Lot 1
1
ALBERTUS DE SAXONIA (d.1390). De proportionibus. [Padua: Johannes Herbort, de Seligenstadt, c. 1476-77].
No VAT on hammer price or buyer's premium. Giancarlo Beltrame (1925-2011)Giancarlo Beltrame was an exceptional personality, a world-class entrepreneur and a man schooled in the humanities and the sciences, with multiple and varied interests. He was one of the leading lights in Vicenza’s post-war industrial rebirth: following in the footsteps of his grandfather Angelo and father Antonio, Giancarlo took the helm of the family company, founded in 1896, and recast it as one of the main players in the global steel industry. A complex person, he was both a man of great culture and an inspired businessman. He collected scientific instruments, rare books, autograph letters and prints. His world-renowned scientific library includes some of the most important texts on astronomy – his all-encompassing passion – as well as on geography, mathematics, technology and medicine, but also philosophical works, esoteric texts and humanist literature. For years he sought these out throughout the world, taking part in international auctions and buying from booksellers far and wide, spurred on by eminent bibliophile scholars and friends with whom he shared his passion. He was particularly fascinated by the concept of time, and by the eternal dichotomy of Eros and Thanatos, Love and Death, as testified by the many books on this subject and the countless ‘mementi mori’ in his collection. Giancarlo Beltrame used to say ‘my soul is eternal, like iron’ -- linking his firm conviction of the immortality of the soul against the passing of time to what he knew better than anything else: steel. He founded an international centre dedicated to the study of the history of space and time (‘Centro internazionale di storia dello spazio e del tempo’) in Brugine, near Padua. In 2009, during the International Year of Astronomy, he contributed books, astrolabes and binoculars to the exhibition ‘Della celeste fisionomia: mito fede e scienza’ in the Biblioteca Bertoliana of Vicenza.Giancarlo Beltrame was also a man of profound humanity and unexpected irony. Proof of this were his passion for dance and games, his curiosity for and love of every religion and the way he was eternally taken aback by children and artists who didn’t wear a watch noting that they were the only ones who lacked an obsession with the notion of time. He formed close relationships with his employees and had a profound love for his city, Vicenza – a city whose cultural or charitable initiatives he was always ready and willing to support. Inspired by this love, in 2015 Giancarlo Beltrame's son Antonio and daughters Patrizia and Angiola donated to the prestigious Biblioteca Bertoliana in Vicenza all the books from their father’s collection that had been printed in Italy and of which no copy survived in Italian libraries, together with all the most important manuscripts -- amongst them a 13th-century Parisian Bible written by Cambius of Vicenza and unusually bearing his inscription. The donation represents a highly important addition to Italian and Venetian public library collections, especially since many of the donated items were unique and had never before been studied: this gift, of great cultural value, was therefore rendered all the more important because of its future benefit to the public. In addition, the Beltrame family instituted an annual bursary dedicated to the memory of their father to support the study of the early scientific texts which Giancarlo Beltrame so cherished. Grazie papà, grande amico dell'umanità. Antonio, Patrizia e Angiola.
ALBERTUS DE SAXONIA (d.1390). De proportionibus. [Padua: Johannes Herbort, de Seligenstadt, c. 1476-77].

Details
ALBERTUS DE SAXONIA (d.1390). De proportionibus. [Padua: Johannes Herbort, de Seligenstadt, c. 1476-77].

Chancery 2° (288 x 205mm). Collation: F10 (F1r text, F10v blank). 9 leaves (of 10, without final blank as usual). 39 lines, double column. Type: 87G. 4-line initial spaces with guide-letter. (Some spotting, water-stain at upper outer corner, single marginal wormhole.) Modern blue morocco, spine lettered in gilt.

FIRST EDITION of a highly influential treatise on the mathematical analysis of motion. Albertus ‘had the particular merit of bringing together the mathematical treatments of motion in its kinematic aspect … with the dynamical theories that Buridan had developed’ (DSB); he was the principal means of transmission of 14th-century scholastic contributions to the science of mechanics to later men of science such as Leonardo da Vinci and Galileo. RARE: one of only 6 copies known. C 210; GW 786a; IGI 244; BSB-Ink. A-134; Klebs 29.1; Smith(RaraAr) p. 9; Hunt 3721; Goff A-341.
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