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Primary sourceBook1528

Vier Bücher von Menschlicher Proportion

Albrecht Dürer · 1528

Dürer's four-volume treatise on the proportions of the human body, published in 1528, shortly after his death.

Dürer's own treatise summarizing his lifelong study of human proportion, published after his death.

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Title page of Dürer's Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion, showing decorative black-letter German title text, a flourish ornament, the date MDXXVIII, and the AD monogram. A library stamp appears at the bottom.
Albrecht Dürer, Vier Bücher von menschlicher Proportion, Nuremberg, 1528.

About this source

What it is

This book was written by Albrecht Dürer and published in 1528 in Nuremberg. Titled Four Books on Human Proportion, it addressed to his friend Willibald Pirckheimer, it sets out decades of study on how to measure and represent the human body.

Why it matters

The work shows Dürer's scientific approach to art, treating the body as something that could be studied and measured mathematically. It reflects the Renaissance interest in combining art with science and mathematics, and it was published just after Dürer's death, making it part of his final legacy.

Look closer

  • What does the dedication to his friend tell you about Dürer's relationships?
  • Why might an artist want to turn the human body into a subject of measurement?
  • What does the timing of its publication, right after Dürer died, suggest about its importance to him?

This book is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of Albrecht Dürer on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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