![TUNSTALL, Cuthbert (1474-1559). De arte supputandi. London: Richard Pynson, 14 October 1522. 4° (212 x 161mm). Woodcut title border [M. and F. 8], woodcut calculation tables, large flourished and historiated initials. (Title border soiled in lower part and wormed with slight loss, scattered worm holes affecting text throughout, some dampstaining, Y2.3 loose.) Contemporary English panelled calf over wood boards with blind fillet and medallion-roll borders (rebacked, endpapers renewed, extremities rubbed, clasps lacking). Provenance: ?E. Smyth (inscription on title, dated 1553, giving purchase price of 2/6) -- 'WH' (monogram on title) -- John Jackson of Warrington (?his pencil note on front blank) -- defaced bookplate.](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2007/CSK/2007_CSK_05136_0280_000(014342).jpg?w=1)
Details
TUNSTALL, Cuthbert (1474-1559). De arte supputandi. London: Richard Pynson, 14 October 1522. 4° (212 x 161mm). Woodcut title border [M. and F. 8], woodcut calculation tables, large flourished and historiated initials. (Title border soiled in lower part and wormed with slight loss, scattered worm holes affecting text throughout, some dampstaining, Y2.3 loose.) Contemporary English panelled calf over wood boards with blind fillet and medallion-roll borders (rebacked, endpapers renewed, extremities rubbed, clasps lacking). Provenance: ?E. Smyth (inscription on title, dated 1553, giving purchase price of 2/6) -- 'WH' (monogram on title) -- John Jackson of Warrington (?his pencil note on front blank) -- defaced bookplate.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ARITHMETIC BOOK TO BE PRINTED IN ENGLAND. It was preceded only by a chapter on 'Arsemetrike and Whereof It Proceedeth' in Caxton's The Mirrour of the World (1481). Knowledge of the way exchange dealings were calculated on the continent had encouraged Tunstall to write his book, dedicated to his close friend Sir Thomas More and published just before he was consecrated Bishop of London in 1522. 'As master of the rolls (1516-1522), and on diplomatic missions to the Continet, he had felt the need to refresh his memory of arithmetic to protect himself in monetary transactions. From the material he had collected he had determined to write such a clear treatise that no one who knew Latin would lack an instructor in the art of reckoning'. Partnership, profit and loss, and exchange were among the practical topics covered. However, the work proved less popular in England than on the continent, where all subsequent editions were published. Simon Grynaeus dedicated the first Greek text of Euclid's Elements (Basel, 1533) to Tunstall '"since he had explained the calculating of numbers in so excellent a manner"' (Joy Easton in DSB XIII, p. 491). Pynson's 'Lars Porsena' title border was copied from a design by Hans Holbein whose initials appear on the left side. De Morgan Rare arithmetica p. 132; STC 24319.
FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST ARITHMETIC BOOK TO BE PRINTED IN ENGLAND. It was preceded only by a chapter on 'Arsemetrike and Whereof It Proceedeth' in Caxton's The Mirrour of the World (1481). Knowledge of the way exchange dealings were calculated on the continent had encouraged Tunstall to write his book, dedicated to his close friend Sir Thomas More and published just before he was consecrated Bishop of London in 1522. 'As master of the rolls (1516-1522), and on diplomatic missions to the Continet, he had felt the need to refresh his memory of arithmetic to protect himself in monetary transactions. From the material he had collected he had determined to write such a clear treatise that no one who knew Latin would lack an instructor in the art of reckoning'. Partnership, profit and loss, and exchange were among the practical topics covered. However, the work proved less popular in England than on the continent, where all subsequent editions were published. Simon Grynaeus dedicated the first Greek text of Euclid's Elements (Basel, 1533) to Tunstall '"since he had explained the calculating of numbers in so excellent a manner"' (Joy Easton in DSB XIII, p. 491). Pynson's 'Lars Porsena' title border was copied from a design by Hans Holbein whose initials appear on the left side. De Morgan Rare arithmetica p. 132; STC 24319.
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