[Rarebooks] Epistolarum mathematicarum fasciculus by Poleni - early calculator inventor

[Morgan Brynnan at Uncommon Works]

Epistolarum mathematicarum fasciculus
by Giovanni Poleni [Ioannis Poleni]

Patavii: Ex Typographia Seminarii, 1729. Vellum. Very good. Giovanni Poleni.
Very good early printing, 1729 [Poggendorff, II, 492]; Sotheran notes
existence of an earlier 1927 edition [3691]. “The author's correspondence on
astronomical, hydraulic, mathematical and physiological subjects with
Manfredi, Guido, Grandi, Jacob Hermann, and Marinoni.” [Sotheran]. 

Vellum boards showing discoloration from handling. Corners curled or bumped.
Two paper spine labels (one complete with title & author, one is rubbed away
in large part). Folding plates in near fine condition; text bright and
crisp. 

MISSING TWO PRELIMINARY LEAVES which should appear after title page,
containing (1) dedication to patrons by Poleni [2 pp.] and (2) table of
contents [1 pg.]. This is an issue similar to what Bowers describes when a
patron has changed and the new patron's information was not inserted as it
should have been in the "ideal copy." [Bowers, 7]. Alternatively, the 2
leaves are simply missing due to some other cause. 

All correspondence, plates, tables, and body text present. Signature I shows
a closed tear of 1” at bottom center of page. Quarto, 4º: 11 plates (9
folding); 190 [of 198] pp. This edition held by 4 Worldcat libraries
worldwide: Cornell, Oxford, Brown, and the Smithsonian. -- worldcat 
 
“Poleni was the first to build a calculator that used a pinwheel design.
Made of wood, his calculating clock was built in 1709; he destroyed it after
hearing that Antonius Braun had received 10,000 Guldens for dedicating a
pinwheel machine of his own design to the emperor Charles VI of Vienna.
Poleni described his machine in his Miscellanea in 1709, but it was also
described by Jacob Leupold in his Theatrum Machinarum Generale ("The General
Theory of Machines") which was published in 1727. In 1729, he also built a
tractional device that enabled logarithmic functions to be drawn.” --
wikipedia

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Morgan Brynnan
Uncommon Works
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