[Rarebooks] fa: NICCOLO TARTAGLIA - TRAVAGLIATA INVENTIONE + NOVA SCIENTIA 1551/1606

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, October 12. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/oaeylwk

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.

Niccolò Fontana Tartaglia: Ragionamenti de Nicolo Tartaglia sopra la sua Travagliata Inventione. Nelli quali se dechiara volgarmente quel libro di Archimede Siracusano intitolato, De insidentibus aquae, con altre speculatiue pratiche da lui ritrouate sopra le materie, che stanno & chi non stanno sopra l'acqua, Vltimamente se assegna la ragione et causa naturale di tutte le sottile, & oscure particularità dette et dechiarate nella detta sua Trauagliata Inuetione con molte altre da quelle dependenti. Venice: 1551 [but 1606?)]. BOUND WITH: Della Nova Scientia. The latter lacking title page. Small 4to (20 cm) in later half calf and marbled boards; 52 + 72 pp.; woodcut diagrams and illustrations.

Early printings of two important treatises by Tartaglia describing his experiments in ballistics and gunnery, fortifications, the raising of sunken ships, etc. Tartaglia (ca. 1499-1557), a self-taught mathematician and engineer, invented the gunner's quadrant and also came up with a solution to cubic eguations. He was the first to translate Euclid into a modern language. The verso of the the first work's title-page gives the date of publication as "5 di Mazzo, 1551" but both are more likely from the 1606 collected edition of Tartaglia's works. Both treatises are textually complete and illustrated with numerous woodcuts. Intermittent fairly mild damp-staining to the leaves, a few leaves browned, occasional spots, otherwise quite clean and crisp, firmly bound. Early/contemporary owner's signature ("Filippini [?]") to the title-page; front paste-down with the armorial bookplate of Pierre N. LeBrun.