The mathematical works of Leon Battista Alberti

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December 4, 2025 | History

The mathematical works of Leon Battista Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti (1404¬–1472) was a highly prolific polymath of the fifteenth century. Although his contributions to architecture and the visual arts are well known and available in good English editions, as are many of his literary and social writings, his mathematical works are not well represented. This present volume was planned to fill that gap, with entirely new English translations and critical commentaries making the works easily accessible for a wide readership of specialists and non-specialists alike. Four texts are included here. Although Alberti’s Commentarii rerum mathematicarum appears to be lost, we have his Ludi matematici . In these “games” Alberti describes twenty practical applications of mathematics in an accessible style. The translation is accompanied by a new transcript of the recently identified manuscript held in the National Library in Florence upon which it was based. In Elementi di pittura, Alberti provides a catalogue of definitions and geometric constructions, using Euclidean references but drawing a distinction between theoria of mathematical entities and praxis of painterly applications. Alberti’s most original mathematical contribution is a late work, De compendis cifris, first discussing the frequency of vowels, consonants, and different groupings in Latin, and then introducing a method of polyalphabetic substitution. Even more original is his enciphered code which permutes four numerals in two-, three-, and four-digit groups. De lunularum quadratura rehearses the classical demonstration of squaring a lune by Hippocrates.

Publish Date
Language
English
Pages
221

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Edition Availability
Cover of: The mathematical works of Leon Battista Alberti
The mathematical works of Leon Battista Alberti
2010, Birkhäuser, Springer Basel
in English

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Book Details


Edition Notes

Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-221).

Published in
[Basel], [S.l.]

Classifications

Dewey Decimal Class
510
Library of Congress
QA32 .M38 2010, QA1-939

The Physical Object

Pagination
x, 221 p. :
Number of pages
221

Edition Identifiers

Open Library
OL24884868M
ISBN 10
3034604734
ISBN 13
9783034604734
LCCN
2010935727
OCLC/WorldCat
503649439

Work Identifiers

Work ID
OL15979788W

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December 4, 2025 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
January 4, 2023 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
December 29, 2021 Edited by ImportBot import existing book
September 25, 2020 Edited by MARC Bot import existing book
July 29, 2011 Created by LC Bot import new book