Euclid | Elementorum geometricorum lib. XV, Basel, 1537, the first Hervagius edition of Euclid in Latin

Euclid

Elementorum geometricorum lib. XV. Basel: Johannes Hervagius, 1537

Folio (309 x 201 mm). Collation: †⁶ a-z⁶ A-2C⁶: 298 leaves. Numerous diagrams and woodcuts, woodcut devices to title-page and verso of final leave, woodcut initials, old Latin marginalia to early leaves, modern calf incorporating sides of an earlier blindstamped binding, horizontal manuscript title to fore-edge, title cut down and restored, some other repairs

FIRST HERVAGIUS EDITION OF EUCLID IN LATIN, INCLUDING MELANCHTHON'S PREFACE (lacking in many copies). This edition uses Bartolomeo Zamberti's 1505 translation, which includes other texts by Euclid, the Phaenomena, Catoptrics, Optics and Data. Hervagius had previously issued the Greek editio princeps in 1533.

PROVENANCE:

Latin motto of an early modern owner "sapiens dominabitur astris" (the wise one will rule the stars) to title-page, dated 1563

LITERATURE:

USTC 654853; VD16 E 4154; IA 165.896; Steck III.33; Thomas-Stanford 9 (stating that many copies have the preface censored)