Books

First edition of "the oldest textbook in the history of science" (Norman), "a monument of typography" (Kelly), and "an outstandingly fine piece of printing" (PMM). "For twenty-three centuries the Elements of Geometry has been changing the world. A compendium of facts about space and its properties - lines and shapes, numbers and ratios - it has drawn countless readers into its limitless world of abstract beauties and pure ideas" (Wardhaugh). The Elements organizes all geometric knowledge from the time of Pythagoras "into a consistent system so that each theorem follows logically from its predecessor; and in this simplicity lies the secret of its success" (PMM). Euclid's Elements was originally composed in Greek at the court of Ptolemy in Alexandria. Campanus's recension, whose earliest witness is a manuscript dated 1259, became the standard version of the high and late Middle Ages. It was based on but enlarged from the translation from the Arabic made by Adelard of Bath about 120 years earlier, the so-called Adelard version II. Campanus's recension continued to be printed at least as late as 1558. Books I to XIII are the Elementa proper; Book XIV is the supplement of Hypsicles of Alexandria (second century BCE) and XV the supplement assigned to the school of Isidore of Miletos, architect of Hagia Sophia (sixth century CE). The main text is preceded by a dedicatory letter by Erhard Ratdolt to Giovanni Mocenigo. Ratdolt's Euclid was the first substantial printed mathematical work and one of the earliest printed books with geometrical figures. It remains one of his most technically advanced and accomplished productions. His dedication to the doge of Venice expresses his amazement that no major work of mathematics had hitherto been printed in Venice, due to the difficulty of supplying the diagrams without which much of mathematics, and especially geometry, could hardly be understood. Ratdolt points out that, by his own invention, he has been able to remedy this: diagrams can now be printed "as easily as letters". These diagrams have been traditionally identified as woodcuts (BMC, GW), but it seems much more probable that they were in fact cast in typemetal. This copy is annotated throughout in a 16th-century hand with textual corrections, diagrams, calculations, and formulas (especially to the first five books). Chancery folio (285 x 204 mm): a10 b-r8; 137 (of 138) leaves, lacks final blank r8. Modern vellum, unlettered. Housed in custom brown morocco folding box and brown cloth chemise. Line 45 of o8r has the corrected setting of the text: "culi prostrati sed non sunt adinuicem equales. hoc aut scies si perpendiculares a" (see Bühler). Three-quarter woodcut border (Redgrave border 3) and red printed incipit on a2r, large and small woodcut. Partly effaced 16th-century inscription and partly cropped 17th-century ink ownership inscription (seemingly from the Dominican order of Perugia, Italy) to A2r; bookseller's ticket (Philip C. Duschnes) to rear pastedown. Boards slightly bowed, washed, and pressed, skilful repairs to lower outer corners of first 11 leaves (a1-b1) and inner margin of a1, half a dozen marginal diagrams slightly shaved, light worming to first and last few leaves just touching a few letters and diagrams, single small wormhole continuing through quire i, faint damp stains to lower edge of last quire, bifolia m3.6 and m4.5 misbound. A very good, wide-margined copy. Bod-inc. E-036; BMC V 285; BSB-Ink. E-106; Dibner 100; Goff E-113; GW 9428; HC 6693*; Horblit 27; ISTC ie00113000; Kelly, One Hundred Books Famous in Typography 4; Klebs 383.1; Norman 729; Printing and the Mind of Man 25; Proctor 4383*; Redgrave 26; Sande.