Scala Grimaldelli libro di aritmetica, e geometria speculatiua, e pratticale. Venezia, Hertz, 1669: THE USE OF THE “SQUADRO GEOMETRICO” AND THE MULTIPLICATION "PER CROCETTA"

Renowned italian treatise on mathematic and Practical geometry

the use of the "Squadro Geometrico" (Set Square)

the multiplication "per crocetta" and the first mention of the surveyor's cross

Feliciano, Francesco. Scala Grimaldelli libro di aritmetica, e geometria speculatiua, e pratticale di M. Francesco Feliciano Veronese. Diuiso in tre libri. Nel primo si tratta di cose pertinenti a Mercatanti ... Nel secondo si tratta dell'arte maggiore di algebra ...accresciuto in quest'vltima impressione di dottissimi problemi ... Nel terzo, & vltimo si dimostra il misurar della Terra ... i nuovo ristampato, e da molti errori corretto, e accresciuto di molte cose da M. Filippo Macario Veronese . Venetia : presso Gio. Giacomo Hertz, 1669.

4to (188 x 120 mm), contemporary paper board, handwrtten titles at front board in sepia ink, pp. [8], 240, printer device with Galleon at title page, xylographic head-letters, head-pieces and end-pieces.

Last printed edition of this milestone in the history of mathematic

The Scala Grmaldelli is a work of outstanding importance in the history of mathematics, and, more than any other work, influenced the teaching of this science in the sixteenth century.

The book deals with commercial arithmetic, treatment of roots, the rule of false position, algebra, and a section on practical geometry.

At leaf d2 recto Feliciano illustrates the method of multiplication "Per Crocetta", one of several methods that were in use in the Italian Renaissance.

It is noteworthy, in the part dealing with practical geometry, the constant use of the "Squadro Geometrico" (geometric square) which appears to have been practiced in Italy since the XV century.

The Scala Grimaldelli, when first published, was the first book describing the use of the Surveyor's Cross, a simple instrument made of two bars forming a right-angled cross with sights at each end and used in setting out right angles in surveying, an innovative tool at a time when long distances were often merely estimated by sight.

The book was so important in the teaching of elementary mathematics that he was reprintd in numerous editions including this last one in 1669, 143 years after the original edition.

"Few books had greater influence on the subsequent teaching of elementary mathematics" (Smith).

The symbology expressed in the title is fascinating: just as you need a ladder to attack a fortress and a lockpick to open a lock, in the same way to approach complex mathematics you need this book.

Francesco Feliciano was a mathematician of Lazesio Veronese who lived in the second half of the century. XV and in the first quarter of the XVI.

He published in 1517 Libro di abbaco, printed in several editions, but he is best known for the book of arithmetic and speculative and practical geometry, described here: Scala Grimaldelli (1526), whose subsequent editions reached the end of the XVII century.

This important treatise disseminated outside Italy the ideas, the notions and the methods, in the field of arithmetic, geometry, algebra, and their applications, that were first exposed by Leonardo Pisano, and then cultivated in italian schools.

Conditions: this book was meant to be heavily used, so it's rare find a copy in good condition as, despite few marls of use, this copy, in its original binding, can be defined.

Provenance: I. Faded handwriten ownership signature at title page, II. Contemporary handwrtten annotations and calculations on margins.

Reference: Honeyman, IV 1288; Michel-Michel, III-29; Riccardi, II-22.