PERSPECTIVE, HISTORY OF. Perspec tive, as a branch of optics, was known and practised at an early period. It was taught by Democritus and Anaxagoras, and treated of by Euclid in his Optics. Alhazen, likewise, in his optical treatise, speaks of this art, and of its importance for the painter ; but the first writers who professedly treated on perspective were Bartolomeo Bramantino, in his Regale di Perspective, Fee. dated 1440, and Pietro del Borgo, who supposed objects to be placed be yond a transparent tablet, and so to trace the images which rays of light emitted from them would make upon it. Albert Durer construct ed a machine upon the principles of Borgo, by which he could trace the perspective appear ante of objects. Leon Battista Alberti, in his treatise De Picture, speaks chiefly of perepec. aye ; and Balthazar Peruzzi, of Siena, who died in 1506, wrote a system of perspective, which appeared in 1640. He is said to have first recommended points of distance, to which are drawn all lines that make an angle of 45 degrees with the ground line. Guido Ubalcli, in his Perspective, published in 1600, showed that all lines are parallel to one another, if they be inclined to the ground line, and con verge to some point in the horizontal line ; and that through this point also will pass a line drawn from the eye parallel to them. His
work contained the first principles, which of terwards formed the ground work of Dr. Tay. lor's. He was immediately followed by Gia como Barozzi, of Vignola, whose two rules of Perspective were published, with a comments ry, by Ignatius Dante. Marolois' work was published at the Hague in 1615, and that of Sirigatti, which was an abstract of Vignola's, in 1625. But the most celebrated writer on this subject was Dr. Brooke Taylor, who, in his Linear Perspective, has laid down princi ples far more general than those of any of his predecessors. He does not confine Ins rules to the horizontal plane only, but he has made them applicable to every species of lines and planes. Likewise, by his method, which is exceedingly simple, the fewest lines imagina ble are required to produce any perspective representation. As a proof of the excellence of his method, it suffices to add, that it has been followed by all who have treated on this subject, and is universally adopted in practice. Mr. Hamilton published his Stereography in 2 vols. folio, after the manner of Dr. Taylor ; besides which there are some good treatises on the subject from Ware, Cowley, Ferguson, Emerson, &c. ; but Mr. Kirby' system of perspective has been generally esteemed for its practical utility.