Dated December 14, 1498, the Ambrosiana Compendium on Divine Proportion manuscript in the Ambrosiana Library is one of only two surviving handwritten copies of the seminal work De Divina Proportione by the Franciscan monk and mathematician Luca Pacioli (ca. 1445-1514 or 1517)—the other kept at the Bibliothèque Publique et Universitaire in Geneva. The codex, written on parchment in elegant humanistic script, is made up of 130 folios. It was bequeathed in 1637 by Marquis Galeazzo Arconati along with other Leonardo manuscripts, including the famous Codex Atlanticus.
De Divina Proportione: A Speaking Name
As the title suggests, the main focus of the treatise is the golden ratio, which involves dividing a line segment (a-b) into two unequal parts (a-e and c-b), so that the ratio of the whole to the larger part is the same as the ratio of the larger part to the smaller (a-b: a-c = a-c: c-b).
This peculiar ratio, which seemed to encapsulate divine perfection and harmony, had already captivated ancient mathematicians and Greek philosophers, hence the term "divine" used to describe this unique relationship.
Marvelous Watercolor Drawings by Leonardo da Vinci
At the end of the fifteenth century, Luca Pacioli met Leonardo da Vinci in Milan at the court of Ludovico il Moro. The friar mathematician directly commissioned from the illustrious Florentine master a series of watercolor illustrations depicting sixty solids derived from the golden ratio. The outcome was sixty captivating geometric figures whose creation, through the play of perspective and color, stands as tangible evidence of how the golden ratio's application to solid geometry could inspire the creation of a magnificent work of art.
Each illustration is indeed a watercolor panel. The solid hangs in accordance with the physical laws of the center of gravity from a scroll that provides its identifying title in Latin, specifying which solid it is and its characteristics. Beneath the watercolored solid, an inscription offers the title in ancient Greek, the language of the earliest mathematicians and great philosophers. The series begins with the sphere and culminates in an astonishing polyhedron with seventy-two faces, exploring every conceivable and imaginable variation. The final, cumulative effect is that of a veritable gallery of images, almost surreal in their perfection.
We have 2 facsimiles of the manuscript "Ambrosiana Compendium on Divine Proportion":
- De Divina Proportione. El verdadero Código Da Vinci, la obra perfecta facsimile edition published by Patrimonio Ediciones, 2019
- De Divina Proportione facsimile edition published by Ediciones Grial, 2007