Sylvie Duvernoy

The 60 drawings of regular polyhedra by Leonardo da Vinci, published in a mathematical treatise in 1509, are a milestone in the history of scientific illustration. They are the first visual images of the solids that had been studied since antiquity and had never been shown previously as they look. What do we expect from scientific imagery? Should it be conceptual, self-explanatory, allegorical, measurable? Can perspective views support mathematical demonstration when quantity and proportion are at stake?