the first work on the usage of the surveyor’s cross and highly esteemed
FELICIANO, Francesco. Libro di arithmetica et geometria speculativa et praticale … intitulato Scala Grimaldelli ... Venice, Francesco Bindoni and Maffeo Pasini, 1536.
£4850
The revised, second edition of Feliciano’s most famous work (following the publication of his Libro de abaco of 1517), generally known as the Scala grimaldelli (first, 1526, and extremely rare).
Feliciano’s second work was highly esteemed as a textbook for schools. In the ‘Terzo libro” of his Scala Grimaldelli he concerns himself mainly with demonstrating the ease of use of the surveyor’s cross and the accuracy of the result compared to other methods in use at the time. The work is enhanced with an interesting overview of some case studies relating to the measurement of land which are considered difficult to resolve, providing the solutions to them. To do this he sets out a description of three different ways of measuring for each of the problems posed, supported by drawings, in order to highlight the procedures that lead to correct results compared to those that lead to errors or inaccurate results.
Whilst the instrument's structure is not explained, Feliciano was the first to provide a description of how the surveyor’s cross is used in a printed text.
Porta on fortification
PORTA, Giambattista della. De Munitione Libri III. Naples, Giovanni Jacopo Carlino & Constantino Vitale, 1608.
Sold
Rare first edition of della Porta’s work on military engineering and fortification.
Published in the same year as his De Distillatione, the work is testimony to the author’s wide ranging interests.
As stated by della Porta in his preface, he felt the need to publish the work due to the never ending perils and horrors of war, and employing the mathematical arts.