Elementorum

Pesaro: [Camillo Franceshini], 1572. First edition. Very Good. RARE HISTORICALLY-IMPORTANT EDITION OF THE WORLD'S MOST INFLUENTIAL MATHEMATICAL TREATISE: THE FIRST "COMMANDINO" EDITION. Having established himself as a noted scholar, Federico Commandino of Urbino at the behest of his pupil Prince Francesco Maria translated into Latin Euclid's Elements, configuring it into 15 books and adding extensive commentary. A gorgeously printed work, profusely illustrated with 865 in-text diagrams, Commandino's edition, first published in 1572, was "made use of by subsequent editors for centuries" (Thomas-Stanford).

EUCLID; COMMANDINO, FEDERICO. Euclidis Elementorum Libri XV. Unà cum Scholijs antiquis. A Federico Commandino Urbinate nuper in Latinum conversi, commentarijsq'ue quibusdam illustrati. Pesaro: [Camillo Franceshini], 1572. First edition. Folio (8.5 x 13 in; 216 x 330 mm); *,**6, A-Z, Aa-Zz, Aaa-Sss4: [12] (title-page, papal authorisation, dedication to Prince Frederico Maria of Urbino, contents), 255 ff., [1]. Bound in early eighteenth-century calf-backed decorated boards. With broad woodcut title page border by J. Chrieger, and woodcut illustrations throughout text and historiated initials at the start of each book. Ff. [100] and [192] misprinted as "110" and "129", respectively. Repair to hinge of title-page, some foxing and soiling to title-page, with tear (4 ¾ x 1 in) repaired later paper along right of bottom edge just clipping line of boarder, faint evidence of early stamp on top right margin; tear to bottom corner of f. 49; occasional foxing (most significant on ff. 38-39, 94-95, 146-47, 229, 232), otherwise crisp text throughout with extremely large margins. Thomas-Stanford 18.

References:

Dennistoun, James, Memoirs of the Dukes of Urbino, 3 vols. (London: Bodley Head, 1909), III

Encyclopedia of the Scientific Revolution, ed. by Wilbur Applebaum (New York: Taylor & Francis, 2005)

Thomas-Stanford, Charles, Early Editions of Euclid's Elements (London: Bibliographical Society, 1926).