Heritage of Giotto's Geometry: Art and Science on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution [Paperback]

Samuel Y. Edgerton (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1994

Winner of the 1992 Helen and Howard R. Marraro Prize from the American Historical Association

"Edgerton's interdisciplinary study is a bold attempt to show how the perception of the world, as slowly refined by the Renaissance artists, provided the impetus behind the scientific revolution. . . . An ambitious and largely persuasive book." --Nature

"Edgerton's book is learned and richly illustrated with paintings and drawings from the Middle Ages, the Italian Renaissance, and contemporaneous Chinese dynasties. . . . [His] argument is intricate and flawless." --American Historical Review

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: Cornell University Press (February 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0801481988
• ISBN-13: 978-0801481987
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,358,230 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Samuel Y. Edgerton is Amos Lawrence Professor Art History Emeritus at Williams College where he taught for twenty-seven years, and at Boston University for sixteen years before that. During those four plus decades his scholarly interests have ranged from studying the arts of medieval and Renaissance Europe to the arts of pre- and post-conquest America. However, the single thread that unites the seemingly diverse subjects of his books is his desire to reveal how the history of art interacted with the ideologies and social institutions of these diverse cultures, such as the way art was deployed in the service of the criminal justice system in still medieval Florence, or the way Spanish missionaries used the arts to help convert the indigenous peoples of sixteenth-century Mexico. Edgerton's latest work again traces the advent of artistic linear perspective, how it was originally conceived to reinforce the devotional power of Christian pictures; how it then became the universal trademark of Renaissance artistic "realism"; and finally how perspectival art allowed Galileo Galilei to "see" scientifically for the first time the true form of our heavenly universe.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A brilliant synthesis of art history and history of science, December 18, 2001

By 

Alex Soojung-Kim Pang "historian and futurist" (Menlo Park, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry: Art and Science on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution (Hardcover)

Anyone who dares to write about Renaissance art faces a daunting task. The field is dense, the historiography deep, and finding anything new to say sometimes seems impossible. This makes Samuel Edgerton's "Heritage of Giotto's Geometry" all the more remarkable. Edgerton's big question is this: Why did the Scientific Revolution take place in Europe, and catch on first in Italy? He argues that the development in the arts-- most critically the invention of linear perspective, but also innovations in technical drawing, chiaroscuro, and the use of geometry in art-- were the catalyst. The book discusses familiar art historical subjects, mining and medical books, Galileo's drawings of the moon, and Chinese drawings of Western engravings: an amazing range of materials. The book is a model of erudition in another way: it demonstrates how traditional scholarly detective work and clear prose can be used in the service of deeply radical arguments. The book has less jargon than a trendy journal's table of contents.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Scientific Heritage of Linear Perspective, August 25, 2000

By 

Suzanne Winsberg (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry: Art and Science on the Eve of the Scientific Revolution (Hardcover)

Have you ever been to Florence? If so, perhaps you are aware that one of the greatest achievements of the Western artistic revolution, namely the invention of linear perspective, occurred there in the heart of Tuscany. Edgerton examines the relationship between that artistic revolution and the scientific revolution which began with Galileo in this same city. He points out that it was a tradition of medieval Christian doctrine for the privelidged gentry to know Euclidean geometry, since one might discover in Euclidean geometry God's very thinking process. Geometric linear perspective was invented and quickly accepted in western Europe as Christians thought that they were then perceiving a replica of the same underlying structure of reality that God concieved in the act of Creation. Edgerton explains that the new way in which this reality was represented, using the tools of linear perspective and chiaroscuro, invented by Renaissance artists, paved the way for scientific practice, impacting both science and technology. He demonstrates a knowledge of church history, geometry, optics, art and history of science. The book is packed with interesting illustrations. All in all it is a fascinating account of two important revolutions and their interconnectedness.