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EUCLIDES (FL. C.300 B.C.)
Elementa geometriae. Translated from Greek or Arabic into Latin by Adelard of Bath. Edited by Johannes Campanus. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 25 May 1482. Chancery 2° (277 x 203mm). Collation: a10 b-r8 (a1r blank, a1v printer's address to Doge Giovanni Mocenigo, a2r text, r7v colophon, r8 blank). 137 leaves (of 138, without final blank). 45 lines and headline. Heading on a2r printed in red. Woodcut white-on-black vine three-quarter border opening text (Redgrave border 3, perhaps by Bernhard Maler), woodcut 11- and 5-line white-on-black initials, numerous woodcut text diagrams. Types: 3:91G (text), 7:92G (preface and text), 7b:100R (headlines), 6:56G (diagram text). (First 3 leaves rehinged with loss of a few letters in the first, a few expertly repaired marginal tears, a few diagrams just shaved, one or two unobtrusive wormholes from quire m, with loss of a few letters in final quire, very lightly browned, occasional faint spotting.) Early 20th-century burgundy morocco tooled in gilt and blind by Riviere and Son, gilt edges (rebacked preserving backstrip, very slight wear at extremities); modern half burgundy morocco solander case. Provenance: early inscriptions on first blank lightly deleted -- New York, Pierpont Morgan Library (bookplate; sold as a duplicate, Sotheby's NY, 18 May 1989, lot 204).
FIRST EDITION of a work which has 'exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible' (DSB IV, p.415). The Elements were of such importance even in antiquity that Euclid became known simply as 'the Writer of the Elements' or 'the Geographer'. A brilliant compilation and refinement of earlier mathematical knowledge, it remained a standard textbook for more than two millennia. One of the most famous geometric proofs -- 'Pythagoras's theorem' -- is in fact due to Euclid, and it is stated as proposition 47 in Book I. The 'decisive influence of Euclid's geometrical conception of mathematics is reflected in two of the supreme works in the history of thought, Newton's Principia and Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft' (DSB p.425). Books I-XIII are accepted as genuine, while book XIV is considered the work of Hypsicles and book XV by Isidorus Milesius.
The Elementa is not only 'ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSICS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE [BUT ALSO] A MASTERPIECE OF EARLY TYPOGRAPHICAL ABILITY AND INGENUITY' (Bühler, p.102). It is also the first dated book with diagrams (Stillwell). Variants occur in the first quire; the present copy agrees with the main entry in GW. In addition, Curt Bühler noted a stop-press correction in the last line of o8r. The present copy has the uncorrected version ('A typographical error in the editio princeps of Euclid' Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1966, pp.102-104). HC *6693; BMC V, 285 (IB.20513, 20515); Flodr 170 Eucl.1; GW 9428; Klebs 383.1; Norman 729; Redgrave 26; Sander 2605; PMM 25; Goff E-113.
Elementa geometriae. Translated from Greek or Arabic into Latin by Adelard of Bath. Edited by Johannes Campanus. Venice: Erhard Ratdolt, 25 May 1482. Chancery 2° (277 x 203mm). Collation: a
FIRST EDITION of a work which has 'exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible' (DSB IV, p.415). The Elements were of such importance even in antiquity that Euclid became known simply as 'the Writer of the Elements' or 'the Geographer'. A brilliant compilation and refinement of earlier mathematical knowledge, it remained a standard textbook for more than two millennia. One of the most famous geometric proofs -- 'Pythagoras's theorem' -- is in fact due to Euclid, and it is stated as proposition 47 in Book I. The 'decisive influence of Euclid's geometrical conception of mathematics is reflected in two of the supreme works in the history of thought, Newton's Principia and Kant's Kritik der reinen Vernunft' (DSB p.425). Books I-XIII are accepted as genuine, while book XIV is considered the work of Hypsicles and book XV by Isidorus Milesius.
The Elementa is not only 'ONE OF THE GREAT CLASSICS IN THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE [BUT ALSO] A MASTERPIECE OF EARLY TYPOGRAPHICAL ABILITY AND INGENUITY' (Bühler, p.102). It is also the first dated book with diagrams (Stillwell). Variants occur in the first quire; the present copy agrees with the main entry in GW. In addition, Curt Bühler noted a stop-press correction in the last line of o8r. The present copy has the uncorrected version ('A typographical error in the editio princeps of Euclid' Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1966, pp.102-104). HC *6693; BMC V, 285 (IB.20513, 20515); Flodr 170 Eucl.1; GW 9428; Klebs 383.1; Norman 729; Redgrave 26; Sander 2605; PMM 25; Goff E-113.
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