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EUCLIDES (fl. c.300 B.C.). Elementa geometriae. Translated from Greek and Arabic into Latin by Adelard of Bath (fl. 1st half 12th century), revised by Campanus of Novara (d. 1296). Vicenza: Leonardus Achates de Basilea and Gulielmus de Papia, 13 May 1491.
Super-chancery 2° (307 x 207mm). Collation: a10 b-r8 (a1 blank, a2r Preclarissimus liber elementorum, incipit: Punctus est cuius pars non est, r9v colophon, r10 blank). 136 leaves (without either blank but with an early flyleaf at each end). Types 7:114R, 6:88R, 10:74G. 50-51 lines (proofs) and headline. a2r with three-sided woodcut animal border and matching initial P, heading printed in red, all other woodcut initials white-on-black. Numerous woodcut and type-rule diagrams in the margins. (Two patched over wormholes in margins of quire a, some browning to quire o.) 18th-century half vellum over pasteboard, manuscript title on spine, uncut (recased with new endpapers).
SECOND EDITION, MUCH RARER THAN RATDOLT'S FIRST EDITION OF 1482, giving the standard medieval recension of the text. The editio princeps was not published until 1533 (Basel: Johann Herwagen). Written in thirteen books, Euclid's Elements is said to have 'exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible' (DSB). Ratdolt brilliantly solved the technical problems of relating, if not integrating, illustrations to text, and the Vicenza printers understandably copied his idea, setting short lines to provide adequate space for the diagrams in the right-hand margin. Few copies have appeared at auction in recent times but they include the Honeyman, Duarte and Shuckburgh copies. THIS IS A HANDSOME DECKLE-EDGED COPY, 14mm. taller than the 'large' Shuckburgh copy. HC *6694; GW 9429; BMC VII, 1033; IGI 3723; Sander 2606; Klebs 383.2; Goff E-114.
Super-chancery 2° (307 x 207mm). Collation: a10 b-r8 (a1 blank, a2r Preclarissimus liber elementorum, incipit: Punctus est cuius pars non est, r9v colophon, r10 blank). 136 leaves (without either blank but with an early flyleaf at each end). Types 7:114R, 6:88R, 10:74G. 50-51 lines (proofs) and headline. a2r with three-sided woodcut animal border and matching initial P, heading printed in red, all other woodcut initials white-on-black. Numerous woodcut and type-rule diagrams in the margins. (Two patched over wormholes in margins of quire a, some browning to quire o.) 18th-century half vellum over pasteboard, manuscript title on spine, uncut (recased with new endpapers).
SECOND EDITION, MUCH RARER THAN RATDOLT'S FIRST EDITION OF 1482, giving the standard medieval recension of the text. The editio princeps was not published until 1533 (Basel: Johann Herwagen). Written in thirteen books, Euclid's Elements is said to have 'exercised an influence upon the human mind greater than that of any other work except the Bible' (DSB). Ratdolt brilliantly solved the technical problems of relating, if not integrating, illustrations to text, and the Vicenza printers understandably copied his idea, setting short lines to provide adequate space for the diagrams in the right-hand margin. Few copies have appeared at auction in recent times but they include the Honeyman, Duarte and Shuckburgh copies. THIS IS A HANDSOME DECKLE-EDGED COPY, 14mm. taller than the 'large' Shuckburgh copy. HC *6694; GW 9429; BMC VII, 1033; IGI 3723; Sander 2606; Klebs 383.2; Goff E-114.
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