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EUCLID (fl. c.300 B.C.). Elements, in Greek. Edited by Simon Grynaeus (1493-1541) and with the commentary of Proclus (c.412-485). Basel: Johann Herwagen, September 1533.
2 parts in one volume, 2° (292 x 200mm). Woodcut publisher's device on title repeated on K4v, woodcut diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces, ornaments and initials. (Early inscriptions partly deleted from title with two small related holes, light scattered spotting on title and in some margins, two small wormholes, occasional small ink spots.) Modern half leather, red morocco spine label, top edge black, others sprinkled red. Provenance: Robert ?Cropet (initials and signed inscription, in a 16th-century hand, partly deleted from the title) — Thomas Byng (mathematician, lawyer, and master of Clare College, Cambridge, d.1599; title inscriptions, one dated 1555, marginalia in leaves a1-2) — William Dickinson (perhaps the engraver and print seller, c.1746-1823; title signature) — purchased by the Royal Institution in July 1806 for 6s 6d from King & Lochee (lot 1095).
FIRST EDITION IN GREEK and the first to inset Euclid’s diagrams in the text (Thomas-Stanford). The commentary by Proclus on the first book of the Elements is 'the earliest contribution to the philosophy of mathematics and a valuable source for the history of science' (Norman). For his important series of editions of Euclid, Herwagen employed some of the leading scholars of the period; Grynaeus, the editor of the Greek text, was professor of Greek at the University of Basel, and a friend of Philip Melanchthon, Sir Thomas More and Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, to whom he dedicated the edition. The text of the Elements was a recension of a manuscript sent from Venice by Lazarus Bayfius and a second sent from Paris by John Ruellius; the commentary was taken from a manuscript supplied by John Claymond, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. Adams E-980; Brunet II, 1087; Norman 730; Stillwell Awakening 210 (Proclus's commentary); Thomas-Stanford 7.
2 parts in one volume, 2° (292 x 200mm). Woodcut publisher's device on title repeated on K4v, woodcut diagrams in text, woodcut headpieces, ornaments and initials. (Early inscriptions partly deleted from title with two small related holes, light scattered spotting on title and in some margins, two small wormholes, occasional small ink spots.) Modern half leather, red morocco spine label, top edge black, others sprinkled red. Provenance: Robert ?Cropet (initials and signed inscription, in a 16th-century hand, partly deleted from the title) — Thomas Byng (mathematician, lawyer, and master of Clare College, Cambridge, d.1599; title inscriptions, one dated 1555, marginalia in leaves a1-2) — William Dickinson (perhaps the engraver and print seller, c.1746-1823; title signature) — purchased by the Royal Institution in July 1806 for 6s 6d from King & Lochee (lot 1095).
FIRST EDITION IN GREEK and the first to inset Euclid’s diagrams in the text (Thomas-Stanford). The commentary by Proclus on the first book of the Elements is 'the earliest contribution to the philosophy of mathematics and a valuable source for the history of science' (Norman). For his important series of editions of Euclid, Herwagen employed some of the leading scholars of the period; Grynaeus, the editor of the Greek text, was professor of Greek at the University of Basel, and a friend of Philip Melanchthon, Sir Thomas More and Cuthbert Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, to whom he dedicated the edition. The text of the Elements was a recension of a manuscript sent from Venice by Lazarus Bayfius and a second sent from Paris by John Ruellius; the commentary was taken from a manuscript supplied by John Claymond, President of Magdalen College, Oxford. Adams E-980; Brunet II, 1087; Norman 730; Stillwell Awakening 210 (Proclus's commentary); Thomas-Stanford 7.
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