This is a facsimile (in black and white) of De Divina Proportione ("On the Divine Proportion"), printed June 1st 1509 in Venice, of which only two copies reached our XXIth century. It had to become one among the most famous books in the world, but not only because it was partly made by Leonardo da Vinci and printed during his lifetime. He drew fifty nine of the sketches it includes, which form the earliest work from the artist's hand to appear in print. Luca Bartolomeo de Pacioli (1445-1517), Italian mathematician and Franciscan friar, wrote the full text of it. He and Leonardo da Vinci set forth a way of describing the visible world in terms of its common geometrical elements, what he calls the "divine proportion," equally known as the "Golden ratio." Even the layout of this book, which we may find somehow surprising today, Pacioli and da Vinci drafted it on a geometrical grid with respect to the divine proportion. De Divina proportione also is one of the most remarkable illustrated books published in the sixteenth century. Based on the writings of Plato, Euclid, and Vitruvius, and arguing his thesis by means of exegesis and the generous use of evocative illustration, Pacioli claims that this proportional element is shared by a variety of solid bodies, from human anatomy to architectural forms and even to the composition of the letter's design in the Roman alphabet. Today we don't know how many copies of De Divina Proportione were printed in Venice by printer Paganinus de Paganinus. Two surviving copies only exist, one at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan, and the second at the Bibliotheque de Geneve in Geneva, Switzerland. For the intersection of art and science and the active engagement of the pre-eminent genius of the period, Leonardo da Vinci, this is one of the most iconic works of the Italian Renaissance. The clarity of both the written material and Leonardo's diagrams gave the book a popularity beyond mathematical circles. It has since then been reprinted several times and translated in many languages.
Authors
It was on April 15, 1452, that Leonardo was born in the town of Vinci, Republic of Florence, in what is now in Italy, the illegitimate son of a notary and a barmaid. It is from his birthplace that he is known as Leonardo da Vinci. Leonardo seemed to master every subject to which he turned his attention: he was a painter, draftsman, sculptor, architect, and engineer, wrote poetry and stories: the prototype Renaissance man! His Last Supper (1495-97) and Mona Lisa (La Gioconda, 1503-06) are among the most popular paintings from the Renaissance. He and his rival Michelangelo did great service to the medical arts by accurate paintings of dissections, which were only occasionally allowed by the Church. Yet, his artistry appeared to be an afterthought, as he frequently left his works unfinished, and only about fifteen of his paintings survive. His notebooks reveal that he was centuries ahead of his time in mechanics and physic, fortifications, bridges, weapons, and river diversions to flood the enemy, which aided Italian city-states in their many wars. Leonardo was an early evolutionist regarding fossils. Through his careful observations he noted that “if the shells had been carried by the muddy deluge they would have been mixed up, and separated from each other amidst the mud, and not in regular steps and layers—as we see them now in our time.” Leonardo reasoned that what is now dry land, where these aquatic fossils were found, must once have been covered by seawater. He was for a short time accused of homosexuality: there is no evidence Leonardo had any sexual interest in women. As he wrote in his notebooks, “The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions.” And what of his religion? It is significant that at the end of his life he felt he had much spiritual negligence to atone for. His first biographer, Giorgio Vasari, wrote in 1550: "Finally, …feeling himself near to death, [he] asked to have himself diligently informed of the teaching of the Catholic faith, and of the good way and holy Christian religion; and then, with many moans, he confessed and was penitent; and … was pleased to take devoutly the most holy Sacrament, out of his bed. The King, who was wont often and lovingly to visit him, then came into the room; wherefore he, out of reverence … showed withal how much he had offended God and mankind in not having worked at his art as he should have done." There was much skepticism in Renaissance Italy at the time, and Leonardo was an intellectual genius, not just an artistic genius. While there was great intellectual freedom during the Italian Renaissance, there were limits as long as the Dominicans, the “Hounds of the Lord,” were active. This semblance of a deathbed conversion, by so critical a thinker and so great a genius as Leonardo, who would have nothing to lose by professing piety all his life, can only mean that during his prime years he was a secret freethinker. Leonardo died quietly on the 2 of May, 1519, a few weeks following his 67th birthday.
