Francesco Maria Cavazzoni Zanotti - Matematica, fisica newtoniana, meccanica e filosofia - 1774-1790

FRANCESCO MARIA CAVAZZONI ZANOTTI (1692–1777) – OPERE SCIENTIFICHE, MATEMATICHE E FILOSOFICHE – 4 VOLUMI – 1774–1790

An interesting collection of four eighteenth-century volumes by Francesco Maria Cavazzoni Zanotti, Italian mathematician, physicist and philosopher, a prominent figure of the Italian scientific Enlightenment and the Institute of Sciences in Bologna.

An important testimony to the development of eighteenth-century mathematics and natural philosophy, including treatises on mechanics, central forces, algebra, geometry and philosophy.

CONTENTS

1. OPERE – VOLUME I – Bologna, 1779

Contains Della forza de' corpi che chiamano viva, a three-book treatise concerning the eighteenth-century controversy on vis viva, the nature and measurement of the forces of moving bodies, within the wider debate involving Leibnizian and Newtonian mechanics.

Collation: LXXIX, 306 pages, imprimatur, one engraved portrait and one plate.

2. OPERE – VOLUME II – Bologna, 1781

Of particular mathematical and scientific interest. Contains five treatises:

Algorithmus in epitomam redactus (pp. 1–120): algebra, equations and analytic geometry.

De viribus centralibus (pp. 121–226): central forces, motion of bodies and conic trajectories, with references to Newtonian mechanics.

Mémoire sur les figures et les solides circonscrits au cercle et à la sphère (pp. 227–244): geometry of figures and solids.

Opusculum de separandis indeterminatis (pp. 245–272): algebraic and mathematical investigations.

Praefatio in qua Anonymi animadversiones in Manfredii Ephemerides expenduntur (pp. 273–287): astronomy and astronomical ephemerides.

Collation: 287 numbered pages and six folding engraved plates, all present.

The most notable scientific contribution is De viribus centralibus, concerning the mathematical principles of motion under central forces, a fundamental subject in Newtonian physics.

3. OPERE – VOLUME V – Bologna, 1790

A collection of philosophical writings and dissertations, including Della forza attrattiva delle idee, Ragionamento sopra la filosofia and Paradossi, illustrating Zanotti's wide-ranging scientific and intellectual interests.

Collation: 310 pages, imprimatur and one plate.

4. SERMONES – Bassano, 1774

A collection of Latin academic discourses reflecting Zanotti's intellectual activity and his association with the scientific and scholarly circles of Bologna.

Collation: numbered I–CL, followed by a final blank leaf.

OVERALL COLLATION

Four volumes comprising 1,132 numbered pages in total, in addition to unnumbered material, imprimatur notices and a final blank leaf. Eight plates, including six folding engraved plates in Volume II, and one engraved portrait in Volume I.

BINDINGS AND CONDITION

Two volumes in full rigid vellum, one in full brown leather with gilt decoration and a spine label, and one (Sermones) in antique paper-covered boards.

The bindings show natural signs of age, including staining, rubbing and ordinary wear. Interiors generally well preserved.

Condition disclosure: Volume II has worm galleries and small wormholes affecting the lower and lower-right blank margins of some leaves, varying in extent, without affecting the printed text. The defects are clearly illustrated in the close-up photographs.

The collection comprises Volumes I, II and V of the Opere, together with the separately published Sermones. It is not a complete set of Zanotti's collected works.

A particularly appealing collection for scholars and collectors of early mathematics, Newtonian mechanics, natural philosophy and eighteenth-century Italian scientific literature.

The photographs form an integral part of the description and document the bindings, illustrations and condition of the volumes.