Euclide - La perspectiva y especularia de Euclides - 1584

Euclid

Euclid's Perspective and Specularity. Translated into vernacular Castilian by Pedro Ambrosio Onderiz, his servant

Madrid, House of the Widow of Alonso Gomez, 1584

Parchment 20x15 cm, 121 pp.

Very illustrated with engravings inside the text

A light stain in the upper right corner that affects half the book. Paper very well preserved. Some corners with slight damage. Very good copy.

First edition of the first Spanish translation, made by Pedro Ambrosio Onderiz, of Euclid's Optics and Catoptrics.

Vignette with the coat of arms of Philip II on the cover, four wood-engraved initials, and diagrams in the text.

This is the oldest Greek treatise preserved on optics and perspective. It was the reference work until the publication of Newton's Optics. Onderiz, a member of the newly founded Academy of Mathematics, was commissioned by Philip II to translate the most important scientific texts into Spanish. Before Euclid's Perspective and Specularity, only two translations of scientific works into Spanish had been published: The first six books of geometry (1576) and an incomplete version of Mathematicae quaedam selecta (1566).

Palau 84722.