96 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



Allusion is sometimes made to the following magic square : 



which appears on a i6-paned window in the background of 

 Albrecht Durer's picture " Melencolia." The date of the 

 picture is recorded as 15 14 in the left-hand bottom corner 

 under the initials " A. D." 



Now, while the square is not a supermagic square, it possesses 

 the peculiarity that the two centre numbers on the lowest line 

 form a chronogram of the date. 



The square is readily derivable from the Dudhai square, 

 reproduced at the head of this article, or indeed from any 

 supermagic 34 square. The following diagram indicates how 

 this may be effected. 



It remains only to notice that, while the Dudhai square 

 was so placed as to be beyond the ken of the vulgar, Durer's 

 bastard version of it appears in the midst of certain emblems, 

 and this coupled with the fact that the artist lived at Nurnberg, 

 an architectural centre, may serve to suggest a common masonic 

 origin for both efforts. 



