Elevating Optics: The Title Page by Peter Paul Rubens of Franciscus Aguilonius’s Opticorum Libri Sex (1613) in its Historical Context

Abstract

The title page for the six books on optics by Franciscus Aguilonius shows optics as a science in its own right, as the queen of mathematical sciences. It also offers a visual discussion on the importance of the science within the Jesuit belief and educational system. Drawing on a well-known visual language consisting of allegorical, mythological and architectural elements, Rubens elevates Optics to the status of a queen, while also emphasising the connection of vision, the passions and knowledge, especially spiritual knowledge. This connection is not only the key to understanding of Rubens’s title page, but it explains the awkward outdatedness of Aguilonius’s book, in that it does not touch upon Kepler’s latest theories. The book was nevertheless important for Jesuit teaching in the following decades. This article offers a reading of the Aguilonius title page in its historical context.