CHAPTER I — Critical Commentary & Notes

On the Measure and Proportions of the Human Body, of the Head, and of Its Other Members as the Model and Simulacrum of Architecture.

Historical & Mathematical Commentary

  • Paganini 1509 Marginal Diagrams & Full-Page Plate:

    • Folio 0066 (f. 25v) contains the two woodcut profile diagrams 0066.g1.png and 0066.g2.png, and Folio 0137 (0137.rst) presents the large full-page woodcut of the human head inscribed in the equilateral triangle \(amk\) and grid \(kmsb\) labeled DIVINA PROPORTIO.

  • Catalog of Fifteen-Century Artillery: Notice Pacioli's remarkable list of 11 siege engines and gunpowder artillery weapons on Folio 0065 (f. 25r): briccole, trabocchi, catapulte, baliste, bombarde, passavolanti, schioppetti, archibusi, cortaldi, basilischi.

  • Rational Canon vs. Irrational *Gratia*: Pacioli’s aesthetic reflection on Folio 0066—that the primary structural divisions of the face (\(\frac{1}{3}\), \(\frac{1}{9}\)) are rational, whereas the living curvature of the chin, brow, and nose-tip involves irrational proportions left to the gratia e arbitrio del prospectivo—is a foundational statement of High Renaissance art theory (anticipating Vasari’s concept of grazia and giudizio dell’occhio).

Philological and Folio Apparatus

  • 1509 Paganini Witness Folios: 0065, 0066, 0067 (f. 25r–f. 26r)

  • Winterberg 1889 Italian Source: winterberg/02_architectura_italian/001_cap_I.txt

  • Winterberg 1889 German Source: winterberg/04_architectura_german/001_cap_I.txt

  • Marginal Woodcut Diagrams: 1 figure(s) extracted from the 1509 Venice witness.