The Divine Proportions of Luca Pacioli: A Novel Based on the Life of Luca Pacioli

by W a W Parker, The Mentoris Project (Editor)

Overview

Luca Pacioli stood beside the great Leonardo da Vinci and gazed at The Last Supper. He saw immediately that something was terribly wrong.

An orphan from a small town in Italy, Pacioli came of age during the Renaissance seemingly destined for a life of struggle and obscurity. But Pacioli had the good fortune of meeting mentors who recognized his uncanny ability with numbers and introduced him to renowned artists and philosophers, royalty, and popes.

At a time when many still used Roman numerals and colleges didn't even teach mathematics, Pacioli was determined to share his passion and make it accessible and understandable. Apprentice to an artist, but a terrible artist himself, he became a master at calculating mathematical perspective in paintings. Tasked with teaching mathematics with no textbook, he wrote his own--followed by books on double-entry bookkeeping, chess, and the divine proportion

In this way, Luca Pacioli, "the father of accounting," still has something to teach us--not just about mathematics--but about how we account for setbacks in our lives and how we determine what our legacy will be.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781947431270
Publisher:	Barbera Foundation Inc
Publication date:	10/01/2019
Pages:	258
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.58(d)

About the Author

W. A. W. Parker grew up Adam Parker, not knowing until he was twelve years old that his full name was William Adam Washburne Parker. Since this was a mouthful for a kid growing up in northeastern Montana, an area The Washington Post has dubbed "the middle of nowhere," he remained Adam Parker until he earned his first film credit, found out he would have been the nineteenth Adam Parker on IMDb, and was thus in need of a pen name. Adam discovered a lot of himself in Luca Pacioli. Moving around as a kid, Adam always made sure the first friend he made in every town was his local library. He studied at Harvard primarily because it is home to the oldest library system in the United States. As Luca does, Adam found that he could travel the world by roaming the stacks. The Divine Proportions of Luca Pacioli is Adam's first novel, but you'll be able to read his second novel soon-about 20th-century architect Pietro Belluschi.

The Mentoris Project is a series of novels and biographies about the lives of great Italians and Italian-Americans: men and women who have changed history through their contributions as scientists, inventors, explorers, thinkers, and creators. The Barbera Foundation sponsors this series in the hope that, like a mentor, each book will inspire the reader to discover how she or he can make a positive contribution to society.

Table of Contents

Foreword

Dedication

Chapter One: The Battle of the Stones

Chapter Two: The Beans

Chapter Three: Education

Chapter Four: The Apprentice

Chapter Five: The Altar

Chapter Six: The Resurrection

Chapter Seven: Perspective

Chapter Eight: Sight

Chapter Nine: The Library

Chapter Ten: The Court of Earthly Delights

Chapter Eleven: The Wait

Chapter Twelve: O Sea

Chapter Thirteen: The Merchant of Venice

Chapter Fourteen: A New Language

Chapter Fifteen: The Cipher

Chapter Sixteen: When in Rome

Chapter Seventeen: The Conclave

Chapter Eighteen: Finding Alberti

Chapter Nineteen: Two Paintings

Chapter Twenty: Brothers

Chapter Twenty-One: The First

Chapter Twenty-Two: The Flower of the World

Chapter Twenty-Three: Guidobaldo

Chapter Twenty-Four: Round Two

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Rebirth

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Sum

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Fine Print

Chapter Twenty-Eight: On Computing

Chapter Twenty-Nine: The Reception

Chapter Thirty: The New Athens

Chapter Thirty-One: The First Supper

Chapter Thirty-Two: The Last Supper

Chapter Thirty-Three: Divine Inspiration

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Irrational Collaboration

Chapter Thirty-Five: The Horse

Chapter Thirty-Six: The Escape

Chapter Thirty-Seven: Begone Dull Care

Chapter Thirty-Eight: The Next Move

Chapter Thirty-Nine: The Wall

Chapter Forty: The Ouster

Chapter Forty-One: Where There’s Smoke . . .

Chapter Forty-Two: The Rumor

Chapter Forty-Three: Twenty-Six Days Later

Chapter Forty-Four: The Betrayal

Chapter Forty-Five: Just the Two of Us

Chapter Forty-Six: The Reprint

Chapter Forty-Seven: On the Game of Chess

Chapter Forty-Eight: The Quantitative Strength

Chapter Forty-Nine: The Vitruvian Man

Chapter Fifty: Proportion and Proportionality

Chapter Fifty-One: The Printing Pressure

Chapter Fifty-Two: The Monastery

Chapter Fifty-Three: Will and Testament

Chapter Fifty-Four: The Last Days

Chapter Fifty-Five: The Divine Proportions

About the Author