Charles de Bovelles's treatise on the regular polyhedra (Paris, 1511)

Abstract

Summary The mathematical works of the French philosopher Charles de Bovelles (c. 1479–1566) have received little attention from historians of scientific thought. At the University of Paris, Bovelles studied under Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples, sharing with him a high regard for the Christian Neoplatonic philosophy of Nicholas of Cusa. One aspect of Cusanus's philosophy (described in his major work, On Learned Ignorance) was particularly favoured by Lefevre and Bovelles: the use of geometrical symbolism to provide mathematical guidance to the divine. While Lefevre was preparing an edition of Cusanus's works (Paris, 1514), Bovelles wrote a treatise of his own, in which the geometry of the five polyhedra was used to provide an approach to the mystery of the Trinity. Seen in the context of Renaissance syncretism of Platonism and Christianity, Bovelles's treatise adds a theological layer of interpretation to the literal meaning of the polyhedral physics described by Plato in the Timaeus. In so doing, it contribute...