Quadratura circuli
First edition of one of the rarest of Oronce Fine’s books seen as « the builder of early astrolabes » (Gunther).
From Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow’s library.
Paris, 1544.
4° of (6) ll., 107 pp.
18th century half-vellum, paper boards.
262 x 190 mm.
Finé, Oronce. Quadratura Circuli... De circuli mensura… De multangulorum omnium… De invenienda longitudinis locorum differentia… Planisfaerium geograficum.
Paris, Simon de Colines, 1544.
First edition of one of ORonce Fine’s rarest books illustrated with woodcuts showing scientific instruments.
Chadenat, I, 68 ; Brun, Le livre français illustré de la Renaissance, 190 ; Adams F-479 ; Mortimer French 229; Schreiber, Colines, 215 ; Renouard, Simon de Colines, pp. 393-395.
First edition of the rarest work of Fine: a collection of tracts attempting to solve the quadrature of the circle.
Mortimer notes the influence of Finé himself on the highly decorative designs of this beautiful book, while the criblé initials are attributed to Geoffroy Tory.
French mathematician and cartographer Fine worked in a wide range of mathematical fields, including practical geometry, arithmetic, optics, gnomonics, and astronomy.
The work includes several depictions of scientific instruments of his own design. Most of of the woodcuts are diagrams decorated with florets which are characteristic of Fine’s illustration for his own books.
"The style of the border is that of the figured border designed by Fine for Colines and first used on the Arithmetica of Martinez Siliceo in September 1526. The block for this 1544 border passed to Michel de Vascosan" (Mortimer).
« As a decorator of books Finé belongs entirely to the Renaissance and has nothing of the medieval manner of the previous generation at Paris. Much of Finé’s work has the appearance of being an imitation of metal work, and it is this fact which makes his decorative style so easily recognizable » (A.J. Johnson).
An attractive pure and wide-margined copy.
Provenance : Arthur and Charlotte Vershbow’s library ( ex-libris).
