Abstract

Considered as an exact science, linear perspective started shortly before 1480, when Piero della Francesca demonstrated for the first time the decrease of apparent magnitudes on the basis of similar triangles. Although medieval and early modern empirical research on perspective is lacking such demonstrative character, we show that it benefited from the influence of optics much earlier than is usually thought, since the first trials of central perspective, two point perspective, or written evidence of a knowledge of optics by practitioners appear at the interface between Duecento and Trecento.