Friedrich II and the love of geometry

Abstract

The Castel del Monte was built in the northern part of Apulia by the Holy Roman Emperor Friedrich II of Hohenstaufen in the last decade of his life.1 Even today it remains an object of wonder (Fig. 29.1). Standing on a conical hill in the flat table–like countryside called the Murge that slowly falls toward the sea, the castle is visible from afar, golden in the bright sunshine. Its unique form—eight-sided with octagonal towers at each corner—is sharply defined by shadows. The stark, sharply delineated walls emphasize its stereometric character. For Castel del Monte, there is no need to invent or to guess at the geometric relationships. They simply exist in the building, which cries out for a mathematical analysis to help evaluate it as an architectural object in the same way that historical, chronological, art-historical, and architectural-historical analyses do.