Nikephoros Theotokis, Stoicheon mathematikon, Moscow, 1798-99, 3 volumes, blue paper, Russian tree calf

Property from the Loverdos Collection

Nikephoros Theotokis

Στοιχειων μαθηματικων εκ παλαιων και νεωτερων συνερανιθεντων... τομος πρωτος (-τριτος). Moscow: Rudiger and Claudius, 1798-1799

3 volumes, 8vo (203 x 120mm.), printed on blue paper, woodcut initials, head- and tailpieces, engraving at head of preface, 25+31+39+22 folding plates (engraved and letterpress, two sets of plates in vol.3), without final blanks at end of vols 1-2, contemporary Russian tree calf, flat spines gilt, red edges, occasional worming (affecting some plates), occasional light staining, possibly lacking plate 16 in vol.1, quire N in vol.3 misbound (before and after plates in centre of vol.3), bindings slightly rubbed with a few small wormholes, some chipping of spine ends

FIRST EDITION. Nikephoros Theotokis (1731-1800), a native of Corfu, was appointed archbishop of Cherson after his countryman Boulgaris (see lot 180). This school textbook, the Elements of Mathematics compiled from ancients and contemporaries, stretching from Euclid to Newton, was in circulation in manuscript from the 1760s and first published in this edition of 1798; it introduced differential and integral calculus to a Greek audience. Theotokis was also the author of a similar textbook of physics, printed in Leipzig in 1766.

Like Boulgaris, Theotokis saw the Russian state as a potential saviour of the Greek nation from the Ottomans. His book was funded by the Zosimas brothers, a Greek family of merchants and benefactors in Russia, who also supported Greek independence.

LITERATURE

Christine Phili, "A Corfiot Scientist in the Russian Empire: the case of Nikephoros Theotokis (1731-1800)", in In Foreign Lands: the migration of scientists for political or economic reasons (Cham: Springer, 2022)