Tartaglia, Quesiti et inventioni diverse; La nova scientia, Venice, 1546-1550, contemporary limp vellum

TARTAGLIA, NICCOLÒ

A volume containing works by Tartaglia and Biringucci, comprising:

i. Tartaglia, Niccolò. Quesiti, et inventioni diverse. (Venice: Venturino Ruffinelli for the author, July 1546), FIRST EDITION, woodcut portrait of the author on title-page, woodcut initials and illustrations, manuscript note by Filicaia on EE2v

ii. Tartaglia, Niccolò. La nova scientia... con una gionta al terzo libro. (Venice: Niccolò Bascarini for the author, 1550), woodcut on title-page, woodcut initials and illustrations

iii. Biringucci, Vannoccio. Pirotechnia. (Venice: Giovanni Padovano for Curzio Troiano Navò, 1550), title within woodcut border, woodcut initials and illustrations, woodcut printer's device on final leaf

3 works in one volume, 4to (212 x 155mm.), contemporary limp vellum, manuscript fragments in binding, upper hinge broken, binding slightly soiled

FIRST EDITION of Tartaglia's seminal treatise on ballistics. Tartaglia "reshaped the character of military discourse by identifying a 'new science' of artillery and casting it as a mathematical discipline. As a mathematician he was first directed to military questions in 1531 or 1532 in Verona when he was consulted on the maximum range of cannon" (The Geometry of War). His work on the trajectory of projectiles was completed by Galileo in his Discorsi of 1638 (see lot 205) where a table of ranges was supplied.

Unusually, the Quesiti has a printed dedication to Henry VIII of England, thanks to the influence of Richard Wentworth who was in Venice at the time of printing.

For another edition of Biringucci's Pirotechnia, see lot 39.

LITERATURE:

Cockle 660, 658 & 931; Edit16 29899, 31855 & 6157; Tartaglia: The Geometry of War 1 (both works)

PROVENANCE:

Benedetto Sertori, doctor; Giovanni Battista da Filicaia, a citizen of Florence, early inscriptions on title-page; Thomas Francis Fremantle, armorial bookplate