Details
SANGRO, Raimondo, Prince of Sansevero (1710-1771). Supplica di alla Santita di Benedetto XIV. Pontefice Ottimo Massimo in Difesa a Rischiaramento della Sua Lettera Apologetica sul Proposito de' Quipu de' Peruani. Naples: Salzano and Castaldo, 1753.
4o (254 x 183 mm). Half-title. Title-page printed in red and black, engraved vignette of a Sphinx by Antonio Bandi printed in red. (Some occasional pale spotting, generally very clean and crisp.) Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt (some wear along spine). Provenance: notes in a 19th-century hand on front flyleaf; Library of the Catholic Club (booklabel, inkstamp on title).
FIRST EDITION OF SANGRO'S RARE DEFENSE AGAINST CHARGES OF HERESY. Sangro's Lettera apologetica (1750) analyzed the ancient Peruvian system of quipu, or talking knots, used as recording devices. A quipu usually consisted of colored, spun, and plied thread or strings from llama or alpaca hair. It could also be made of cotton cords. The cords contained numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system. Quipus might have just a few or up to 2,000 cords.
The Pope had accused Sangro of heresy as a result of this work, and Sangro here defends himself, arguing that there was no subversive intent in his Lettera. He states that it was merely an inoffensive bit of pedantry, written to support the possibility that Mme. De Graffigny's best-selling novel, Lettres d'une Peruvienne, could have been translated from the quipu diary of an Inca princess. He traces the history of quipu, giving as examples such varied sources as the ancient sculpture of Greece and Rome, Mohammed, the Talmud, Swift, Spinoza and Acosta. Long the center of controversy, Sangro destroyed his own scientific archive before he died. After his death, his descendants, under threat of excommunication by the Church due to Raimondo's involvement with Freemasonry and alchemy, destroyed what was left of his writings, formulae, laboratory equipment and results of experiments. RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, no copies have sold in at least 30 years, and NUC locates only three copies. Palau 2977275.
4o (254 x 183 mm). Half-title. Title-page printed in red and black, engraved vignette of a Sphinx by Antonio Bandi printed in red. (Some occasional pale spotting, generally very clean and crisp.) Contemporary mottled sheep, spine gilt (some wear along spine). Provenance: notes in a 19th-century hand on front flyleaf; Library of the Catholic Club (booklabel, inkstamp on title).
FIRST EDITION OF SANGRO'S RARE DEFENSE AGAINST CHARGES OF HERESY. Sangro's Lettera apologetica (1750) analyzed the ancient Peruvian system of quipu, or talking knots, used as recording devices. A quipu usually consisted of colored, spun, and plied thread or strings from llama or alpaca hair. It could also be made of cotton cords. The cords contained numeric and other values encoded by knots in a base ten positional system. Quipus might have just a few or up to 2,000 cords.
The Pope had accused Sangro of heresy as a result of this work, and Sangro here defends himself, arguing that there was no subversive intent in his Lettera. He states that it was merely an inoffensive bit of pedantry, written to support the possibility that Mme. De Graffigny's best-selling novel, Lettres d'une Peruvienne, could have been translated from the quipu diary of an Inca princess. He traces the history of quipu, giving as examples such varied sources as the ancient sculpture of Greece and Rome, Mohammed, the Talmud, Swift, Spinoza and Acosta. Long the center of controversy, Sangro destroyed his own scientific archive before he died. After his death, his descendants, under threat of excommunication by the Church due to Raimondo's involvement with Freemasonry and alchemy, destroyed what was left of his writings, formulae, laboratory equipment and results of experiments. RARE: according to American Book Prices Current, no copies have sold in at least 30 years, and NUC locates only three copies. Palau 2977275.