Images, symbols and knowledge: the frontispieces of old mathematics books

Abstract: One of the most important objectives of early modern science was the mathematization of nature for its study, which promoted the dissemination of knowledge, discoveries, and debates in the disciplines grouped within the mathematical sciences, with the printed book being the ideal vehicle for achieving these goals. Since the end of the 15th century, mathematical science books contained printed images that functioned as visual intermediary elements between the content and the reader.

This talk will focus on frontispieces as visual intermediary elements between the content and the reader. The functions and intentions of these images printed and bound at the beginning of the book were established from the outset, using iconographic elements of affiliation with which the communities of readers interested in mathematical sciences identified themselves.

The placement at the beginning of the book is also a metaphorical construction of the frontispiece as a gateway or restriction to mathematical knowledge, which will have its best analogy when the images presented are articulated around the famous phrase written on the door of the Platonic Academy: let none but geometers enter here.

Semblance: Fabián Valdivia Pérez (Puebla, 1978) studied a degree in mathematics at the Benemérita Universidad Autónoma de Puebla. His lines of research are related to the historical study of the transmission of mathematical knowledge through books from the 15th to the 18th century. He is a member of the Mexican Culture Seminar, Puebla correspondent.

Curator of the exhibitions:

• 'Luz, ciencia y arte en la Biblioteca Palafoxiana”, Palafoxiana Library', 2019.
• 'Cuando el conocimiento se volvió imagen: libros y cultura visual en los inicios de la ciencia moderna' in the Historical Library “José María Lafragua” BUAP, 2017.

• 'Las imágenes olvidadas: frontispicios y grabados como dispositivos visuales para la transmisión del conocimiento matemático entre los siglos XV y XVII' in La cultura visual a través de los impresos, materialidad, producción y consumo, Universidad Iberoamericana, 2022, pp. 257 - 286. ISBN: 978-607-417-875-3.
• 'Nuestro lugar en el universo: el Copérnico de Guadalajara' in Public Library of the State of Jalisco Juan José Arreola, México, Artes de México, number 135, octuber 2022, pp. 50-53. ISBN: 978-607-461-300-1.
• 'Contemplación, orden y medida: libros e imágenes para la transmisión del conocimiento matemático en la ciencia barroca' in Identidades y redes culturales, V Congreso Internacional de Barroco Iberoamericano, Granada, Editorial Universidad de Granada, Ministry of Culture and Sport, 2021, pp. 1181 - 1189.

• «Liber apertus, liber clausus»: la construcción de discursos y repertorios visuales en los frontispicios de los libros de matemáticas entre los siglos XV y XVIII in the V Congreso Internacional sobre libro medieval y moderno, Zaragoza, Spain, septembre 2023.
• Frontispicios y grabados como dispositivos visuales para la transmisión del conocimiento matemático entre los siglos XVI y XVII in the 1st Coloquio de Cultura Visual. Impresos como vehículo de la Cultura Visual, Oaxaca, 2016
• Las matemáticas en la Biblioteca Palafoxiana: Un acercamiento a sus libros y a sus temas en History and Pedagogy of Mathematics Satellite Meeting of ICME 11, México, 2008.
• The Mathematics in the Biblioteca Palafoxiana of Puebla en International Congress of Mathematicians, Madrid, España, 2006.