Beschreibung:

VIVIANI, Vincentio (1622-1703). De locis solidis secunda divinatio geometrica . Florence: typis Regiae Celsitudinis, apud Petrum Antonium Brigonci, 1701.
VIVIANI, Vincentio (1622-1703). De locis solidis secunda divinatio geometrica . Florence: typis Regiae Celsitudinis, apud Petrum Antonium Brigonci, 1701. 2º (330 x 227mm). Engraved bust portrait of Galileo as frontispiece and 2 folding engraved plates by F.A. Lorenzini. Correction slip on G4v. (Some spotting, final plate with tear along fold.) Late 18th-century vellum with morocco spine label (covers bowed, spine somewhat worn and with old repair at foot). FIRST EDITION. Prevented by the church from bringing out a complete edition of Galileo’s works after his death, Viviani devoted considerable effort to recovering the geometry of the ancients. Although not published until 1701, the present work was his first such project, the attempted restoration of a treatise by Aristaeus the Elder which Viviani undertook at the young age of twenty-four. ‘Aristaeus’ work is believed to have been the first methodical exposition of the curves discovered by Menaechmus; but since it has been entirely lost, it is difficult to estimate how close Viviani came to the original work’ (DSB XIV, p.49). The first of the folding plates depicts the Casa Deodata built by Viviani in Florence in 1693 in honour of Galileo; the second a detail of Galileo’s bust above the portal. Brunet V, 1335; Carli and Favaro 400; Cinti 167; Riccardi I(ii), 629.9: ‘ bella e rara edizione’.