History of Tessellation
- Tessellation dates back to the 14th century.
- In Spain the Moors were responsible for laying the Alhambra.
- The Alhambra are colored tiles forming patterns; many symmetrical and geometrical. Some of the tile works were not true tessellations because they did not cover the surface with a repetitive design without gaps. Although many of these patterns were true tessellations and inspired one of the greatest tessellation artists M.C. Escher.
- While the art of tessellation has been around for centuries, the study of tessellations in mathematics has a relatively short history.
- In 1619, one of the first documented studies of tessellations was performed by Johannes Kepler. He wrote about the regular and semiregular tessellation, which are coverings of a plane with regular polygons.
- In 1891, E.S. Fedorov, a Russian crystallographer proved that every tiling of the plane is constructed in accordance to one of seventeen different groups of isometries.
- Fedorov's work marked the unofficial beginning of the mathematical study of tessellations.