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    Sale 5141

    Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts

    London, South Kensington

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    12 November 2007

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    • BELLI, Silvio (fl. 1555-1579).
    Lot 9

    BELLI, Silvio (fl. 1555-1579). Libro del misurar con la vista. Venice: Giordano Ziletti, 1570 [colophon dated 1569]. Woodcut title border incorporating printer's device, 54 woodcut diagrams and illustrations, full-page woodcut of Ptolemy on colophon, woodcut ornamnets, with final blank R4 (variable light browning, unobtrusive wormholes in title and inner margins). Third edition, issue with colophon dated 1569. Adams B520; Riccardi I(1) 107. [Bound with:] BELLI, S. Della proportione et proportionalità communi passioni del quanto. Venice: Francesco de Franceschi, 1573. Woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut illustration and ornaments (variable light spotting and browning, occasional, unobtrusive marginal worming). [?]FIRST EDITION (vide infra). Riccardi I(1) 107.

    Price realised

    GBP 2,125

    Estimate

    GBP 1,200 - GBP 1,800

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    BELLI, Silvio (fl. 1555-1579). Libro del misurar con la vista. Venice: Giordano Ziletti, 1570 [colophon dated 1569]. Woodcut title border incorporating printer's device, 54 woodcut diagrams and illustrations, full-page woodcut of Ptolemy on colophon, woodcut ornamnets, with final blank R4 (variable light browning, unobtrusive wormholes in title and inner margins). Third edition, issue with colophon dated 1569. Adams B520; Riccardi I(1) 107. [Bound with:] BELLI, S. Della proportione et proportionalità communi passioni del quanto. Venice: Francesco de Franceschi, 1573. Woodcut printer's device on title, woodcut illustration and ornaments (variable light spotting and browning, occasional, unobtrusive marginal worming). [?]FIRST EDITION (vide infra). Riccardi I(1) 107.
    2 works in one volume, 4° (200 x 143mm). Contemporary semi-flexible vellum (soiled and rubbed, splitting on hinges and book-block). Provenance: 'Jac. Ant. Boni auctoris munus' (manuscript presentation inscription on both titles).

    PRESENTATION COPIES OF BELLI'S TWO WORKS ON THE APPLICATION OF GEOMETRY TO ARCHITECTURAL PROBLEMS. This edition of Libro del misurar occurs in two issues: one with the colophon dated 1569 (as here) and the second with both title and colophon dated 1570. Della proportione was published in Venice under two imprints in 1573: Francesco de Franceschi's (as here) and 'alla Elefanta', but the order of priority remains unclear. Riccardi -- who considers this a 'Bellissima edizione' -- notes of the book that, 'La materia trattata in questa operetta è in sostanza il quinto libro di Euclide, il quale ordinato nel modo che all' a. parve più conveniente, ritiene egli doversi premettere allo studio delle matematiche'. The person to whom these two works were given by the author was presumably Jacopo Antonio Boni (1527-1587), a doctor and philosopher of Ferrara where Belli practised or possibly of Padova.

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