Numerorum Mysteria.

RARE STUDY OF THE ALCHEMY OF NUMBERS


Pietro Bongo. Numerorum Mysteria. Opus maximarum rerum doctrina, et copia refertum, in quo mirus in primis idemq[ue] perpetuus arithmeticae pythagoricae . . . [with] Appendix ad ea qvae de Nvmerorvm mysteriis egit.

Text in Latin. Two parts in one volume. Illustrated with woodcut printer's device on both title-pages; full-page woodcut arms of the dedicatee, Cardinal Ludovico Madruzzo; full-page engraved arms of Bongo family; numerous woodcut diagrams and tables in text; plus numerous woodcut decorative initials, head- and tail-pieces. Thick 4to. Bound in 18th-century quarter-vellum over thick pasteboards (with vellum corners); flat spine with gilt-lettered brown morocco title-label. Edges speckled blue. Marbled endpapers. Green silk bookmark attached. Bergamo: Comino Ventura, 1599. Rare Enlarged Edition. (Riccardi I, 202; Smith, Rara Arithmetica, 380-4; Thorndike VI, 458-9). First printed in 1583-4 (also in Bergamo),

Pietro Bongo's Numerorum Mysteria was the most elaborate compilation of numerical symbolism of its time. It appeared in progressively expanding editions, under various titles. This is the most complete edition with a 77-page appendix of additional material.


"This is a mass of erudition, prolix and unscientific, relating to the mystery of numbers. . . It includes all of the allusions to such matters as the mystic three that Bungus could find in ancient literature. He takes up the various numbers from one to ten in the same way, together with a few of the more interesting larger numbers. For students interested in popular number mysticism the book still remains the classic in its way. It is also of much value in showing the nature of the Roman numerals in use in the sixteenth century." (Smith, Rara Arithmetica, p. 383)

18th-century ownership inscription of Dott. Ranuccio Luigi Scarpacci of Bergamo (on front free endpaper and front free fly-leaf. Another Italian ownership inscription of Dott. Luigi Carrara, a physician (also from Bergamo). An unidentified modern bookplate to front pastedown.


Binding rubbed, somewhat soiled and slightly stained; some edge wear (top corners worn through); approximately 1½-inch split to vellum at foot of front joint, but binding solid and hinges intact. A few leaves with some early manuscript marginalia; hand-written initials to inner margin of title; a few ownership inscriptions to front free end-paper; occasional light-to-moderate browning or spotting, o/w clean and wide-margined.

The most complete edition (with an added Appendix) of this comprehensive Renaissance manual of numerology. Scarce.