Abstract

This article aims at clarifying what European scholars of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance knew about al-Kindī’s optics. Among the issues which deserve attention is the legacy of the Liber Jacob Al-Kindi de causis diversitatum aspectus. The application of the tracer method – a refinement of the analysis of text parallels – establishes that Latin perspectivists knew and exploited al-Kindī’s work: Bacon and Pecham by direct borrowing, Witelo by paraphrase. However, contrary to Werner, Björnbo, Vogl, Lindberg and Federici Vescovini’s opinion, Leonardo da Vinci had no access to al-Kindī’s work, which he knew only through some fragments replicated by Bacon, Pecham and, more incidentally, Witelo.