Beschreibung:

Details
EUCLID (fl. 300 BCE). Elementorum libri XIII [-Phaenomena; Specularia; Perspectiva; Data]. Translated by Bartolommeo Zamberti. Venice: Johannes Tacuinus, 1510.
The fine and crisp Macclesfield copy of the first edition of Euclid’s complete works, second issue in a contemporary binding—"a first rate example of the Venetian book of the time” (Thomas-Stanford). This new edition of Euclid is a translation into Latin from the Greek text by Bartolommeo Zamberti, who claims that he has restored many things that were “turned around and absurdly confused” in the earlier version by Campanus. According to Thomas-Stanford, “in 1510 some of the same sheets were reissued with a freshly printed last page containing the colophon, a misreading of which has often led to the issue being described as of 1517. Both issues seem to be among the rarest of early Euclids.” In addition to the title page, this 1510 issue has been reset from gathering O. Adams E-973; Thomas-Stanford 5.
Folio (310 x 214mm). Title with xylographic heading and woodcut vignette of St. John the Baptist; A1r printed in red and black within woodcut historiated border; numerous woodcut initials, the larger historiated showing putti at play, and numerous woodcut diagrams in margins and text (occasional light dampstaining at edges of margin; Y4.5 sprung). Contemporary German blindstamped calf over beveled wooden boards, clasps and catchplates, manuscript fore-edge title, pastedowns reused from illuminated 14th-century canon law manuscript leaves (spine restored, upper joint starting, without flyleaves). Custom box. Provenance: Earls of Macclesfield (bookplate and blindstamp; their sale, Sotheby's, 4 November 2004, lot 698).