Item #1780 [Epitome.] Introductio Jacobi fabri Stapule[n]sis in arithmecam Divi Severini Boetii pariter [et] Jordani Ars supputa[n]di tam per calculos q[uem] p[er] notas arithmeticas suis quidem regulis elega[n]ter expressa Judoci Clichtouai Neoportuensis. Questio haud indigna de numeroru[m] et p[er] digitos et p[er] articulos finita ,p[ro]gressione ex Aurelio Augustino[.] Epitome rerum geometricaru[m] ex Geometrico introductorio Caroli Bouilli. De quadratura Circuli Demonstratio ex Campano. Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, Josse van Clichtove, Johannes Caesarius, Charles de Bovelles, Johannes Antonius Campanus, Hermann von dem Busche, Augustine of Hippo, Jordanus Nemorarius, Faber Stapulensis, Judocus Clichtoveus.
[Epitome.] Introductio Jacobi fabri Stapule[n]sis in arithmecam Divi Severini Boetii pariter [et] Jordani Ars supputa[n]di tam per calculos q[uem] p[er] notas arithmeticas suis quidem regulis elega[n]ter expressa Judoci Clichtouai Neoportuensis. Questio haud indigna de numeroru[m] et p[er] digitos et p[er] articulos finita ,p[ro]gressione ex Aurelio Augustino[.] Epitome rerum geometricaru[m] ex Geometrico introductorio Caroli Bouilli. De quadratura Circuli Demonstratio ex Campano.
An Uncommon Early Collection of Mathematical Treatises

[Epitome.] Introductio Jacobi fabri Stapule[n]sis in arithmecam Divi Severini Boetii pariter [et] Jordani Ars supputa[n]di tam per calculos q[uem] p[er] notas arithmeticas suis quidem regulis elega[n]ter expressa Judoci Clichtouai Neoportuensis. Questio haud indigna de numeroru[m] et p[er] digitos et p[er] articulos finita ,p[ro]gressione ex Aurelio Augustino[.] Epitome rerum geometricaru[m] ex Geometrico introductorio Caroli Bouilli. De quadratura Circuli Demonstratio ex Campano.

[Köln (Cologne)]: [Heinrich Quentel (heirs of)], [1507]. First edition (under this title, and collection of the texts), second as Lefèvre’s Epitome (1503, Paris). In later cardboard. Title lettered in ink to the spine. Wide margin copy. Coll: A–D6 E–F4; ff. [32]. Ex libris label of Hanns-Theo Schmitz-Otto. Bibliographical and other notes in pencil on front pastedown and flyleaf. Number “21” lettered in ink by an old hand on the title page. Light discoloration to the pages at the upper edge of the first half. Overall in fine condition.

Extremely scarce Cologne edition of “Lefevre’s Epitome” and other mathematical treatises, the first edition of this combination of the texts. Includes Bovelles’ Epitome rerum geometricarum the earliest study on geometry by a French writer.

An uncommon Cologne edition of this early collection of treatises on arithmetic, geometry, and astronomy intended for the use of university students. The book contains the French humanist and theologian Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples’ (1455–1536) introduction to the works of Boethius and Jordanus, together with treatises by his disciples: Josse van Clichtove’s (1472–1543) Ars suppuntandi; Johannes Caesarius’ (1468–1550) a prologue on geometry; and Charles de Bovelles’ (c. 1475–1566) Epitome rerum geometricarum which is regarded as the earliest study on geometry by a French writer. The book also includes excerpts from De musica by Augistine, and De quadratura circuli demostratio by Campanus (c. 1429–1477), as well as poems by Hermann von dem Busche (1468–1534) and Caesarius, who is also the author of the text of the dedication to Heinrich Einhorn (Monoceros).

A somewhat different collection of texts was published in 1503 in Paris, (Epitome compendiosaque introductio in libros arithmeticos did Severini Boetii […]; Wolfgang Hopyl and Henri Étienne), which is considered as the first edition of the present book. We firmly assume that this, the 1507 Cologne edition is the titular second edition, which – due to the lack of the colophon – in certain bibliographies and sources described and referred either as a Paris (Smith), or a Deventer edition (J. Oosterhoff, 2018). Despite extensive and thorough research, we could not find copies with either of those imprints thus we strongly believe that both are bibliographical ghosts.

Scarce, USTC lists only 5 copies (Germany 3, Austria 1, Russia 1)

VD16 L 952; Smith Rara Arithmetica, pp. 80–2

Literature: J. Oosterhoff, R.: Making Mathematical Culture. University and Print in the Circle of Lefèvre d’Étaples. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. pp. 96–8

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Price: €15,000.00