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Details
TARTAGLIA, Niccol. Quesiti, et inventioni diverse. Venice: Venturino Ruffinelli for the author, July 1546.
4o (231 x 162 mm). Collation: A-Z4 AA-KK4. 132 leaves, foliated. LARGE PAPER ISSUE. Woodcut portrait of the author on title, numerous woodcut illustrations of canon and the trajectory of canon balls, and diagrams in text. THE FIRST FIVE LINES OF PRINTED DEDICATION TO HENRY VIII TRACED IN LIQUID GOLD AND WITH ILLUMINATED INITIAL L on A2r. (Lacking the 2-leaf table of contents, some minor soiling.)
Binding: Contemporary Venetian gold-tooled olive morocco, covers panelled with gilt and blind fillet interlace borders, decorated with fleuron, floral and apple tools, central shield containing a painted coat-of-arms (effaced), spine blind-tooled in compartments, edges gilt, by the "Venetian Apple Binder," who was called the Fugger Meister by Ilse Schunke after his most important patron, Johann Jakob Fugger (see M.M. Foot, The Henry Davis Gift I, 308-22), (somewhat discolored, upper joint cracked, spine ends repaired, a few corners repaired, traces of four pair of leather ties). Provenance: King Henry VIII of England? Perhaps the dedication copy, printed on larger and heavier paper than the regular issue (see lot 203), with the printed dedication heightened in gold and a handsome binding from which the painted arms have been erased.
FIRST EDITION. Quesiti presents Tartaglia's own research on third-degree equations, his most important mathematical accomplishment. Scipione Ferro discovered the rule for solving third-degree equations in in the first or second decade of the sixteenth century, but it remained unpublished. In 1535 Tartaglia independently rediscovered it, sharing his secret in 1539 with Girolamo Cardano. Cardano infuriated Tartaglio by publishing the discover in his Ars magna (1545), even though he credited both Ferro and Tartaglia. In the Quesiti, Tartaglia presents his own research on third-degree equations as well as his relations with Cardano, whom he discusses abusively in Book IX. Adams T-183; BM/STC Italian p. 658; Norman 2054.
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Binding: Contemporary Venetian gold-tooled olive morocco, covers panelled with gilt and blind fillet interlace borders, decorated with fleuron, floral and apple tools, central shield containing a painted coat-of-arms (effaced), spine blind-tooled in compartments, edges gilt, by the "Venetian Apple Binder," who was called the Fugger Meister by Ilse Schunke after his most important patron, Johann Jakob Fugger (see M.M. Foot, The Henry Davis Gift I, 308-22), (somewhat discolored, upper joint cracked, spine ends repaired, a few corners repaired, traces of four pair of leather ties). Provenance: King Henry VIII of England? Perhaps the dedication copy, printed on larger and heavier paper than the regular issue (see lot 203), with the printed dedication heightened in gold and a handsome binding from which the painted arms have been erased.
FIRST EDITION. Quesiti presents Tartaglia's own research on third-degree equations, his most important mathematical accomplishment. Scipione Ferro discovered the rule for solving third-degree equations in in the first or second decade of the sixteenth century, but it remained unpublished. In 1535 Tartaglia independently rediscovered it, sharing his secret in 1539 with Girolamo Cardano. Cardano infuriated Tartaglio by publishing the discover in his Ars magna (1545), even though he credited both Ferro and Tartaglia. In the Quesiti, Tartaglia presents his own research on third-degree equations as well as his relations with Cardano, whom he discusses abusively in Book IX. Adams T-183; BM/STC Italian p. 658; Norman 2054.