Visualizing Geometry: Examples from Some Treatises on Military Architecture Between the 15th and 17th Centuries

The contribution highlights some findings regarding the methods of visual representation of geometry presented in some treatises on military architecture elaborated between the 15th and 17th centuries in the European context. To achieve its goals, the paper proposes a first survey of the visual storytelling methods of geometry. We analyse the examples of Giorgio Martini, Dürer, Cataneo, de’ Lanteri, Maggi and Castriotto, Aconcio, Lorini and de Ville. Based on the example of Ostwald and Williams [2015] our research recalls three different declinations of geometry ‘for’, ‘in’ and ‘of’ fortifications. In this sense, we present geometry as one of the close ties that unite the disciplines of architecture and mathematics, while recalling the concept of representation as that set of graphic-textual operations (analogue and/or digital) which make it possible to reveal to the observer’s eye the visual structures of the two disciplines. By mean of representation, geometry emerges as one of the most important transversal links between mathematics and architecture.