Add MS 8784

TREATISE ON MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY; 1443. Italian. Abbacus book containing sections on arithmetic (f. 3v), business problems (f. 27), algebra (f. 57), geometry (f. 80), miscellaneous mathematical problems (f. 120v) and the calendar and astronomy (f. 184), with diagrams and illustrations. Prologue inc. 'Tutti gliuomeni secondo che dice Aristotile nel principio'. Inc. (f. 3v) 'E chonico sia chosa che sono 9 fighure nellabacho', expl. 'uno ciecie sopra a 1/2 archo lo chonio sia di chalderone vecchiximo etc. Laus deo amen'. The manuscript has: blue initials, some with penwork decoration; rubricated headings and paragraph marks; a list of contents (ff. 2v-3), with chapter references in red; and many tables, some outlined in red. There are coloured drawings of finger reckoning (ff. 5-5v), and many diagrams and illustrations in red, some coloured with yellow, green, red and blue, in the sections on geometry (ff. 80-111 passim), miscellaneous problems (ff. 154v-164 passim) and the calendar and astronomy (ff. 193-203v passim). Other copies of this text are Add. 10363 (circa 1440); Florence, Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale, Magl. Cl. XI, 119 (circa 1437); Florence, Biblioteca Laurenziana, Ash. 343 (circa 1444) and Ash. 608 (circa 1440); Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale, It. 463 (circa 1440). See W. van Egmond, Practical Mathematics in the Italian Renaissance: a Catalog of Italian Abbacus Manuscripts and Printed Books to 1600, monograph 4, supplement to Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, fasc. 1 (1980), p. 244, and B. Boncompagni, 'Intorno ad un Trattato d'Aritmetica Stampata nel 1478', Atti dell'Accademia Pontifica de'Nuovi Lincei, xvi (1862-1863), pp. 424-427, 775. Copied by Agostino di Bartolo, in the stinche (the debtors' prison in Florence), 15 March 1442[3], colophon (f. 212v). See A. G. Watson, Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600, i (1979), p. 26, who suggests that the scribe may be the 'Augustinus' who finished copying an Italian dialogue by Giannozzo Manetti for him in the stinche on 30 March 1444 (Vatican, MS Pal. lat. 1607). Cf. the colophon in Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Canon. ital. 27 (early 15th cent.) 'Ego Agustinus bartoli banchi de florentia s(ub)s(cripsi)'. Ownership inscription (f. 213) 'Johannes Franciscus S[e?]tari[ni?]s Civis Fires: die viginti mensis settembris 1536'. There are marginal annotations in a 16th-cent. hand on f. 26v, 15th-17th-cent. annotations to the calendar on ff. 185-191v and notes dated 1542 on f. 192r. Purchased from R. H. Evans, 8 December 1830, lot 282* (part).

Paper; ff. 213. 292 x circa 215mm. Bound in regular gatherings of 10. Horizontal catchwords in centre of lower margin. Frame ruled circa 185 x circa 120mm. Watermarks similar to Briquet, monts, 11702 (A.D. 1440) and 11726 (A.D. 1428-1440), and huchet, 7682 (A.D. 1413-1415). Modern binding with leather spine and bevelled wooden boards.