Details
FERNEL, Jean François. De proportionibus libri duo. Paris: Simon de Colines, 1528.
2o (322 x 218 mm). Title within woodcut border attributed to Oronce Fine, woodcut diagrams and initials. (Some pale dampstaining at end.) Modern limp vellum. Provenance: contemporary inscription dated 1529 at end and extensive marginalia (some cropped).
FIRST EDITION. This "is one of the best of the sixteenth-century treatises on the mediaeval proportion. It follows the Boethian treatment, as seen also in the work of Bradwardin" (Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p. 157)."Fernel (1497-1558), before making a name for himself in medicine, was first attracted by the mathematical sciences, as evidenced by his first three publications -- of which this is the third, and all three of which were issued by Simon de Colines: De Proportionibus was preceded by Monalosphaerium, 1527 (see lot 103), and Cosmotheoria, 1528 (see lot 104). Fernel received his M.D. degree in 1530 and became a very influential physician through his numerous writings; he became physician to Catherine de Médicis, whose sterility he cured, and eventually was appointed chief physician to King Henri II" (Schreiber 35). Adams F-247; Renouard Colines 117; Sherrington, Fernel, p. 189; Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p.157.
2o (322 x 218 mm). Title within woodcut border attributed to Oronce Fine, woodcut diagrams and initials. (Some pale dampstaining at end.) Modern limp vellum. Provenance: contemporary inscription dated 1529 at end and extensive marginalia (some cropped).
FIRST EDITION. This "is one of the best of the sixteenth-century treatises on the mediaeval proportion. It follows the Boethian treatment, as seen also in the work of Bradwardin" (Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p. 157)."Fernel (1497-1558), before making a name for himself in medicine, was first attracted by the mathematical sciences, as evidenced by his first three publications -- of which this is the third, and all three of which were issued by Simon de Colines: De Proportionibus was preceded by Monalosphaerium, 1527 (see lot 103), and Cosmotheoria, 1528 (see lot 104). Fernel received his M.D. degree in 1530 and became a very influential physician through his numerous writings; he became physician to Catherine de Médicis, whose sterility he cured, and eventually was appointed chief physician to King Henri II" (Schreiber 35). Adams F-247; Renouard Colines 117; Sherrington, Fernel, p. 189; Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p.157.