In all known cultures, men and women studied the four great unchanging liberal arts — Number, Music, Geometry, and Cosmology — and used them to inform the practical and decorative arts like medicine, pottery, agriculture, and building. The metaphysical fields of the liberal arts were considered universal, placed above even physics and religion. Today we are surrounded by them in a culture attracted to native and ancient imagery, and we experience them every day, mostly without being aware of them.

Walker & Company is proud to launch Wooden Books, a series of concise, accessible introductions to timeless sciences and vanishing arts. Elegantly designed and written, printed on recycled paper, they are invaluable sources of information and inspiration.

Geometry is one of a group of special sciences — Number, Music, and Cosmology are the others — found in almost every culture on Earth. Sacred Geometry demonstrates what happens to space in two dimensions — a subject last flowering in the art, science, and architecture of the Renaissance and seen in the designs of church windows, mosque decorations, Stonehenge, and the Great Pyramid. With exquisite hand-drawn images throughout showing the relationship between shapes, the patterns of coin circles, and the definition of the golden section, it will forever change the way you look at a triangle, hexagon, pentagon, arch, or spiral.

"The fascinating, informative Wooden Books series blends ancient wisdom and modern knowledge. The books are thin, impeccably designed, and will stimulate more thinking and subsequent 'Eureka' moments than a dozen novels laced with narrative innovations and postmodern stylings." Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Miranda Lundy is a designer and artist. She lives and works in Cornwall, England.