Visconti : Divina Proprzione: Fountain Pen

"I got in touch with the Divine Proportion during my researches for the creation of Opera and Wall Street belonging to the wider collection "Squaring the Circle". My first idea of creating a rounded as well as squared pen came to my mind in admiring the "Vitruvian Man", one of the most representative symbols of the Divine Proportion, the formula of which has become popular nowadays thanks to a best-seller. It was in that moment that I started to think about a pen... that had to de divine, which should make the refined forms of the "Squaring the Circle" collection even more perfect, which should bring inside the field of writing instruments a further innovation: not just in design, but also in fountain pen technique..."

Dante Del Vecchio

The divine proportion is based on The golden number, which according to someone contains the key of knowledge. The number is 1,618 and it corresponds to what is considered a "particularly aesthetic ratio". In fact it defines the "ideal relation", an arithmetic measure which is enjoyable for the eye, called also "golden mean proportion" or "golden section". Without getting into great depth we can say that this number also called phi, is as well used to trace different circles divided through ten - called decagons - or through five - i.e. pentagons. called pentagrams or pentacles too.

The empiric discovering of the golden ration "comes from the most remote ancient times, from the prehistoric era". We presume that our ancestors learned very soon how to trace and divide circles; they of course privileged the division of circles through five, because of the five fingers of the human hand. These are in fact "obvious" numbers indeed they lead to the natural calculation of some special proportions. However only the Greeks, first of all Euclid, originally theorised these calculations. Before him Pythagoras - or at least his disciples - tried to disclose their mystery. Inside their sect, which was protected by the most absolute secret, the golden number was associated to the sacred, particularly to the five - pointed star - a symbol of life, beauty and love.

The pentacle is commonly thought to be the symbol through which the Pythagoreans recognised each others, but it came into our tradition throughout the centuries as a talisman of good health: we find it on some ancient coins and on several gothic cathedrals and churches. Also Plato recognised that the golden number had a privileged role in the explanation of the universe. During the XII century, Fibonacci, also Called Leonardo da Pisa, mathematician, merchant and great traveller got in touch with this scientific discipline in the Middle East, developing the famous "Fibonacci sequences".

For the architects and painters of the Middle Ages the pentagon became the symbol of the "Quintessence", literally said "the fifth element", i.e. absolute perfection, ideal beauty. The pentacles and circles traced with the compass were kept absolutely secret among the corporations. In 1509 Lonardo Da Vinci illustrates "De divina proportione", the work of a Franciscan mathematician, Luca Pacioli. This book with pictures by Da Vinci had a great success, as it was the written version of an ancient oral tradition. It was revealing a mystery.

Today we know that the divine proportion is present in architecture (Le Corbusier frequently used it), in painting, in music, in the structure of some poems, but also in nature, in many plants and animals (many flowers have five petals, some leaves are placed on stems according to the phi ratio, which is present also in the starfish and the sea urchin). The divine proportion seems also to rule the human body: the navel, for example, divides the body according to the golden number.

Designing and creating a "divine" pen is quite a big deal for anyone! It's a challenge that can scare every best designer and skilful technician. The concepts that inspired us are: the Golden Number, the Pentagram and the Nautilus.

The "Divine Proportion" is built according to the Golden Number 1,618, comparing the length of the cap with the length of the open or closed pen. The Pentagram is inside the form of the pen itself, although adapted to the ergonomic necessities of a writing instrument. The Nautilus is known as the "Golden Spiral" and it is built according to the Fibonacci sequence.

The Visconti Divine pen embodies the Golden Spiral which is traced on its barrel. After having defined all aesthetic and design elements, we had to find new technical solutions, by creating a new cap locking system and a new filling system:

The "Hook Safe Lock" (H.S.L.) defines a new system for locking the cap. In this way any accidental unscrewing of the barrel is prevented enabling a perfect correspondence of the golden spiral with closed and open pen.

The "Push & Pull Touchdown" (P.P.T) is a filling system based on the "Power Filler" technology. designed to disappear inside the barrel and being activated by a simple "click".

Thanks to Visconti the Divine Proportion and the Golden Number have now a special instrument to be detected and identified: the golden comparator, which can detect the golden section from 0 to 15 cm (6 inches) according to its three moving tips. Test it on a common credit card in order to verify the proportion of the two sides of the golden rectangle.

Filling system

• Push the blind cap at the end of the barrel to release the mechanism;
• Pull the rod all the way out, stopping when you meet resistance;
• Submerge the nib into the ink until the grip section is covered;
• Depress the plunger downward with one single stroke;
• Blot the feed (underside of the nib) with the cotton cloth to remove the excess of ink and eliminate the overflow immediately after filling;
• To release ink from the pen, repeat point 1. 2. & 4.
• To view an animation of the filling system please visit the use and maintenance section in visconti's web-site www.visconti.it

Don't be afraid! There are no vinegar phials inside the pen, but just a nice and enjoyable riddle linked to an important prize "the golden inkwell" The present pen hides 5 numbers that provide the riddle solution. They are hidden inside the cap, the clip, the section, the barrel and the filler of your pen. The formula you have to solve just using your whit and intuition is the following one:

A golden inkwell will go to the first 100 customers who will tell us the right solution to the formula with the numbers corresponding to their pen. Simply register your answer at the web page: www.visconti.it/enigma