Albrecht Dürer, Melancolia I

INTRODUCTION
- Man and the stars
SECTION I
- The dawn of astronomy: Mesopotamia, Egypt and the Biblical Cosmos
SECTION II
- The cosmos becomes a sphere
SECTION III
- The geometry of the cosmos
SECTION IV
- The skies of Islam
SECTION V
- Evangelisation of the cosmos
SECTION VI
- The Renaissance of Astronomy
SECTION VII
- Galileo: the cosmos through the telescope
SECTION VIII
- From Galileo to Newton

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Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
Melancolia I, 1514
Florence, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, 4680 st. sc.

This fascinating engraving shows the personification of the melancholy humour which falls under the astrological influence of Saturn, whose "children" incline towards such intellectual activities as mathematics and geometry, but who have to live with the burden of depression.