(MATHEMATICS; GEOMETRY) EUCLIDES MEGARENSIS (-); Federico COMMANDINO (editor) (1509-1575) De gli elementi d’Euclide libri quindici con gli scholii antichi volgarizzati già d’ordine del famosissimo matematico ederico Commandino da Urbino, et hora con diligentia revisti e ristampati. In Pesaro, Appresso Flaminio Concordia,1619. § Small folio (296x198); [8]; 278 leaves, on title page beautiful large heraldic woodcut by Federico Feltrio della Rovere, dedicatee of the work. Nice woodcut initials, large engraved printer’s mark on colophon, text within frame, richly illustrated with diagrams and geometrical illustrations. XIX century half-vellum. Some leaves browned some small marginal restoration; ceased library old stamp on title page. Good copy on strong paper. Second and definitive edition of the Italian translation, first published in Urbino in 1575; “Commandino’s translation of Euclid is one of the most highly regarded. The numerous reprints of it, including those published in England under the supervision of those learned mathematicians, are the clearest proof of this” (Riccardi, translated). Commandino’s translation of Euclid, as well as being the finest achievement of his scholarly work, is still regarded as the best 16th century translation of Euclid’s geometry. Born in Urbino in 1509, Commandino graduated in philosophy and medicine but he developed a deep interest for mathematics and became one of the great mathematicians of the 16th century. He is best known for his translations from Greek of some of the great mathematicians of the classical antiquity, such as Aristarchus of Samos Pappus of Alexandria and Archimedes of Syracuse, translations which enormously contributed to their dissemination. Geometry, which prior to Euclid had been regarded as part of philosophy, acquired its own autonomy for the first time and, thanks in part to translations into the vernacular, gained wider dissemination and practical application. “In 1572, ... C. published the Euclidis Elementorum libri XV una cum scholiis antiquis commentariisque illustrati (Pisauri, apud Camillum Francischinum), translation from the Greek with relative comment that marks a turning point for the diffusion of Euclidean doctrines .. in the Prolegomena to Euclid he also traces the history of mathematics and uses Proclus' comment to distinguish the mathematical Euclid from the homonymous philosopher of Megara.” (Bianca, translated). Euclid’s Elements represents one of the most influential works in the history of mathematics: “... Euclid stayed in Alexandria, and the school of mathematics that formed around him continued for centuries. ... Euclid ... did write the greatest mathematical textbook of all time. In The Elements, he gave the world a masterly explanation of the universal principles of mathematics, presented in such an ordered, lucid way that it was still being used as a textbook 2300 years later and, according to one scholar, ‘has exercised an influence on the human mind grater than that of any other work except the Bible’.” (Frankopan, p. 37) Indeed, it has been defined “the oldest mathematical textbook in the world” (PMM).  BRUNET II, 1090. GRAESSE II, 513. GAMBA, 1916 (Note). RICCARDI I (1), 364: “La traduzione dell'Euclide eseguita dal Commandino è una delle più pregiate. Le numerose ristampe pubblicatene anche in Inghilterra per cura di quei dotti matematici, ne sono la prova più palmare”; CONCETTA BIANCA Commandino, Federico In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani; PMM 25; PETER FRANKOPAN The map of knowledge London, Picador, 2019.