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Details
TARTAGLIA, Niccolò (1499?-1557). Nova scientia. Venice: Stephano da Sabio, 1537.
4° (203 x 136mm). Full-page allegorical woodcut title showing philosophers, mathematicians and the Muses within two walled enclosures, 33 woodcut diagrams and illustrations in the text, printer’s device at end. (Lower margin of title cropped with loss of the last two lines of text, small hole in image, first few leaves lightly waterstained in upper margin, a little light spotting.) Modern boards (spine chipped, lightly soiled). Provenance: bookplate removed from rear pastedown.
FIRST EDITION of Tartaglia's first printed work, devoted to ballistics, published on hearing that Solomon II, the sultan of Turkey, was preparing for an attack on Christendom. ‘Gunnery and surveying were among the earliest of the practical arts to benefit from the application of mathematics... Tartaglia skillfully treated this problem in dynamics and proved that the trajectory of a missile fired from a cannon would not be a straight line, as was then supposed’ (Dibner). This contradicted the ‘impetus’ theory derived from Aristotle's Physics, which stated that a projectile's trajectory was described by two straight lines united by a curved line. He also determined maximum range to be at the gun's elevation of 45°. Tartaglia was a self-taught mathematician, engineer, surveryor and book-keeper. He wrote books on all these subjects, and also taught mathematics at Brescia, Verona and Venice. Adams T-189 (with a folding diagram which does not belong to the edition; it was published later and added to some copies); BL/STC Italian Books p.658; Dibner, Heralds 102; Honeyman 2958; Norman 2053; PMM 66; Riccardi I, 496; Sander 7191.
4° (203 x 136mm). Full-page allegorical woodcut title showing philosophers, mathematicians and the Muses within two walled enclosures, 33 woodcut diagrams and illustrations in the text, printer’s device at end. (Lower margin of title cropped with loss of the last two lines of text, small hole in image, first few leaves lightly waterstained in upper margin, a little light spotting.) Modern boards (spine chipped, lightly soiled). Provenance: bookplate removed from rear pastedown.
FIRST EDITION of Tartaglia's first printed work, devoted to ballistics, published on hearing that Solomon II, the sultan of Turkey, was preparing for an attack on Christendom. ‘Gunnery and surveying were among the earliest of the practical arts to benefit from the application of mathematics... Tartaglia skillfully treated this problem in dynamics and proved that the trajectory of a missile fired from a cannon would not be a straight line, as was then supposed’ (Dibner). This contradicted the ‘impetus’ theory derived from Aristotle's Physics, which stated that a projectile's trajectory was described by two straight lines united by a curved line. He also determined maximum range to be at the gun's elevation of 45°. Tartaglia was a self-taught mathematician, engineer, surveryor and book-keeper. He wrote books on all these subjects, and also taught mathematics at Brescia, Verona and Venice. Adams T-189 (with a folding diagram which does not belong to the edition; it was published later and added to some copies); BL/STC Italian Books p.658; Dibner, Heralds 102; Honeyman 2958; Norman 2053; PMM 66; Riccardi I, 496; Sander 7191.
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