EUCLID (fl. ca 300 B.C.) The Elements of Geometrie. Translated into English by Sir Henry Billingsley (d. 1606), with a preface by John Dee (1527-1608). London: John Day 1570.
EUCLID (fl. ca 300 B.C.) The Elements of Geometrie. Translated into English by Sir Henry Billingsley (d. 1606), with a preface by John Dee (1527-1608). London: John Day 1570. 2 o (315 x 215 mm). Title within an allegorical woodcut border, (McKerrow & Ferguson 99). Folding letterpress "Groundplat" or table accompanying John Dee's preface. Geometrical diagrams throughout, 37 with one or more overslips in book XI. Woodcut printer's device with portrait of John Day on colophon (McKerrow 145). (Some small worm-holes, mostly at beginning, light dampstaining to last third of the book.) 17th-century calf (rebacked preserving original gilt spine, repairs to corners and sides). Provenance : Thomas Foxe (signature on title), perhaps the son of the martyrologist John Foxe, bursar of Magdalen College, Oxford, then fellow of the College of Physicians, London, d.1662; E.N. da C. Andrade (bookplate). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST COMPLETE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF EUCLID'S ELEMENTS . This full translation by Sir Henry Billingsley, a successful London merchant who later became Lord Mayor, relied on the achievments of two earlier editors, Campanus Novara (a medieval Latin translation first printed in Venice 1482) and Bartolomeo Zamberti (a new translation from Greek into Latin printed in 1505), and undoubtedly benefited from the involvement of John Dee who not only wrote the "very fruitfull preface" but contributed many annotations and additional theorems. "This Preface , which set out systematically the many derivatives and practical applications of arithmetic and geometry... established Dee's intellectual leadership among English mathematical practitioners for three generations or more" (Taylor). The printing by John Day (1522-1584) of such a large folio, complete with its folding overslips, was a monumental task, and his portrait is included both on the colophon and possibly as the bearded figure of Mercury at the foot of the title-page. The overslips were originally printed as six bifolia bound in at the end. Sparrow 58; STC 10560; Taylor Mathematical Practioners 41; Thomas-Stanford 41.
EUCLID (fl. ca 300 B.C.) The Elements of Geometrie. Translated into English by Sir Henry Billingsley (d. 1606), with a preface by John Dee (1527-1608). London: John Day 1570.
EUCLID (fl. ca 300 B.C.) The Elements of Geometrie. Translated into English by Sir Henry Billingsley (d. 1606), with a preface by John Dee (1527-1608). London: John Day 1570. 2 o (315 x 215 mm). Title within an allegorical woodcut border, (McKerrow & Ferguson 99). Folding letterpress "Groundplat" or table accompanying John Dee's preface. Geometrical diagrams throughout, 37 with one or more overslips in book XI. Woodcut printer's device with portrait of John Day on colophon (McKerrow 145). (Some small worm-holes, mostly at beginning, light dampstaining to last third of the book.) 17th-century calf (rebacked preserving original gilt spine, repairs to corners and sides). Provenance : Thomas Foxe (signature on title), perhaps the son of the martyrologist John Foxe, bursar of Magdalen College, Oxford, then fellow of the College of Physicians, London, d.1662; E.N. da C. Andrade (bookplate). FIRST EDITION OF THE FIRST COMPLETE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF EUCLID'S ELEMENTS . This full translation by Sir Henry Billingsley, a successful London merchant who later became Lord Mayor, relied on the achievments of two earlier editors, Campanus Novara (a medieval Latin translation first printed in Venice 1482) and Bartolomeo Zamberti (a new translation from Greek into Latin printed in 1505), and undoubtedly benefited from the involvement of John Dee who not only wrote the "very fruitfull preface" but contributed many annotations and additional theorems. "This Preface , which set out systematically the many derivatives and practical applications of arithmetic and geometry... established Dee's intellectual leadership among English mathematical practitioners for three generations or more" (Taylor). The printing by John Day (1522-1584) of such a large folio, complete with its folding overslips, was a monumental task, and his portrait is included both on the colophon and possibly as the bearded figure of Mercury at the foot of the title-page. The overslips were originally printed as six bifolia bound in at the end. Sparrow 58; STC 10560; Taylor Mathematical Practioners 41; Thomas-Stanford 41.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
