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Thesis Info
- LABS ID
- 00452
- Thesis Title
- Ocularium Lucis: Light and Optical Theory in Guarino Guarini's Church of San Lorenzo
- Author
- Noé Badillo
- E-mail
- eon.badillo AT gmail.com
- 2nd Author
- 3rd Author
- Degree
- MA
- Year
- 2012
- Number of Pages
- 116
- University
- The University of Arizona
- Thesis Supervisor
- Dr. Pia F. Cuneo
- Supervisor e-mail
- pfcuneo AT email.arizona.edu
- Other Supervisor(s)
- Language(s) of Thesis
- English, Italian, Latin
- Department / Discipline
- Art History
- Copyright Ownership
- Noé Badillo
- Languages Familiar to Author
- English, Spanish, Italian, Latin, French, German, Portuguese
- URL where full thesis can be found
- arizona.openrepository.com/arizona/handle/10150/242360
- Keywords
- Guarino Guarini, Architecture, Architecture theory, Optics, Geometry, Mathematics, Philosophy of Science, Astronomy
- Abstract: 200-500 words
- Ocularium Lucis: Light and Optical Theory in Guarino Guarini’s Church of San Lorenzo is intended to provide theoretical advancement in the understanding of the work of the Baroque architect Guarino Guarini and his Church of San Lorenzo. In Part One, an historical account of Guarini’s life and work are presented. In Part Two, Guarini’s methods as an architect are analyzed according to their intersection with the philosophy of science, geometry and astronomy, as presented within his many treatises on such subjects, including the Architettura Civile (Civil Architecture, 1737), Euclides Adauctus (The Augmentation of Euclid, 1671), Cælestis Mathematicae (Celestial Mathematics, 1683), and Leges Temporum et Planetarum (The Laws of Time and the Planets, 1678). In these writings, Guarini defines light as an element which generates the fields of mathematics and geometry. These fields, while brought forth by the element of divine illumination also subjugate light into the world of form and structure, thereby providing a model for architectural creation. Through a reference to the Aristotelian prædicamenta (categories), Guarini defines a syllogistic relationship between architecture and light, by creating an intersection between optics and geometry, architecture and geometry, and therefore between architecture and optics. Guarini’s Church of San Lorenzo is understood therefore, as an instrument of light, and a vessel of divine illumination.