Beschreibung:

EUCLIDES (fl. ca. 300 B.C.). Elementa geometrica . Translated from Arabic into Latin by Adelard of Bath (fl. 1st half 12th century), revised by Campanus of Novara (d. 1296). Vicenza: Leonardus Achates de Basilea and Gulielmus de Papia, 13th May 1491. Chancery 2° (307 x 207mm). Collation: a 10 b-r 8 (a1 blank, a2 r Preclarissimus liber elementorum , incipit: Punctus est cuius pars non est , r9 v colophon, r 10 blank). 136 leaves (without either blank). Roman types 7:114 (propositions) and 6:88 (proofs), gothic type 10:74 (reference letters of diagrams). 50-51 lines (proofs) and headline. Heading on a2 r printed in red. Very fine three-sided woodcut animal border and matching initial P on a2 r , both heightened in red by hand, armorial shield completed, all other woodcut initials white-on-black. Very numerous woodcut and type-rule diagrams in the margins, which have been left wide by setting short lines. (Border just shaved at lower edge, ink-stain on d4 r affecting a few letters, minor damp-staining towards the end, but A CRISP AND LARGE COPY.) 18th-century English polished calf gilt, yellow edges. Provenance : a member of the Lucio family of Vicenza (arms), presumably the original owner; Sir George Shuckburgh (armorial bookplate). Second edition, set page-for-page from Ratdolt's first edition of 1482, which gave the standard medieval recension of the text. The editio princeps , printed in Greek type, was not published until 1533 (Basel: Johann Herwagen). As a textbook, Euclid's Elements of Geometry will never be superseded, and the work has always been in print. Ratdolt brilliantly solved the technical problems of relating, if not integrating, illustrations to text, and the Vicenza printers understandably copied his idea. THE VICENZA EDITION IS MUCH RARER THAN RATDOLT'S; in the last quarter century only about three copies have appeared at auction, including the Honeyman and Duarte copies. HC *6694; GW 9429; BMC VII, 1033 (IB. 31729); Goff E-114; IGI 3723; Sander 2606; Klebs 383.2.