Milestones of Science Books

ARCHIMEDES Syracusani.

Tetragonismus id est circuli quadratura per Campanum Archimedem Syracusanum atque Boetium mathematicae perspicacissimos adinuenta. Edited by Pomponius Gauricus.

Venice: Joannes Baptista Sessa, 1503.

1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. Item #002857

28 August 1503. 4to (200 x 153 mm). 32 unnumbered leaves. Large woodcut on title of Archimedes standing in the centre of the world, Sessa's cat and mouse device beneath, another device at end, fine woodcut initials and woodcut diagrams in text. Colophon on final leaf verso. 20th century half vellum over marbled boards, new endpapers, spine lettered in manuscript, edges with original blue-dyeing. Internally partly brown- and dampstained, light spotting, few leaves with small marginal defects, restored wormhole to upper margin of first gatherings (few letters of title supplied by hand). Upper margin generally trimmed close affecting some headlines with minor loss, title narrow margined at gutter, final leaf frayed at fore margin. Still a very good copy. ----

Adams C-470; Roberts-Trent, Bibliotheca Mechanica, pp.314-315; Riccardi I, 40; Sander 1574; Essling 1388; Honeyman 130; Stillwell, Awakening of Science II, 141; PMM 72 note. RARE FIRST EDITION AND THE FIRST PRINTING OF ANY TEXT OF ARCHIMEDES. 'AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT WORK... WHICH OPENED THE ARCHIMEDEAN REVIVAL OF THE 16TH CENTURY' (Bibliotheca Mechanica). Tetragonismus contains both De Mensura Circuli and De Quadratura Parabolae, based on the 13th-century translation by William Moerbeke, together with similar works by Campanus and Boethius. It includes one of the earliest theoretical calculations on the quadrature of the circle, using Archimedes' early form of integration, and one of the earliest calculations of Pi.
The texts were printed from a manuscript now in Madrid (Biblioteca nacional 9119) (see Clagett, Archimedes in the Middle Ages, 2, i/ii, 1976, and in particular 3, ii, chap. 4, section ii). The work attributed to Campanus on the quadrature of the circle is an elementary treatise and was first printed in 1495 with Bradwardine's Geometria speculativa (GW 5002). Gaurico seems to have used this editions and possibly one manuscript for this the second printing of the text (see Clagett op. cit. 1 (1964) pp. 581-609 for discussion and text). - Visit our website for additional images and information.

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