CHAPTER I — Critical Commentary & Notes¶
Epistle on the Divine Proportion to the Most Excellent Prince Ludovico Maria Sforza Anglo, Duke of Milan, Ornament of Peace and War, by Brother Luca Pacioli of Borgo Sansepolcro of the Order of Minorites, Professor of Sacred Theology
Historical and Philological Commentary¶
The Scientific Duel of February 9, 1498: Pacioli opens Part I with a vivid eyewitness account of a laudabile e scientifico duello (an academic disputation) held on February 9, 1498 in the Castello Sforzesco of Milan before Duke Ludovico Maria Sforza (“il Moro”, 1452–1508). This courtly gathering brings together Franciscan Scholastic theologians, military commanders, court physicians, astrologers, jurists, and Renaissance artist-engineers.
Franciscan & Courtly Prosopography:
Magister Gometius: Gomez de Lisboa (d. 1513), Portuguese Franciscan theologian at Pavia and Milan, later Vicar General of the Conventual Franciscans.
Domenico Ponzone and Francesco Busti: Prominent Milanese Franciscan preachers and regents of the Convent of San Francesco Grande.
Galeazzo Sanseverino (c. 1460–1525): Son-in-law of Ludovico Sforza, Captain General of the Milanese armies, and Pacioli's personal patron in Milan (to whom one of the three manuscript copies of De Divina Proportione was presented).
Court Physicians & Astrologers: Ambrogio Varese da Rosate (court astrologer and physician to Ludovico Sforza), Aloisio Marliani, Gabriele Pirovano, Nicolò Cusano (a Milanese physician, not the Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa who died in 1464), and Andrea da Novara.
Leonardo da Vinci’s Works in Milan:
The Sforza Equestrian Monument: Pacioli records the exact dimensions of Leonardo's colossal clay model for the monument to Francesco Sforza: 12 Milanese braccia from the horse’spoll (cervice, misprinted cerulee in 1509) to the ground, which Pacioli calibrates directly against a printed reference segment ab on Folio 0017r ($37\frac{4}{5}$ times ab), and an estimated bronze casting weight of 200,000 Milanese libbre (at 12 ounces per pound).
The Last Supper (*:term:`Cenacolo <simulacro>`*): Described as el ligiadro de l’ardente desiderio de nostra salute :term:`simulacro <simulacro>` (“the graceful simulacrum of the ardent desire for our salvation”, alluding to Luke 22:15, Desiderio desideravi hoc pascha manducare vobiscum) in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
Leonardo’s Treatises: Pacioli provides priceless documentary testimony that by 1498 Leonardo had already completed a treatise on painting and human movements (libro de pictura e movimenti humani) and was actively writing a treatise on mechanics: local motion, percussion, weights, and accidental forces (del moto locale, dele percussioni e pesi e dele forze tutte).
Giacomo Andrea da Ferrara: Architect and commentator on Vitruvius, closely bound to Leonardo as a brother (suo quanto fratello, misprinted quarto fratello in the 1509 edition, as Winterberg notes). He was executed by the French in May 1500 after the fall of Milan.
Epistemological Primacy of Mathematics: Pacioli cites Averroes’s commentary on Aristotle’s Metaphysics II (Book $\alpha$, comm. 14–16): mathematical demonstrations occupy the “first degree of certainty” (in primo gradu certitudinis), whereas natural philosophy and medicine (exemplified by the classical controversy between Aristotle/Avicenna on the heart, Galen on the brain/liver, and Empedocles/Critias on the blood as the seat of life) remain subject to probable dispute.
Constantin Winterberg’s Commentary (1889 Edition)¶
Winterberg Footnote 1 (Cap. I, p. 171): In the 1509 Italian text, read quanto instead of quarto. (Winterberg Fussnote 1 (Cap. I, S. 171): Text l. quanto statt quarto.)
Philological and Folio Apparatus¶
1509 Paganini Witness Folios: 0017, 0018 (f. 1r–f. 1v)
Winterberg 1889 Italian Source:
winterberg/01_divina_proportione_italian/001_dedication.txtWinterberg 1889 German Source:
winterberg/03_divina_proportione_german/001_dedication.txtMarginal Woodcut Diagrams: 0 figure(s) extracted from the 1509 Venice witness.