PAPPUS Alexandrinus, (ca. 300-350) Mathematicae collectiones a Federico Commandino Urbinate in Latinum conversae, & commentarijs illustratae... - Bologna, de Ducci, 1660 (at end: 1658).
Folio. Contemp. vellum, spine in compartments and with ms. title. Engr. arms on title and a plate with equestrian potrait of the Austrian archduke; many woodcut diagrams in the text. (10), 490, (2) pp.; a good copy, paper occasionally toned and a couple of quires browned.
Second edition, corrected and improved, of Pappus’ great work on mathematics, geometry and astronomy translated into Latin by Commandino with his commentary (first edition 1588). The Collectiones are an erudite exegesis of texts by Euclid, Archimedes, Apollonius, Ptolemy and others, many of which fragmentary, to which the Greek scholar has added new and important theorems and demonstrations. They offer an interesting picture of the scientific knowledge of the period. Smith, History of Mathematics, I, 136. DSB X, 293. Sotheran I, 3449. Riccardi I, 365: «E' la sola traduzione che si abbia di questi preziosi frammenti, i quali altrimenti forse sarebbero andati perduti...»
Euro3900
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