Optical Illusions in Rome: A Mathematical Travel Guide

Optical Illusions in Rome is a beautifully written and richly illustrated guide that takes the reader on a tour through ingenious uses of geometry to create illusory impressions of space and grandeur in Italian Renaissance art and architecture in the Eternal City. The book takes us to some of the most striking and historically important uses of optical illusion and includes works of Peruzzi, Borromini, and Pozzo. The artworks are analyzed geometrically and placed in their historical context. The notes on visiting the art described make the volume the perfect companion for a study trip to Rome. A chapter on the principles of perspective geometry and a collection of exercises make the book a wonderful resource for a module on perspective in a geometry or art history course. The mathematical discussion is kept at a level accessible to a reader with a familiarity with high school geometry. Kirsti Andersen is a distinguished historian of mathematics and emerita faculty at Aarhus University. Her previous book, The Geometry of an Art, is widely recognized as the definitive work on the history of the use of perspective in European art. Viktor Blåsjö, the translator, is a historian of mathematics on the faculty at Utrecht University. Blåsjö has won both the Ford and Pólya prizes for expository writing from the Mathematical Association of America.