Which 1475 mathematical treatise by Piero della Francesca explored perspective and geometric solids?
Answer
De prospectiva pingendi
De prospectiva pingendi is Piero della Francesca’s 1475 mathematical treatise on perspective and geometric solids.
Piero della Francesca wrote De prospectiva pingendi, meaning “On Perspective for Painting,” around 1475. The treatise explains how painters can represent three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface using geometric methods.
Piero was both a painter and a mathematician. His work examines the construction of figures, architectural forms, and regular solids, connecting practical image-making with the mathematical culture of Renaissance Italy. The text survives in manuscript copies rather than as a widely circulated printed book from Piero’s lifetime.
The title is sometimes confused with Leon Battista Alberti’s Della pittura, an earlier treatise on painting and perspective, or Luca Pacioli’s De divina proportione, which discusses mathematical proportion and polyhedra. Those works are related to Renaissance geometry, but De prospectiva pingendi is specifically Piero’s treatise on perspective for painters.