Details
MAUROLICO, Francesco (1494-1575). Photismi de lumine, & umbra ad perspectivam, & radiorum incidentiam facientes. Naples: Tarquinio Longo, 1611.
4o (184 x 142 mm). (Tear crossing text repaired on C1, cancellands C1 and C4 bound after C4, some leaves renewed along gutter margins at folds or on stubs.) Later vellum. Provenance: "Collegii S. Ignatii Societ. Jesu." (early inscription on title-page).
THE VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF MAUROLICO'S IMPORTANT WORK ON OPTICS. In this record of his research on optics, Maurollico discusses the rainbow, the theory of vision, the effects of lenses, the principal phenomena of dioptrics and catoptrics, radiant heat, photometry, and caustics. "Maurolico's work on caustics was anticipated by that of Leonardo da Vinci (as was his research on centers of gravity), but Leonardo's work was not published until long after Maurolico's... Sarton suggested that it might be the most remarkable optical treatise of the sixteenth century outside the tradition of Alhazen, or even the best optical book of the Renaissance... (DSB). See Sarton, Six Wings, 84, 85. Riccardi I (2), 142.
4o (184 x 142 mm). (Tear crossing text repaired on C1, cancellands C1 and C4 bound after C4, some leaves renewed along gutter margins at folds or on stubs.) Later vellum. Provenance: "Collegii S. Ignatii Societ. Jesu." (early inscription on title-page).
THE VERY RARE FIRST EDITION OF MAUROLICO'S IMPORTANT WORK ON OPTICS. In this record of his research on optics, Maurollico discusses the rainbow, the theory of vision, the effects of lenses, the principal phenomena of dioptrics and catoptrics, radiant heat, photometry, and caustics. "Maurolico's work on caustics was anticipated by that of Leonardo da Vinci (as was his research on centers of gravity), but Leonardo's work was not published until long after Maurolico's... Sarton suggested that it might be the most remarkable optical treatise of the sixteenth century outside the tradition of Alhazen, or even the best optical book of the Renaissance... (DSB). See Sarton, Six Wings, 84, 85. Riccardi I (2), 142.
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A wormhole in leaves E2 through G1 has caused some loss to a few letters.
Riccardi mentions an edition of Venice 1575, but that edition is apparently a ghost, and the present 1611 edition is considered the veritable first edition.
Riccardi mentions an edition of Venice 1575, but that edition is apparently a ghost, and the present 1611 edition is considered the veritable first edition.