Two Important Scientific Works In Spanish
Perspectiva, y Especularia de Euclides. Traduzidas en vulgar Castellano... por Pedro Ambrosio Onderiz.
Madrid: Alonso Gomez, 1585.
GARCIA DE CESPEDES, Andres. La Perspectiva, y Especularia de Euclides. Traduzidas en vulgar Castellano... por Pedro Ambrosio Onderiz. Madrid: Alonso Gomez, 1585.
Full Description:
[EUCLID]. La Perspectiva, y Especularia de Euclides. Traduzidas en vulgar Castellano... por Pedro Ambrosio Onderiz. Madrid: Alonso Gomez, 1585.
First edition of the first Spanish translation of Euclid's "Optics and Catoptrics." Small quarto (7 5/8 x 5 1/2 inches; 194 x 136 mm). [6], 60 leaves. With separate title-page for Especularia dated 1584. Woodcut armorial vignette of Philip II on the general title page. With woodcut initials and diagrams in the text.
[Together with]:
GARCIA DE CESPEDES, Andrés. Libro des Instrumentos Nuevos de Geometria muy Necessarios para Medir Distancias, y Alturas, sin que intervengan numeros, como se demuestra en la practica. De mas desto se ponen otros tratados, com es uno, de conduzir aguas, y otro una question de artilleria, en donde se ponen algunas demostraciones curiosas. Madrid, Juan de la Cuesta, 1606.
First and only edition. Small quarto (7 5/8 x 5 1/2 inches; 194 x 136 mm). [4], 68 leaves. With woodcut engravings, initials, head and tailpieces.Andrés García de Céspedes was the Royal Cosmographer to King Philip III of Spain. The leaf following the title page contains a list of 11 other works by Céspedes of which only two were printed, the present work and a treatise on navigation, Regimiento de Navigacion, published the same year as this work. The headpiece at the start of the text contains native American motifs. Juan de la Cuesta was the printer of the first edition of Don Quixote.
These two works are bound together in contemporary vellum. Yap edges. Vellum ties. Previous owner's bookplate on front pastedown. Early ink inscriptions to front free endpaper. Old ink marginalia throughout both works. Some old branding markings to edges of text block, not affecting text. Some minor dampstaining and soiling. Final text leaf and rear free endpaper with a repair, affecting a few words. Final text leaf trimmed close, just touching text. Housed in a quarter sheep clamshell with red morocco spine label, lettered in gilt. Overall a very good copy of both works.
"Though often overshadowed by his mathematical reputation, Euclid is a central figure in the history of optics. He wrote an in-depth study of the phenomenon of visible light in Optica, the earliest surviving treatise concerning optics and light in the western world. Within the work, Euclid maintains the Platonic tradition that vision is caused by rays that emanate from the eye, but also offers an analysis of the eye's perception of distant objects and defines the laws of reflection of light from smooth surfaces. Optica was considered to be of particular importance to astronomy and was often included as part of a compendium of early Greek works in the field. Translated into Latin by a number of writers during the medieval period, the work gained renewed relevance in the fifteenth century when it underpinned the principles of linear perspective." (Michael W. Davidson and The Florida State University)
Libro des Instrumentos Nuevos de Geometria by Garcia de Cespedes, describes new instruments useful in various fields of military surveying, ballistics and geometry, as well as the location and transportation of drinking water. It also includes the most comprehensive description of hydraulics to have been published in Spain.
Palau 98620.
HBS 69530.
$17,500.
Price: $17,500.00
Item #69530