ALEAUME, Jacques Confutatio problematis ab Henrico Monantholio ... proposiiti. Quo conatus est demonstrare octavam partem diametri circuli aequalem esse lateri polygoni aequilateri & aequianguli eidem circulo inscripti, cuius perimeter ad diametrum rationem habet triplam sesquioctavam... Paris, David le Clerc, 1600 1600
4to (227 x 167 mm), pp 23, with printer's device on title and numerous woodcut diagrams in text; a fine copy in eighteenth-century vellum backed boards. £3750
First edition of this rare work on the 'squaring' of the circle. Aleaume refutes the supposed demonstration of Henri de Monantheuil of the construction of a regular polygon inscribed by a circle, such that there is a rational relation between the circle's diameter and the perimeter of the polygon. This was one of many attempts at establishing a formula whereby a circle could be 'squared'.
Jacques Aleaume (1562-1627) was a mathematician born in Orlˇans. He was a friend and pupil of Fran¨ois V¸te, correspondent of Peiresc, and instructor to Maurice of Nassau. This was the only work published in his lifetime, but he wrote an influential work on perspective which was published posthumously in 1643 as part of the 'perspective wars'. Henri de Monantheuil (ca 1536-1606) was professor of mathematics at the Coll¸ge royale and the author of a treatise on the point (De puncto primo geometricae principio liber) published in 1600.
not in OCLC; copies are recorded in Glasgow and the BN
£3750
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