Alhazen’s Optics and the European Medieval and Renaissance Perspectiva Traditions in Science and the Architectural Arts

York Medieval Lecture Series

This lecture focuses on the philosophical and architectural entailments of the classical science of optics of the Arab polymath Alhazen (Ibn al-Haytham; b. ca 965 CE in Basra, d. ca. 1040 CE in Cairo). A special emphasis will be placed on his theories of visual perception and light, as articulated in Books I and II of his monumental Optics (perspectiva), while also evoking the transmission and reception of his translated oeuvre in the European medieval scholarly context and in the Renaissance architectural arts milieu.

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Image: Engraving from the title page of Opticae Thesaurus, a latin edition of Ibn al-Haytham's Book of Optics. Among other things it shows how Archimedes allegedly set Roman ships on fire with parabolic mirrors during the Siege of Syracuse