Brook Taylors Work on Linear Perspective: A Study of Taylors Role in the Histo [Hardcover]

The aim of this book is to make accessible the two important but rare works of Brook Taylor and to describe his role in the history of linear perspective. Taylor's works, Linear Perspective and New Principles on Linear Perspective, are among the most important sources in the history of the theory of perspective. This text focuses on two aspects of this history. The first is the development, starting in the beginning of the 17th century, of a mathematical theory of perspective where gifted mathematicians used their creativity to solve basic problems of perspective and simultaneously were inspired to consider more general problems in the projective geometry. Taylor was one of the key figures in this development. The second aspect concerns the problem of transmitting the knowledge gained by mathematicians to the practitioners. Although Taylor's books were mathematical rather than challenging, he was the first mathematician to succeed in making the practitioners interested in teaching the theoretical foundation of perspective. He became so important in the development that he was named the father of modern perspective in England. The English school of Taylor followers contained among others the painter John Kirby and Joseph Highmore and the scientist Joseph Priestley. After its translation to Italian and French in the 1750s, Taylor's work became popular on the continent.Book One Brook Taylors Role in the History of Linear Perspective.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Taylors Interest in Perspective.- 3. The Basic Concepts of Taylors Method.- 4. Taylors Inheritance.- 5. Towards a Perspective Geometry.- 6. Three-Dimensional Perspective Problems.- 7. Inverse Problems of Perspective.- 8. The Appendices of New Principles.- 9. Taylor and the History of Linear Perspective in England before 1800.- 10. The Acknowledgment of Taylors Theory on the Continent.- 11. Taylors Method and Principles.- 12. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix. The Books on Perspective which Taylor Presumably Possesl£-