TOP ROW

01 Albrecht Durer, Melancholia, engraving, 18 x 24 cms, dated 1514. Numbers are deployed in ranks which when added up, vertically, horizontally or diagonally, come to the same number. The Magic Square was probably of Chinese origin and much admired by subsequent civilisations. Albrecht Durer used a Magic Square in his print above.

02 03, Rythmomachia/ Rithmimachia The game is of ancient derivation and involves pieces moving on a board. from Jordanus and Faber Arithmetica decem libris demonstrata ; Paris 1496 a page from Claude de Boissiere's Rythmomachia , Paris 1556. According to Smith/Plimpton, the book is profusely illustrated and "was connected with the medieval number classifications and ratios..."  

04 An Italian Manuscript Dec 1539 concerning "Pythagoras' Game" or the "Rithmimacia", with an intriguing insert loosely attached to the body of the text with the appropriate numbers and positions. From the Giannalisa Feltrinelli Library as sold at Christie's in December 1997 (lot 220) with a letter that explained that the second half of the MS was found in the studio of the Aristotelian polymath Jacques Lefevre d'Etaples and sent to Cosimo Rucellai in Florence.
 

BOTTOM ROW HERE ARE EXAMPLES FROM TWO BOOKS ON MAGIC SQUARES
 
01, 02 03. Barbette's Les Carres magiques ,Liege, 1912 page size 15 x 22cms. p.118 - the colour plate - an extension of the Magic Cube format to colour addition. 03 a typical page from Barbette showing the hand drawn lettering and diagrams. Hypnotic with plenty of curliques.
 
04, 05. B.Violle, Planches des Carres, Cubes & Cercles Magiques, Dijon, undated c1870, litho.