Polyhedra and polytopes24 of 113
Archimedean solids
Archimedes; recovered by Kepler, 1619
Regular faces of two or three kinds, with every corner alike. Archimedes’ own list is lost; Kepler rebuilt all thirteen. Each one here is built from a Platonic solid by a Conway operation (t truncate, a ambo, e expand, b bevel, s snub) and then relaxed to its canonical shape.
tT aC tC tO eC bC sC aD tD tI eD bD sD
On mathcurve.com as Polyèdres d’Archimède
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In the library
3
Divina proportioneLeonardo da VinciJune 1, 1509Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY Leonardo’s plates for the book include Archimedean solids, the rhombicuboctahedron among them. The page reproduced here is not one of the plates.
Not yet checkedSuggested by an AI model, 2026-10-08Source
An AI reviewer had doubts, 2026-10-09: The source page says the book "It also contains a discourse on the regular and semiregular polyhedra", which fits Archimedean solids in general, and the picture is the letter M page, as the note says. Nothing in the texts names the rhombicuboctahedron as one of Leonardo's plates, so that specific claim goes beyond the evidence.
Divine ProportionLeonardo da VinciVenice: Paganinus de Paganinus, 1509The Art Institute of Chicago Plate XIII of Pacioli’s Divina proportione, 1509, drawn by Leonardo and labelled “Hexaedron sive Cubus Abscisus Elevatus solidum”: a cut-down cube with a pyramid raised on every face. The open-frame version of the same solid shows through from the facing page.
Not yet checkedSuggested by an AI model, 2026-10-08Source
An AI reviewer had doubts, 2026-10-09: The source page says the book "It also contains a discourse on the regular and semiregular polyhedra", which loosely fits the claim, but it never names Archimedean solids. The plate shown is a cube with a pyramid raised on every face, with triangular faces that are not regular, so it does not show an Archimedean solid, which the library entry defines by regular faces.
Underweysung der Messung (Nuremberg, 1538)Albrecht Dürer1538, 1527, 1532Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY The same book unfolds several Archimedean solids as nets beside the regular ones. The page reproduced here is not one of them.
Not yet checkedSuggested by an AI model, 2026-10-08Source
An AI reviewer agreed, 2026-10-09: The source page says the book "included nets for the Platonic solids and several of the Archimedean solids", which matches the note's claim about the book. The reproduced page shows column bases and floor plan outlines with no solids or nets, so the note is right that this page is not one of them.
Elsewhere
1Work the library cites and does not hold: in copyright, never released as a file, or not a file at all. The cited shelf
- 1495
Pacioli demonstrates Euclid at a table while a glass rhombicuboctahedron, half full of water, hangs beside him. The attribution and the sitter beside him are both disputed.
Not yet checkedSuggested by an AI model, 2026-10-08
An AI reviewer agreed, 2026-10-09: The holder's page ties the portrait's hanging solid to the Archimedean family: "Leonardo illustrated Archimedean solids, including the rhombicuboctahedron, in Pacioli's Divina proportione". It also describes the water-filled solid, Pacioli demonstrating Euclid, and the questioned attribution and unidentified sitter. The word "glass" is not stated outright, but the water and reflection details imply a transparent solid.