Verlag: Witebergae [Wittenberg]: Excudebat Iohannes Schwertel 1570, 1570
Erstausgabe
A famous textbook of arithmetic by Rainer Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), a celebrated Dutch mathematician and cartographer; one of the many 16th century editions (the first edition was published in 1540). Illustrated with diagrams. Antiqua typeface; the title page features a woodcut with figures of mathematicians; pages are decorated with large woodcut initials. An old manuscript with unidentified sheet music was used as a parchment cover. Provenance: The title page contains an ownership note and stamp of the Capuchin Monastery in Hradcany (Prague); a coloured backstrip with handwritten call number is also typical for its library. The back endpaper contains an ownership note of a certain Wenceslaus Victorinus, dated 1733. The front endpaper has a simple recent bookplate of Petr Vopenka (1935-2015), a Czech mathematician and philosopher. A complete copy. /// Parchment binding; hardback, [176] pp., 12° (9 x 13.5 cm), cover worn, parchment darkened and slightly stained, with title written with pen, top edge darkened, front free endpaper missing (cut out), pages yellowed, some pages slightly waterstained and worn along edges, back endpaper has small tear along inner edge, ca 10 pages with very old pen marginalia, condition: good Book Language/s: Latin.