• Login
    View Item 
    •   DBS eSource Home
    • Journal Articles
    • Literature, Drama & Film
    • View Item
    •   DBS eSource Home
    • Journal Articles
    • Literature, Drama & Film
    • View Item
    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.

    Spenser’s 'golden squire' and the 'golden Meane': numbers and proportions in Book II of the Faerie Queene

    View/Open
    sadowski_p_2000.pdf (1.136Mb)
    Author
    Sadowski, Piotr
    Date
    2000
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10788/1450
    Publisher
    AMS Press Inc
    Rights holder
    http://esource.dbs.ie/copyright
    Rights
    Items in Esource are protected by copyright. Previously published items are made available in accordance with the copyright policy of the publisher/copyright holder.
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    The essay interprets Spenser's arithmetical and geometrical metaphors of temperance in their primary, mathematical sense, and argues that the 'golden squire' used to measure out a 'mean' of temperance refers to the masonic triangle, particularly the so called 'golden' or 'royal' square, based on the Golden Section 0.618, used widely in medieval architectural design. The Golden Mean as a geometrical representation of temperance is first used in Book II in the description of the mutual relations between the three sisters and their male partners in the Castle of Medina, and later in the famous and notoriously obscure stanza on the geometrical design of he Castle of Alma. Here the Golden Section diagram is found to contain all the geometrical and numerological elements from the design of the Castle, thus reinforcing its significance as an architectural emblem of the human body and soul internally harmonized through temperance.
    Collections
    • Literature, Drama & Film

    Browse

    All of DBS eSourceCommunities & CollectionsBy Issue DateAuthorsSupervisorTitlesSubjectsThis CollectionBy Issue DateAuthorsSupervisorTitlesSubjects

    My Account

    LoginRegister

    Statistics

    View Usage Statistics

    DSpace software copyright © 2002-2023  DuraSpace
    Contact Us | Send Feedback
    DSpace Express is a service operated by 
    Atmire NV