Binocular vision and image location before Kepler (Q1624936)

In 1604, Kepler published his \textit{Optics}. Therein, he falsified the so-called cathetus rule: The image of an object is always seen on the normal between the object itself and the reflective surface. This line was referred to as the ``cathetus''. Kepler's new method of image location was based on binocularism. The author of this article shows that G. B. Benedetti published the same theory already in 1585. To that end, he examines Kepler's theory of image formation in the light of Benedetti's prior theory. Therefore, he studies Euclid's optics, Ptolemy's optics, Alhazen's and Witelo's handling of the cathetus principle and of the binocular vision and distance perception, Benedetti's achievement, Kepler's analysis of the image location, Brengger's letter to Kepler, and Stevin's contribution to this discussion. The author concludes that the binocular theory was a ``development from the perspectivist tradition that had been gestated within the tradition itself'' (p. 544).