Visconti Divina Proporzione May/June 2006 Stylophiles Online

By Bill Riepl

I'll admit right up front that when it comes to the higher maths, I rather rapidly end up out of my depth. Once you start throwing in letters with the numbers it's heavy going, and when they ran out of regular old letters and had to start making up new ones... I know, I know, it's the key to the inner workings of the universe, etc, etc. I've always personally felt that it was the universes business to keep on working, and mine to concentrate on obeying the speed limit and paying the mortgage. It's not much in the way of natural philosophy, but it's my natural philosophy! On the other hand, this sad deficiency in my outlook has left me particularly unsuited to deal with all the recent hoopla attending the Golden Ratio. AKA the mean and extreme ratio, golden proportion, golden mean, golden section, golden number, divine proportion or sectio divina.

What is the Golden Ratio? Apparently, it's 1.6180339887 (and on and on) which is an irrational number. I'm not surprised, researching it has certainly made me irrational! Basically, the ratio of 1.618 (and a bit) is applied to the two portions of a design. Using a capped pen as an example, the ratio of the length of the entire pen to the barrel would be the same as the ratio of the barrel to the cap. The result is a "visually balanced design". This ratio crops up in all sorts of places, both naturally and in artwork, and in fact is the simplest aspect of the Golden Ratio.

I'm going to stop here, shortly before this would end up dissolving into a bunch of very complicated numbers, letters, and little squiggly bits. While the Golden Ratio or Divine Proportion may be very interesting from a mathematical standpoint, even more importantly, it's gotten us a new limited edition pen about which to wonder.

When it comes to Visconti's offering on this theme, things seem to be working out quite well. The Visconti Divina Proporzione turns out to be a real stunner of a pen. Now, up front, it's got a list price of $1600, so it certainly should be something special. However, this is a case where I think it could be said that Visconti has made a pen that lives up to the price tag.

I'll say that for several reasons. First of all, there's the design. This pen stands out from the crowd. Really stands out... It's the only design I've seen that takes the idea of shape in such a direction. The five sided body and cap spiral gently along the length of the pen, with each individual facet separated from the next by a thin strip of sterling silver. This design alone would have put the Divina Proporzione at or near the top of any list of striking pens. There's just literally nothing else out there like it.

Moving on to the material, we hit another high point. Cap and barrel are made of some of the most interesting looking celluloid I've seen in a long while. Looked at briefly, you'd swear it was actually made of wood. The dark brown celluloid has what looks for all the world like a rich burl walnut grain running through it. Even without the spiral design, the material alone would grab your attention.

Next up on a laundry list of interesting attributes is the cap. It doesn't screw onto the barrel, nor is a it a snap on cap. Instead Visconti uses a bayonet style fixture that they call the "Hook Safe Lock". Pushing the cap down and twisting slightly locks it into place securely, incidentally ensuring that the spiral shape of the cap and barrel is uninterrupted. It's an interesting approach to holding the cap in place, and in this design, probably much better than trying to use conventional threads or a snap on cap.

Underneath the cap you will find the basic Visconti nib, offered in six different widths, from extra fine through double broad. I like Visconti's nibs, they've always performed very well for me. The prototype we got to play with was fitted with a medium nib. In terms of comfort in use, the Divina Proporzione works out quite well. It's a lightweight pen, thanks to the celluloid construction, and balanced well in my hand both with the cap posted, as well as without. This is what most would consider to be a full sized pen, about the same dimensionally as the Anniversary Voyager series. It's large, but not so oversized as to be impractical. The unique spiral design stops short of the section, which is a conventional round shape in cross section, so there's nothing to impede getting a comfortable grip on the pen when writing. Bottom line, it's a very usable pen.

Ink is supplied to the nib through a rather interesting new filling mechanism for Visconti. Calling it the "Push and Pull Touchdown" Visconti has designed a filler that hides completely within the barrel. Pushing in on the silver button visible in the barrel end allows the filler mechanism to extend.

Placing the nib in ink and pushing the filler back down into the barrel will fill the pen with ink. The filler then locks back into place, leaving nothing but the silver button visible flush with the barrel end. To keep things from being too functional, the filling mechanism is nicely engraved with Fibonacci numbers, which as we all know, eventually converge on... The Golden Ratio!

In addition to the pen itself, the packaging is quite nice, with a wooden display box that shows off the pen as well as the included "Golden Gauge", a device that allows you to measure and identify the Golden Ratio in objects. There is also a combination inkwell/pen stand available in crystal and silver.

To add to the interesting design, the production versions of the Divina Proporzione will have hidden on them five secret numbers that combine to provide the solution to a riddle. The first 100 owners to successfully solve this riddle will be awarded the inkwell/pen stand. Unfortunately, the prototype didn't have the numbers, so I wasn't able to get a head start on the solution!

The production of the Divina Proporzione is limited to 1,618 pieces with sterling silver trim, and a further 618 pieces with 18K gold trim. If you refer back to the beginning of this article, you will recognize that 1,618 represents the Golden Ratio. Numbers everywhere....

Numbers aside, the Divina Proporzione is a wonderful writing instrument. Design, material and size combine to make a pen that works well and looks even better. Despite it's being a limited edition, with all the "collectability" entailed by such a designation, I think it's safe to predict that quite a few of these pens will end up filled and in use on a regular basis. If I end up getting one, I can guarantee it will be!

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