.VA rifEMATICAL SCIENCES. 



97 



tione; " and the great Michael Angelo, surrounded by a group of younger artists, 

 wlio looked upon him as the regenerator of modem art, sought in the science 

 of mathematics the most wonderful secrets of architecture and sculpture. 

 Like Michael Angelo and Leonardo da Vinci, there was not a single great 

 artist of that day who was not, in addition, a consummate mathematician 

 (Figs. 70 and 71). 



The mathematicians, it is true, did not all develop into artists, notwith- 



Fig. 71. Instrument of Mathematical Precision for designing Objects in Perspective. Fac-simile 

 of a Wood Engraving from Albert Durer's Work, " Institutionum Geometrical-urn Libri 

 Quatuor" (Parisiis, ex officina Christian! Wecheli, 1535, in folio). In the Library of 

 M. Ambroise Firmin-Didot, Paris. 



standing the general tendency which led them to cultivate the arts. At 

 Ferrara Alumno remained cosmographist, and devoted part of his life to 

 composing voluminous works upon celestial mechanics ("De Fabrica Mundi") ; 

 at Perugia the Dantes, who were not of the same family as the writer of the 

 " Divine Comedy," devoted their time to purely mathematical works ; and one 

 of them, Egnazio Dante, who collated in his repertory of the "Scienze Mathe- 

 nuitice in Tavole " (the Mathematical Sciences in Tables) all the problems 



o 



