Quadrivium

The Quadrivium consists of the four Liberal Arts of Number, Geometry, Music, and Cosmology, studied from antiquity to the Renaissance as a way of glimpsing the nature of reality. They synthesize number, space, and time. Geometry is number in space, music is number in time, and the cosmos expresses number in space and time. Number, music, and geometry are metaphysical truths, good and beautiful everywhere at all times. Life across the universe investigates them. They foreshadow the physical sciences. This is the first volume to bring together the Quadrivium for many hundreds of years

Composed of six previously published works.

This volume, the fifth in the series developing Bernstein's code theory, presents a clear account of the developments of this code theory and shows the close relation between its development and the empirical research to which the theory has given rise.

Is there a secret visual language all around us? What's so special about the shape of the Great Pyramid? Why is there something so sixy about circles? How many ways can you tile the plane? Lavishly illustrated by the author, this enchanting small introduction to one of the oldest and most widely-used ancient traditions on Earth will forever change the way you look at a triangle, arch, window, fabric repeat, ceramic pattern, graphic design, painting, spiral or flower. WOODEN BOOKS are small but packed with information. "e;Fascinating"e; FINANCIAL TIMES. "e;Beautiful"e; LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "e;Rich and Artful"e; THE LANCET. "e;Genuinely mind-expanding"e; FORTEAN TIMES. "e;Excellent"e; NEW SCIENTIST. "e;Stunning"e; NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.

An exploration of the history of a mathematical board game played in medieval and Renaissance Europe

This book is open access under a CC-BY licence. Part of the AHRC/British Library Academic Book of the Future Project, this book interrogates current and emerging contexts of academic books from the perspectives of thirteen expert voices from the connected communities of publishing, academia, libraries, and bookselling.

Demonstrates that the millennium from the fall of the Roman Empire to the flowering of the Renaissance was a period of great intellectual and practical achievement and innovation. This reference work will be useful to scholars, students, and general readers researching topics in many fields of study, including medieval studies and world history.

Twenty-seven authors approach the diverse areas of the cultural, religious, and social life of the twelfth century. These essays form a basic resource for all interested in this pivotal century. A reprint of the first edition first published in 1982.

Beautifully illustrated with many old engravings as well as contemporary imagery, "Sacred Number" covers basic counting systems and the widespread use of 20 important numbers from major religious texts; the importance of astronomy, geometry, and music to number quality; and how numbers affect architecture.

"Sciencia" gathers together six individual volumes spanning the realms of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, evolution, and astronomy. Lavishly illustrated with engravings, woodcuts, and original drawings and diagrams, it inspires readers of all ages to take an interest in the interconnected knowledge of the modern sciences.

A wide-ranging exploration of how music has influenced science through the ages, from fifteenth-century cosmology to twentieth-century string theory. In the natural science of ancient Greece, music formed the meeting place between numbers and perception; for the next two millennia, Pesic tells us in Music and the Making of Modern Science, “liberal education” connected music with arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy within a fourfold study, the quadrivium. Peter Pesic argues provocatively that music has had a formative effect on the development of modern science—that music has been not just a charming accompaniment to thought but a conceptual force in its own right. Pesic explores a series of episodes in which music influenced science, moments in which prior developments in music arguably affected subsequent aspects of natural science. He describes encounters between harmony and fifteenth-century cosmological controversies, between musical initiatives and irrational numbers, between vibrating bodies and the emergent electromagnetism. He offers lively accounts of how Newton applied the musical scale to define the colors in the spectrum; how Euler and others applied musical ideas to develop the wave theory of light; and how a harmonium prepared Max Planck to find a quantum theory that reengaged the mathematics of vibration. Taken together, these cases document the peculiar power of music—its autonomous force as a stream of experience, capable of stimulating insights different from those mediated by the verbal and the visual. An innovative e-book edition available for iOS devices will allow sound examples to be played by a touch and shows the score in a moving line.

Have you ever stared at patterned wallpaper and wondered how it was designed? Been captivated by some priceless Celtic art? Or boggled at a beautiful Islamic pattern? Have you ever stepped back and thought about the illusion of reality your senses create for you? Or pondered the symmetries which inform your feelings of what seems right? Is there a Golden secret, revealed by nature herself, which is common to all of the traditional arts? Packed with information and exquisite illustrations by more than twelve expert authors, Designa is the ultimate sourcebook for visual artists and designers of every kind.

Although curriculum is central to the schooling process, debates about it are rarely well informed. Over the past ten years there has been a dearth of books that have informed the debate by examining curriculum in a broader context, beyond the National Curriculum. Ross, in this refreshing re-examination of the area, opens up a more general debate on how the curriculum is shaped and the compromises made between different ideologies of the nature and purpose of education.

A translation of the fifth-century Roman's summary of the science that was to remain dominant in Europe until the 12th century. Reprinted from the 1971 edition as part of the new series. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

The quadrivium-the classical curriculum-comprises the four liberal arts of number, geometry, music, and cosmology. It was studied from antiquity to the Renaissance as a way of glimpsing the nature of reality. Geometry is number in space; music is number in time; and cosmology expresses number in space and time. Number, music, and geometry are metaphysical truths: life across the universe investigates them; they foreshadow the physical sciences. Quadrivium is the first volume to bring together these four subjects in many hundreds of years. Composed of six successful titles in the Wooden Books series-Sacred Geometry, Sacred Number, Harmonograph, The Elements of Music, Platonic & Archimedean Solids, and A Little Book of Coincidence-it makes ancient wisdom and its astonishing interconnectedness accessible to us today. Beautifully produced in six different colors of ink, Quadrivium will appeal to anyone interested in mathematics, music, astronomy, and how the universe works. Wooden Books was founded in 1999 by designer John Martineau near Hay-on-Wye. The aim was to produce a beautiful series of recycled books based on the classical philosophies, arts and sciences. Using the Beatrix Potter formula of text facing picture pages, and old-styles fonts, along with hand-drawn illustrations and 19th century engravings, the books are designed not to date. Small but stuffed with information. Eco friendly and educational. Big ideas in a tiny space. There are over 1,000,000 Wooden Books now in print worldwide and growing.

Why did Pythagoras pause outside a Blacksmith's workshop? Can the nature of Harmony really be understood visually? Why do harmonies leave gaps or 'commas' when added together? In this charming little book Anthony Ashton uses a Victorian device called a Harmonograph to tell the story of Harmony and the intervals in the scale. With useful appendices and exquisite line drawings this is a unique and original introduction to this magical subject. WOODEN BOOKS US EDITIONS. Small books, BIG ideas. Tiny but packed with information. "Stunning" NEW YORK TIMES. "Fascinating" FINANCIAL TIMES. "Beautiful" LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "Rich and Artful" THE LANCET. "Genuinely mind-expanding" FORTEAN TIMES. "Excellent" NEW SCIENTIST.

The writings of theologians Thierry of Chartres (d. 1157) and Nicholas of Cusa (d. 1464) represent a lost history of momentous encounters between Christianity and Pythagorean ideas before the Renaissance. Their robust Christian Neopythagoreanism reconceived the Trinity and the Incarnation within the framework of Greek number theory, challenging our contemporary assumptions about the relation of religion and modern science. David Albertson surveys the slow formation of theologies of the divine One from the Old Academy through ancient Neoplatonism into the Middle Ages. Against this backdrop, Thierry of Chartres's writings stand out as the first authentic retrieval of Neopythagoreanism within western Christianity. By reading Boethius and Augustine against the grain, Thierry reactivated a suppressed potential in ancient Christian traditions that harmonized the divine Word with notions of divine Number. Despite achieving fame during his lifetime, Thierry's ideas remained well outside the medieval mainstream. Three centuries later Nicholas of Cusa rediscovered anonymous fragments of Thierry and his medieval readers, and drew on them liberally in his early works. Yet tensions among this collection of sources forced Cusanus to reconcile their competing understandings of Word and Number. Over several decades Nicholas eventually learned how to articulate traditional Christian doctrines within a fully mathematized cosmology-anticipating the situation of modern Christian thought after the seventeenth century. Mathematical Theologies skillfully guides readers through the newest scholarship on Pythagoreanism, the school of Chartres, and Cusanus, while revising some of the categories that have separated those fields in the past.

This book is a text for junior, senior, or first-year graduate courses traditionally titled Foundations of Geometry and/or Non Euclidean Geometry. The first 29 chapters are for a semester or year course on the foundations of geometry. The remaining chap ters may then be used for either a regular course or independent study courses. Another possibility, which is also especially suited for in-service teachers of high school geometry, is to survey the the fundamentals of absolute geometry (Chapters 1 -20) very quickly and begin earnest study with the theory of parallels and isometries (Chapters 21 -30). The text is self-contained, except that the elementary calculus is assumed for some parts of the material on advanced hyperbolic geometry (Chapters 31 -34). There are over 650 exercises, 30 of which are 10-part true-or-false questions. A rigorous ruler-and-protractor axiomatic development of the Euclidean and hyperbolic planes, including the classification of the isometries of these planes, is balanced by the discussion about this development. Models, such as Taxicab Geometry, are used exten sively to illustrate theory. Historical aspects and alternatives to the selected axioms are prominent. The classical axiom systems of Euclid and Hilbert are discussed, as are axiom systems for three and four-dimensional absolute geometry and Pieri's system based on rigid motions. The text is divided into three parts. The Introduction (Chapters 1 -4) is to be read as quickly as possible and then used for ref erence if necessary.

What is the secret code behind so many musical compositions? How do you substitute chords to create greater musical complexity? Why is music so good at playing with people's emotions? In this compact book, composer and pianist Jason Martineau presents the elements of music in clear and comprehensible terms. Packed with superb diagrams and a wealth of fascinating hard-to-come-by musical tips, this is a great primer, and an invaluable resource for novice and professional alike. "e;Fascinating"e; FINANCIAL TIMES. "e;Beautiful"e; LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS. "e;Rich and Artful"e; THE LANCET. "e;Genuinely mind-expanding"e; FORTEAN TIMES. "e;Excellent"e; NEW SCIENTIST. "e;Stunning"e; NEW YORK TIMES. Small books, big ideas.