Peverone, Arithmetica e geometria, Lyon, 1581, later mottled calf gilt

PEVERONE, GIOVANNI FRANCESCO

Arithmetica e geometria. Lyon: Jean de Tournes, 1581

Second edition, small 4to (220 x 143mm.), woodcut border to title and portrait-vignette, diagrams, eighteenth-century mottled calf gilt, red edges, manuscript notes in Italian (some trimmed), a few leaves slightly dampstained, a few small defects and spotting, spine chipped at head at foot, rubbed and repaired

"The first half is a very simple textbook on arithmetic divided into four sections. The first section deals with elementary operations (including gelosia multiplication as well as the more modern form), the second with fractions, the third with business arithmetic (the rule of three, rule of false position, etc.) and the last with square and cube roots. The second half is a work on geometry and surveying. It has its own half-title page. It describes the use of a large geometric square (compare this with the illustration of Peuerbach’s geometric square in his Quadratum geometricum, 1516) and a leveling and sighting instrument. It is interesting that Kiely’s work Surveying Instruments does not mention either Peverone or his book. The geometry is certainly a more sophisticated work than the arithmetic" (Tomash & Williams).

LITERATURE:

Edit16 35014; FB 82780; Gültlingen, IX, p.246 no. 655; Hoock & Jeannin P13.2; Smith, Rara arithmetica p.290; Tomash & Williams P65; USTC 124547 / 848021

PROVENANCE:

"ExLib Pauli Æmilii C[--]a, Regii Profess[--]", inscription on inside front cover; sale in these rooms, 14 November 1988, lot 1259, to; Erwin Tomash, booklabel