Brook Taylor's Work on Linear Perspective

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.

Contenu

Book One Brook Taylor's Role in the History of Linear Perspective.- 1. Introduction.- 2. Taylor's Interest in Perspective.- 3. The Basic Concepts of Taylor's Method.- 4. Taylor's 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 Taylor's Theory on the Continent.- 11. Taylor's Method and Principles.- 12. Concluding Remarks.- Appendix. The Books on Perspective which Taylor Presumably Possessed.- Book Two Linear Perspective.- To the Reader.- I. An Explanation of Those Things that Are Necessary To Be Understood in Order to the Practice of Perspective.- II. Propositions Relating to the General Practice of Perspective.- III. Of Finding the Shadows of Given Figures.- IV. Of Finding the Representations of the Reflections of Figures on Polished Planes.- V. Of the Inverse Practice of Perspective and of the Manner of Examining Pictures Already Drawn.- Figures to Linear Perspective.- Books Printed for R. Knaplock at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard.- Notes to Linear Perspective by Kirsti Andersen.- Book Three New Principles of Linear Perspective.- Preface.- I. Definitions [Axioms, Theorems, Problems, and Examples].- II. Of the Manner of Finding the Original Figures from Their Projections Given, and of the Situation That Is Necessary To Be Observed for Viewing Particular Projections.- Appendix I. The Description of a Method, by which the Representations of Figures May Be Drawn On any Surface, Be it Never so Irregular.- Appendix II. A New Theory for Mixing of Colours, Taken from Sir Isaac Newton's Opticks.- Figures to New Principles.- Notes to New Principles by Kirsti Andersen.