Dürer's magic square is a magic square with magic constant 34 used in an engraving entitled
Melencolia I by Albrecht Dürer (The British Museum, Burton 1989, Gellert
et al. 1989). The engraving shows a disorganized jumble of scientific equipment
lying unused while an intellectual sits absorbed in thought. Dürer's magic square
is located in the upper right-hand corner of the engraving. The numbers 15 and 14
appear in the middle of the bottom row, indicating the date of the engraving, 1514.
Dürer's magic square has the additional property that the sums in any of the four quadrants, as well as the sum of the middle four numbers, are all 34 (Hunter
and Madachy 1975, p. 24). It is thus a gnomon
magic square. In addition, any pair of numbers symmetrically placed about the
center of the square sums to 17, a property making the square even more magical.
