Descriptive geometry
Geometría descriptiva
- Date
- 1765 · confidence medium
- Place
- Mézières, Grand Est, France
- Credited to
- Gaspard Monge
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
As a military draftsman at the Royal Engineering School of Mézières, Monge developed a rigorous method for representing three-dimensional objects through projections onto planes, useful for fortification design; his results were kept as a military secret for years before publication. It became the foundation of modern technical drawing in engineering and architecture.
The discovery is dated to 1765, but due to its military value Monge could not publish it until decades later.
What it led to
- Modern technical drawing and engineering blueprints
- Foundations of 19th-century projective geometry
Built on
- Bastion fort (trace italienne)c. 1480-1530
- Albrecht Dürer's perspective studies (1525)
- Guarino Guarini's projective geometry