Beschreibung:

Aggiunti (Niccolo). Oratio de Mathematicae Laudibus. Habita in florentissima Pisarum Academia cum ibidem publicam illius scientiae explicationem aggressurus foret. Ad Serenissimi Ferdinandum II. Magnum Etruriae Ducem V, 1st edition, Rome: Jacopo Mascardi, 1627, 34 pages (A-C4, D6, including final blank leaf), title with publisher's woodcut device, one or two paper creases, 20th century plain vellum-backed boards, small 4to (20 x 15 cm) (Qty: 1) Provenance: Professor Cecil H. Clough (1930-2017), Reader in Medieval History, University of Liverpool. Riccardi, Bibliotheca Mathematica (1952), I, 7. See Honeyman Library, Sale, Part One, Sotheby's 30 October 1978, lot 19 (sold for £140). Rare. Seven copies traced worldwide, with no copy in the UK. Only one copy traced at auction (Honeyman copy in 1978). Niccolo Aggiunti (1600-1635) was an eminent scholar, scientist and disciple of Galileo. He studied geometry and astronomy under Bernardo Castelli, and subsequently succeeded him to the chair of mathematics at the University of Pisa. After receiving his degree in philosophy and law, he became tutor to Ferdinand II de Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, in 1621, the year in which Ferdinand acceeded to the dukedom. During this period he became a friend and pupil of Galileo (1564-1642). His only published work is this short oration In Praise of Mathematics, in which the author refers several times to Galileo, the telescope and astronomy. Recent scholarship has even suggested that the work may have been written by Galileo himself, so closely aligned is the text with Galileo's preoccupations and style of writing. See Mark A. Peterson, Galileo's Muse, Renaissance Mathematics and the Arts, Harvard University Press, 2011, where the author states that Aggiunti's publication is 'entirely Galilean in so many details that even if it is derivative, it must represent his thought'.