The history of the golden section. Rise and fall of the divine proportion. Translated from the Dutch by Stefan Häring (Q2812988)

This second edition of van der Schoot's book retained its original structure. After the introductory first chapter, Chapter 2 discusses the importance and role of proportionality in various epochs. Chapter 3 deals with the history of the golden section. Chapter 4 explains the importance of the golden section and of the dodecahedron in Plato's and Kepler's cosmologies. Chapter 5 investigates the occurrence of the golden section in nature. Chapter 6 studies the aesthetic preferences of Fechner and of his many successors. Chapter 7 demonstrates that the divine proportion as an aesthetic ideal does not belong to the epochs that are usually mentioned in the literature. Four appendices deal with some mathematical properties of the divine proportion, that is, of Euclid's division in extreme and mean ratio, some two- and three-dimensional forms, and the relation between the golden section and the Fibonacci sequence. The voluminous bibliography comprehends about 450 titles. Unfortunately, the author uses throughout the false title ``Harmonices mundi'' of Kepler's masterpiece instead of the correct title ``Harmonice mundi''.