1604 1st Edition
GEOMETRIA PRACTICA
Complete First Edition, including the final blank and full indexes. A substantial and profusely illustrated early-modern handbook of practical geometry, surveying, mensuration and mathematical instruments by Christophorus Clavius, one of the most influential mathematicians and scientific educators of the late Renaissance.
Clavius takes geometry beyond abstract demonstration and places it in the hands of the working surveyor, engineer, architect and mathematical practitioner. The reader is shown how to construct and employ quadrants, proportional compasses and the geometer’s square; measure inaccessible heights, distances and depths; calculate the areas of irregular ground and the volumes of solid bodies; divide land; enlarge and reduce figures; extract numerical roots; and approach some of the celebrated geometrical problems inherited from antiquity.
The text is illustrated throughout with numerous woodcut geometrical diagrams, tables, ornamental initials and Jesuit devices, including the large IHS device on the title page and again at the conclusion.
By Christophorus Clavius
Format: Vellum, quarto (4to 9 1⁄2 × 12 in 241 × 305 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Language: Latin
Published By: Aloisio Zanetti, Rome
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Good - Complete first edition in contemporary rigid vellum over boards, ruled and decorated in gilt. Both boards bear a distinctive central rampant-lion tool, apparently holding or planting a downward-pointed arrow or staff, enclosed within gilt fillets and smaller unidentified corner ornaments. Spine with a later printed paper title label.
The vellum is rubbed, soiled and age-darkened, with surface abrasion, mild warping and wear at the corners and spine extremities. The gilt decoration remains clearly visible but is faded in places. Pastedowns and inner joints show later repair and reinforcement, including marginal paper repairs and renewed supporting strips. The binding nevertheless remains solid, functional and securely attached.
Internally complete, with the title page, all eight books, both indexes, register, final colophon/device leaf and final blank present. Text, tables and numerous woodcut diagrams are generally clear and well printed. Paper with light general toning, occasional pale staining, spotting, handling marks and show-through, consistent with a working mathematical book more than four centuries old. Occasional early ink marks and later pencil shelf, accession or bookseller notations appear on the endpapers and in isolated margins. No named ownership inscription or identifiable bookplate has been found.
An attractive and honest Renaissance scientific book, retaining its decorated period binding and possessing considerable shelf presence. The wear and repairs reflect prolonged historical use without detracting from the legibility or completeness of the text.
Title page with large woodcut Jesuit IHS device; ornamental headpieces and initials; numerous woodcut mathematical, geometrical and instrumental diagrams throughout; alphabetical and analytical indexes; register and final Roman colophon dated MDCIIII with repeated IHS device.
Collation: [32], 439, [30] p.
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
References:
World Cat OCLC n°495075602 & 835753434
USTC n°4030093
Brunet II:92
Honeyman II 718
Sommervogel II, 1220
Early European Books (Proquest)
ita-bnc-mag-00000812-001
New York, USA, Columbia University, Butler Library Shelfmark
PLIMPTON 513 1604 C57
Augsburg, Germany, Universitätsbibliothek Shelfmark: 02/VII.3.4.7
Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology. University of Chicago Press
Karl Christian Bruhns (1876)
"Clavius, Christoph". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol. 4. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 298–299.
Author Bio: Christophorus Clavius, or Christoph Clau (1538–1612), was a German Jesuit mathematician, astronomer and teacher based for much of his career at the Collegio Romano. His extensive textbooks and commentaries helped establish mathematics as an essential component of Jesuit education and were circulated throughout Europe and, through Jesuit missions, much farther afield.
Clavius was an important mathematical adviser during the reform that produced the Gregorian calendar, promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. His reputation as a teacher, commentator on Euclid and organiser of mathematical knowledge earned him the later epithet “the Euclid of the sixteenth century.”
Synopsis: First published at Rome in 1604, Geometria Practica is arranged in eight books and was conceived as a comprehensive course in useful geometry.
Book I explains the construction and use of mathematical instruments, including the proportional compass and quadrant, together with the elementary trigonometry required for their operation.
Books II and III concern the measurement of accessible and inaccessible lengths, heights and depths, first by means of the astronomical quadrant and then through the geometer’s square and related procedures.
Book IV treats the measurement of plane figures and incorporates material derived from Archimedes, including the measurement of the circle and quadrature of the parabola.
Book V addresses the dimensions and volumes of solid bodies.
Book VI covers geodesy, the division of rectilinear surfaces, the enlargement and reduction of figures according to a stated proportion, the construction of proportional lines and methods of extracting numerical roots.
Book VII considers isoperimetric figures and the historic problem of squaring the circle, including discussion of the quadratrix associated with Hippias.
Book VIII concludes with miscellaneous theorems, problems and geometrical constructions intended to develop mathematical ingenuity, including the trisection of angles by means of the conchoid.
An unusually wide-ranging synthesis of ancient Greek geometry, Renaissance mathematics and practical measurement, produced by one of the foremost scientific teachers of the period.
SKU: BTETM0002736
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: , L: , W: (Units: ), W:
1604 1st Edition
GEOMETRIA PRACTICA
Complete First Edition, including the final blank and full indexes. A substantial and profusely illustrated early-modern handbook of practical geometry, surveying, mensuration and mathematical instruments by Christophorus Clavius, one of the most influential mathematicians and scientific educators of the late Renaissance.
Clavius takes geometry beyond abstract demonstration and places it in the hands of the working surveyor, engineer, architect and mathematical practitioner. The reader is shown how to construct and employ quadrants, proportional compasses and the geometer’s square; measure inaccessible heights, distances and depths; calculate the areas of irregular ground and the volumes of solid bodies; divide land; enlarge and reduce figures; extract numerical roots; and approach some of the celebrated geometrical problems inherited from antiquity.
The text is illustrated throughout with numerous woodcut geometrical diagrams, tables, ornamental initials and Jesuit devices, including the large IHS device on the title page and again at the conclusion.
By Christophorus Clavius
Format: Vellum, quarto (4to 9 1⁄2 × 12 in 241 × 305 mm )
Note: Binding/size selection follows standard bibliographic conventions and is approximate; exact measurements may vary.
Language: Latin
Published By: Aloisio Zanetti, Rome
Condition Report:
Dust Jacket: No Jacket, Dust Jacket Condition: No Jacket
Good - Complete first edition in contemporary rigid vellum over boards, ruled and decorated in gilt. Both boards bear a distinctive central rampant-lion tool, apparently holding or planting a downward-pointed arrow or staff, enclosed within gilt fillets and smaller unidentified corner ornaments. Spine with a later printed paper title label.
The vellum is rubbed, soiled and age-darkened, with surface abrasion, mild warping and wear at the corners and spine extremities. The gilt decoration remains clearly visible but is faded in places. Pastedowns and inner joints show later repair and reinforcement, including marginal paper repairs and renewed supporting strips. The binding nevertheless remains solid, functional and securely attached.
Internally complete, with the title page, all eight books, both indexes, register, final colophon/device leaf and final blank present. Text, tables and numerous woodcut diagrams are generally clear and well printed. Paper with light general toning, occasional pale staining, spotting, handling marks and show-through, consistent with a working mathematical book more than four centuries old. Occasional early ink marks and later pencil shelf, accession or bookseller notations appear on the endpapers and in isolated margins. No named ownership inscription or identifiable bookplate has been found.
An attractive and honest Renaissance scientific book, retaining its decorated period binding and possessing considerable shelf presence. The wear and repairs reflect prolonged historical use without detracting from the legibility or completeness of the text.
Title page with large woodcut Jesuit IHS device; ornamental headpieces and initials; numerous woodcut mathematical, geometrical and instrumental diagrams throughout; alphabetical and analytical indexes; register and final Roman colophon dated MDCIIII with repeated IHS device.
Collation: [32], 439, [30] p.
Please see Photos as part of condition report.
References:
World Cat OCLC n°495075602 & 835753434
USTC n°4030093
Brunet II:92
Honeyman II 718
Sommervogel II, 1220
Early European Books (Proquest)
ita-bnc-mag-00000812-001
New York, USA, Columbia University, Butler Library Shelfmark
PLIMPTON 513 1604 C57
Augsburg, Germany, Universitätsbibliothek Shelfmark: 02/VII.3.4.7
Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology. University of Chicago Press
Karl Christian Bruhns (1876)
"Clavius, Christoph". Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie. Vol. 4. Leipzig: Duncker & Humblot. pp. 298–299.
Author Bio: Christophorus Clavius, or Christoph Clau (1538–1612), was a German Jesuit mathematician, astronomer and teacher based for much of his career at the Collegio Romano. His extensive textbooks and commentaries helped establish mathematics as an essential component of Jesuit education and were circulated throughout Europe and, through Jesuit missions, much farther afield.
Clavius was an important mathematical adviser during the reform that produced the Gregorian calendar, promulgated by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582. His reputation as a teacher, commentator on Euclid and organiser of mathematical knowledge earned him the later epithet “the Euclid of the sixteenth century.”
Synopsis: First published at Rome in 1604, Geometria Practica is arranged in eight books and was conceived as a comprehensive course in useful geometry.
Book I explains the construction and use of mathematical instruments, including the proportional compass and quadrant, together with the elementary trigonometry required for their operation.
Books II and III concern the measurement of accessible and inaccessible lengths, heights and depths, first by means of the astronomical quadrant and then through the geometer’s square and related procedures.
Book IV treats the measurement of plane figures and incorporates material derived from Archimedes, including the measurement of the circle and quadrature of the parabola.
Book V addresses the dimensions and volumes of solid bodies.
Book VI covers geodesy, the division of rectilinear surfaces, the enlargement and reduction of figures according to a stated proportion, the construction of proportional lines and methods of extracting numerical roots.
Book VII considers isoperimetric figures and the historic problem of squaring the circle, including discussion of the quadratrix associated with Hippias.
Book VIII concludes with miscellaneous theorems, problems and geometrical constructions intended to develop mathematical ingenuity, including the trisection of angles by means of the conchoid.
An unusually wide-ranging synthesis of ancient Greek geometry, Renaissance mathematics and practical measurement, produced by one of the foremost scientific teachers of the period.
SKU: BTETM0002736
Shipping Info: Approximate Package Dimensions H: , L: , W: (Units: ), W:
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