CAVALIERI, Bonaventura (1598-1647) Lo specchio ustorio overo trattato delle settioni coniche, e di alcuni loro mirabili effetti intorno al lume, caldo, freddo, suono e moto. - Bologna, Ferroni, 1650
4to. Contemp. vellum, ms. title on spine. 10 plates with 36 woodcut diagrams. (8), 136 pp.; a few light marginal damp-stains but a good copy complete with the leaf «Avvertimento al librario» glued on the paste-down endpaper, with instructions for the binder.
Rare second edition (1st 1632) of «the first work published by the eminent mathematician, a disciple of Galileo. In it Cavalieri, to the great annoyance of Galileo, published for the first time the discoveries of the great philosopher on the fall of bodies…» (Sotheran 3127, quoting Libri Catalogue). Norman 418: «Cavalieri’s treatise on conics includes the idea of the reflecting telescope, of which some have claimed Cavalieri to be the inventor, preceding Gregory and Newton. The work also contains a history of the origin of the theory of conics among the Greek, and applications of conics to problems in acoustics and optics.» Cinti, Galilei, 92 and 123.
Euro3900
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