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An eye-opening narrative of how geometric principles fundamentally shaped our world
One night in 1661, Nicholas Fouquet, a superintendent under Louis XIV, was arrested. His crime was peculiar: he had dared to construct a grand geometrical garden. In doing so, he violated an irrefutable hierarchy: that geometry, in its perfection, was a testament to divine right. The elegant, symmetrical designs were more than just ornament; they were proofs of incontestable certainty, and thus the authority to rule. But how did the French royalty fall in love with this peculiar landscape design? Wherefore Versailles?
In Proof!, the award-winning historian Amir Alexander argues that Euclidean geometry has been uniquely responsible for how our societies are structured. It has shaped how our cities are built and been used as a rationale to explain political structures. The proofs in Euclid's Elements were not only just true but were certain by reason alone. Alexander tracks the rediscovery of Euclidean geometry in fifteenth-century Italy and recounts the French royalty's centuries-long love affair with geometrical gardening, which acted as a visual symbol of the king's consolidation of power during a time of violence and upheaval, and which culminated with the gardens at Versailles. Proof! tells the monumental story of the geometries that were carved into our world, the beliefs they supported, and the ways they shape our lives to this day.
6. Beyond VersaillesThe Italian ObsessionThree. Royal GeometriesThe Monarchy in CrisisThe Exile's ReturnThe BedchamberTwilight of the Sun KingThe Gates of the BaptisteryOne. The Mirror ImageThe Prickly DesignerThe Superintendent's CrimeIntroductionVersailles Beyond VersaillesPart I. How the World Became GeometricalThe King at Bay7. The Euclidean RepublicThe Mother of KingsThe Constitution in StoneFour. The Return of the KingsA Villa in CampanaTwo. The Geometrical CodeEuclid's KingdomThe Spell of the AncientsAlberti's WindowPart II. Euclid's KingdomThe Sun KingFive. The King's GardenThe View from the DuomoThe Rational StateThe Tile FactoryThe Secret CodeThe Imperfect WorldVersailles on the PotomacBuilding the Earthly ParadiseOrder and EmpireThe Geometrical UniverseThe Battle of the GeometriesPart III. The Sun King's TouchThe Geometrical StateGeometry Goes NorthThe Invention of Inner SpaceThe Geometrical WorldThe Return of the KingsConclusion. The Non-Euclidean WorldThe Man Who Knew His PlaceThe Geometry of UnionRoyal GeometriesThe Seeds of ModernityGardens for a New KingdomThe Noble GardenerKings and GardensThe Garden of AmbitionThe Brilliant KingThe Enchanted IsleThe Death of ChivalryThe Hidden PatternThe Royal Eye
One night in 1661, Nicholas Fouquet, a superintendent under Louis XIV, was arrested. His crime was peculiar: he had dared to construct a grand geometrical garden. In doing so, he violated an irrefutable hierarchy: that geometry, in its perfection, was a testament to divine right. The elegant, symmetrical designs were more than just ornament; they were proofs of incontestable certainty, and thus the authority to rule. But how did the French royalty fall in love with this peculiar landscape design? Wherefore Versailles?
In Proof!, the award-winning historian Amir Alexander argues that Euclidean geometry has been uniquely responsible for how our societies are structured. It has shaped how our cities are built and been used as a rationale to explain political structures. The proofs in Euclid's Elements were not only just true but were certain by reason alone. Alexander tracks the rediscovery of Euclidean geometry in fifteenth-century Italy and recounts the French royalty's centuries-long love affair with geometrical gardening, which acted as a visual symbol of the king's consolidation of power during a time of violence and upheaval, and which culminated with the gardens at Versailles. Proof! tells the monumental story of the geometries that were carved into our world, the beliefs they supported, and the ways they shape our lives to this day.
6. Beyond VersaillesThe Italian ObsessionThree. Royal GeometriesThe Monarchy in CrisisThe Exile's ReturnThe BedchamberTwilight of the Sun KingThe Gates of the BaptisteryOne. The Mirror ImageThe Prickly DesignerThe Superintendent's CrimeIntroductionVersailles Beyond VersaillesPart I. How the World Became GeometricalThe King at Bay7. The Euclidean RepublicThe Mother of KingsThe Constitution in StoneFour. The Return of the KingsA Villa in CampanaTwo. The Geometrical CodeEuclid's KingdomThe Spell of the AncientsAlberti's WindowPart II. Euclid's KingdomThe Sun KingFive. The King's GardenThe View from the DuomoThe Rational StateThe Tile FactoryThe Secret CodeThe Imperfect WorldVersailles on the PotomacBuilding the Earthly ParadiseOrder and EmpireThe Geometrical UniverseThe Battle of the GeometriesPart III. The Sun King's TouchThe Geometrical StateGeometry Goes NorthThe Invention of Inner SpaceThe Geometrical WorldThe Return of the KingsConclusion. The Non-Euclidean WorldThe Man Who Knew His PlaceThe Geometry of UnionRoyal GeometriesThe Seeds of ModernityGardens for a New KingdomThe Noble GardenerKings and GardensThe Garden of AmbitionThe Brilliant KingThe Enchanted IsleThe Death of ChivalryThe Hidden PatternThe Royal Eye