in the history of mathematics and printing that established the golden ratio as a principle of design and presented geometric figures in both solid and skeletal woodcut form.