Fine, De mundi sphaera, Paris, 1542 [and other works], contemporary Parisian calf gilt

FINE, ORONCE. De mundi sphaera, sive cosmographia, primave astronomiae parte, libri V... Eiusdem Orontii rectarum in circuli quadrante subtensarum (quos finis vocant) demonstratio.... Eiusdem, Organum universale, ex supradicta sinuum ratione contextum... Paris: Simon de Colines, 1542 [bound with:]

Quadratura circuli... demonstrata... de circuli mensura... De multangularum omnium... figurarum descriptione... Planisphaerium geographicum... Paris: Simon de Colines, 1544 [and:]

Quadrans astrolabicus omnibus Europae regionibus inserviens... Paris: Simon de Colines, 1534 [and:]

In sex priores libros Geometricarum elementorum Euclidis Megarensis demonstrationes... Paris: Simon de Colines, 1544

A VOLUME OF RARE MATHEMATICAL WORKS WITH FASCINATING EARLY PROVENANCE AND MARGINALIA. A volume of works by Oronce Fine (1494-1555), Professor of Mathematics at the Collège Royal, who wrote under the Latin name "Orontius Finaeus Delphinatus" and used the image of a dolphin frequently in the title-pages and border decorations of his printed works. The present volume may well have been bound for the author, owing to the gilt dolphin devices on the covers. The volume also bears several ownership inscriptions by Innocent Gentillet (1535-1588), the French Huguenot lawyer, parliamentarian, and anti-Machiavellian political theorist. He signs his name "Innocentius Gentilles" multiple times, and his signature on the front pastedown is accompanied by a Greek motto: "εμού έχει | η τιμή τω Θεώ ήτα τοις αλληλοις" (honouring God is an honour to everyone). The final text leaf of the third work is signed with the letters "I" and "G" laced together in a knot in a circle drawn in ink. The third and fourth works, in particular, are copiously annotated in Latin, with at least two hands present. The majority of the annotations may well be in the hand of Gentillet. A further intriguing dimension to the early provenance of this volume is the presence of the signature "Anne Moret" on the lower margin of the title-page in what appears to be a late-sixteenth-century hand—subtle material evidence of early modern female book ownership and potential engagement with the works of a leading French mathematician.