After
Euclid (end IV, beginning lll century B.C.). the theory of the regular
polyhedrons obtained other important results through Appollonius(200 B.C.)
and especially Ipsicle who produced a treatise found among the books of
Euclid as the XIV book of the Elements. Several centuries after Christ
another compiler, perhaps a disciple of Isidoro of Mileto, gathered other
theorems on the regular polyhedrons, and added it as book XV to the Elements
of Euclid.
Archimedes a Greek
Scientist and Philosopher (287-212 B.C.) wrote numerous works one of
which is entirely dedicated to polyhedrons: Investigations of Polyhedrons.
This work is noted by an annotation of a manuscript of Pappus of Alessandria,
from the third century A.D. (Pappus enunciated numerous geometric theorems).
The Pappas manuscript is conserved in the Vatican library archives.
Archimedes's work, like that of Plato , was subsequently lost.
It is reasonable
to assume as some authors do, that the documentation arrived in Europe
via Islamic civilisation and ancient Rome. In the Middle Ages Abu'l
Wafa(940-998) continued the research following in the footsteps of Pappus.
Averroè (1126-1198) who became an important author in European
universities should also be remembered in this context.
In the Reneissance
mathematicians and artists once more turned their attention to regular
polyhedrons. The Florentine mathematician Lorenzo Sirigatti in "the
Practice of Prespective" produced beautiful images of polyhedral
spheres showed the complicated prototypes of Paolo Uccello, a club with
an ashlar of quadrilateral pyramids.

