The Hidden Pavement Designs of the Laurentian Library

Ben Nicholson (), Jay Kappraff () and Saori Hisano ()
Additional contact information
Ben Nicholson: School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Jay Kappraff: University Heights, Department of Mathematics, New Jersey Institute of Technology

Chapter Chapter 56 in Architecture and Mathematics from Antiquity to the Future, 2015, pp 139-149 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract For nearly 200 years a red and white terra cotta pavement designed by Michelango for the Laurentian Library in Florence lay hidden beneath the floorboards until its rediscovery in 1774. Overall the pavement consists of two side aisles and a figurative center aisle, each measuring about 8′–6″ square and composed of a different design. The 15 panels mirror each other’s form but differ by a very small degree and in subtle ways. When juxtaposed in a series, the 15 pairs of panels appear to tell a story about the essentials of geometry and numbers. Each panel settles upon a theme: the tetractys (panel 5); Brunés’s star and the Sacred Cut (panels 7 and 11); Plato’s lambda (panel 14); the Golden Mean (panel 13). When assembled together they form an encyclopedia of the essential principles handed down from ancient geometers. The pavement geometry is a perfect complement for the 3,000 classical texts chosen to reveal the body of ancient and modern living.

Keywords: Laurentian Library; Pavement Design; Side Aisles; Terra Cotta; Tetractys (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-3-319-00143-2_9

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/9783319001432

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-00143-2_9

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Springer Books from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().