ARISTOTLE (384-322 B.C.), ALHAZEN (Hassan ibn Hassan

called Ibn Al-Haitham or, in medieval Latin, Alhazen,

10th century), Roger BACON (1214-1292), Leon Battista

ALBERTI (1404-1472), LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519)

CONSTRAINT : ϕ without fixing the image. Observes the classical unities of time and space.

INVENTION : the camera obscura.

WORKS : ϕ of : solar eclipses (Reiner Gemma FRISIUS provides an illustration in his De radio astronomico et geometrico liber, 1545) ; the box's own diaphragm (Aristotle) ; portraits and landscapes. All “lost”, since their authors found no practical way of fixing their images except by memorising and drawing them. Some reproductions in ink remain (coll. of H.R.H. the Queen), but these do not capture the light and movement of the originals.