Die Vermessung des Kosmos

by Kerstin Geßner

In search of the roots of organized spatial planning in European urban planning, this book is devoted to the controversially discussed connection between geometry and urban planning in the Middle Ages. Against the background of Neo-Platonic-Christian cosmology, the practical implementation of classic geometric constructions using medieval surveying technology is discussed in detail in the city design. This is exemplarily illustrated by an analysis of twelve city floor plans, the weir and sacral topography of which not only reveals the ciphered interweaving of urban spatial organization with medieval iconography, astronomy and geodesy, but also the symbolic significance of an irrational proportion, which is still known today as the golden ratio is.