News: Albrecht Dürer, the Father of Polyhedral Nets

Albrecht Dürer, the Father of Polyhedral Nets

Did you know that you can "write" in polyhedra? I just stumbled across a $24.99 font called Divina Proportione. Created by Brazilian graphic designer Paulo W, the typeface is constructed with beautiful geometric renderings by the famous Renaissance printmaker Albrecht Dürer.

Albrecht Dürer, the Father of Polyhedral Nets

I had no idea that Dürer made math art:

"The German Renaissance printmaker made important contributions to polyhedral literature in his book, Underweysung der Messung (Four Books on Measurement) (1525), meant to teach the subjects of linear perspective, geometry in architecture, Platonic solids, and regular polygons.

While the examples of perspective in Underweysung der Messung are underdeveloped and contain a number of inaccuracies, the manual does contain a very interesting discussion of polyhedral. Dürer is also the first to introduce in text the idea of polyhedral nets, polyhedral unfolded to lie flat for printing."

It's official. Dürer is even more awesome than I thought. Check out his depiction of a polyhedra below.

Albrecht Dürer, the Father of Polyhedral Nets

Albrecht Dürer, the Father of Polyhedral Nets


Just updated your iPhone? You'll find new features for TV, Messages, News, and Shortcuts, as well as important bug fixes and security patches. Find out what's new and changed on your iPhone with the iOS 17.6 update.

6 Comments

Oh wow. I didn't realize this about him. That's really cool. There's another famous renaissance era german text on polyhedra that is excaping me right now. I'll post it up when I remember it.

Ah. Found it. Might have to post this up somewhere else at some point. Flickr user peacay has a bunch of historical book plates in his photo stream. He has a set that contains the plates from Wentzel Jamnitzer's Perspectiva from 1568 which has some amazingly cool polyhedra.

Share Your Thoughts

  • Hot
  • Latest