From SOPHIA RARE BOOKS, Koebenhavn V, Denmark
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since 18 January 2013
About this Item
A MASTERPIECE OF ILLUSTRATED BOOK PRODUCTION - THE RICCATI COPY. First edition, the Riccati family copy, of this beautiful book, Finé's masterpiece of illustrated book production. One of the handsomest scientific books of the period, this work is especially remarkable for the fact that the author designed its illustrations himself. Although Finé had published a few works before 1532, and edited others, "it was only with the publication of the Protomathesis that he revealed himself as the inventor of a new kind of scientific book" (Pantin, p. 289). The first two parts of the Protomathesis deal with arithmetic and geometry, the third with cosmography, and the fourth with gnomonics. The part on cosmography provides a valuable account of the state of astronomy in the decade immediately preceding the Copernican revolution. A great variety of astronomical instruments are shown along with tables used in calculation (several of the instruments are shown with their composite pieces separated so that an instrument could be made from them, and in some copies of this book but not this one! the pieces have been cut out). "The Protomathesis is Oronce Finé s magnum opus, a work published shortly after his appointment as Lecteur royal en mathématiques, in order to set out his contribution (present and future) for the advancement of mathematics in France. As the first holder of a newly created and highly prestigious position, Oronce Finé (1494-1555) had worked towards a twofold end. He had wished to demonstrate his own mastery in the different fields of mathematics, and to expound his views on the discipline, as well as his teaching program. Thus, his Protomathesis a collection of four textbooks resembled a monumental epitome. Its content was relatively original and, above all, it adopted a new style in illustration and typographical design. No French mathematician had ever published such an ambitious work before. Moreover, the different elements of the book would become more or less the basis of the main part of Finé s abundant subsequent publications. For example, the third part, Cosmographia, served as a prototype for the many De mundi sphaera that Finé was later to publish: on the occasion of each new release, he introduced changes, but the original model was still recognizable. For all these reasons, the Protomathesis played an important role in establishing what can be called a Parisian tradition of mathematical textbooks" (ibid., p. 287). Provenance: Jacopo Francesco Riccati (1676-1754), Venetian mathematician after whom the Riccati equation is named (bookplate on pastedown and title verso); likely by descent to his son Vincenzo (1707-75), Jesuit mathematician who introduced hyperbolic functions and contributed to the theory of differential equations, and thus to:) Collegio di San Francesco Saverio in Bologna (inscription on title, where Vincenzo Riccati taught for 30 years). The Protomathesis (a Latin transcription of a Greek word meaning first instruction ) begins with De arithmetica practica. Finé takes up, both in the dedicatory letter to François I and in the first section of the Arithmetica, the question of the utility of mathematics, and asks: "What would exist without mathematics? Without numbers we would have no music, no geometry, no philosophy, and no laws. Mathematics is thus not only useful, it is necessary" (Marr, p. 174). Thus, the Arithmetica served as a necessary introduction to the rest of the work. Its four books deal respectively with integers, common fractions, sexagesimal fractions, and proportion. Finé "considered the theory of proportion a crucial aspect of the mathematics of nature … It is notable that some major seventeenth century figures, such as Galileo and Kepler, thought in the same way, even after the appearance of Viète s symbolic algebra and Fermat s and Descartes s mathematics" (ibid., p. 175). Finé did not treat algebra in the Protomathesis; its introduction into French university instruc. Seller Inventory # 6039
Bibliographic Details
Title: Protomathesis … [De arithmetica practica ...
Publisher: Gérard Morrhy and Jean Pierre, Paris
Publication Date: 1532
Edition: First edition.
Store Description
All items may be returned for a full refund for any reason within 14 days of receipt.
Shipping costs are based on books weighing 2.2 LB, or 1 KG. If your book order is heavy or oversized, we may contact you to let you know extra shipping is required.
Payment Methods
accepted by seller
