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Tag Archives: Bologna

Book of the Week — Geographiae et hyrdrographi reformat

19 Monday Mar 2018

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Almagestum Novum, astronomer, astronomy, Benatij, Bologna, Bononi, cosmology, geography, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, heliocentric, Jesuit, John Smith, latitude, longitude, magnetic needle, Modena, navigation, psalms, Ptolemy, stars, sun, surveying, terrestrial meridian, Tycho Brahe


You who laid the foundations of the earth,
So that it should not be moved forever” – Psalm 104, NKJV

“[A]s Geography without History seemeth a carkasse without motion; so History without Geography, wandreth as a Vagrant without a certaine habitation.”
― John Smith (1580-1631)

Geographiae et hydrographi reformat…
Giovanni Battista Riccioli (1598-1671)
Bononi: Ex typographia hredis V. Benatij, 1661
First edition
G114 R54

Giovanni Battista Riccioli, a Jesuit astronomer, was and is still best known for his work on astronomy, Almagestum Novum, 1651, in which he sets out reasons for and against a heliocentric cosmology. Riccioli was also a geographer. Geographia et hydrographiae reformatae libri is his attempt to collate all the geographic knowledge of the time. Riccioli addresses the variation of the magnetic needle, observations on geographical longitudes and latitudes, and several problems relating to navigation. Riccioli took measurements to determine the radius of the earth and to establish the ratio of water to land.

He developed a leveling device for use in surveying. He gave an account of the methods he used in order to determine the length of a degree of the terrestrial meridian. For this purpose, a base-line was measured near Bologna, and a triangulation was formed between that city and Modena, although the stations appear to have been improperly chosen — the angles between them are often less than eight degrees, and only two were observed in each triangle.

The instrument used to obtain the terrestrial angles was similar to the parallactic rulers of Ptolemy. In reducing the distances between the stations to one spherical surface, Riccioli assumed the refraction as constant, and equal to thirty minutes, as it had been determined by Tycho Brahe for celestial bodies in the horizon. The latitudes of the stations were determined by the sun and certain stars, their altitudes being observed with a quadrant whose radius was eight feet. But the declinations were taken from the catalogue of Brahe, and consequently liable to errors amounting to one minute or more.

Riccioli believed that the measures of the ancients were nearly correct. Among his own observations, he chose results which arrived closest to those earlier measures. Thus, his determination of the length of a degree was erroneous.

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Book of the Week — Liber Moamin falconrii de Scientia venandi per aves et quadrupeds

03 Tuesday Oct 2017

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al-Gitrif, al-Malik al-K'amil, al-Mutawakkili, Arabic, architecture, aristocracy, art, Baghdad, birds of prey, Bologna, caliph, chamber, Charles V, Christian, crusade, diplomat, diseases, dogs, Europe, excommunication, Faenz, Fakhr ad-d'in al-F'ars'e, falcon, falconer, falconry, feudal, Frederick II, Germans, Germany, Gothic Textura, historiated initials, Hohenstaufen, Holy Roman Empire, Hunayn ib Ish aq al-Ibad, hunting, illuminator, imperial, Islamic, Italian, Italy, Jerusalem, Knights of Saint John, Latin, literature, Malta, manual, manuscript, medieval, Mediterranean, miniatures, Moamin, Mongolian Empire, moulting, mouse, Palestine, papacy, parchment, Persian, physician, poetry, science, scribe, Sicily, Siege of Parma, sport, Sufi, sultan, Syrian, Theodore of Antioch, translator, vernacular

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“In quantum enim sunt reges non habent propriam delectationem nisi venationem” — Moamin

“A wise falcon hides his talons.” — Proverb

Liber Moamin falconrii de Scientia venandi per aves et quadrupeds

Facsimile. The so-called “Wiener Moamin” was created on the Italian penisula in the second half of the 13th century at the request of Frederick II of Hohenstaufen, King of Sicily and Jerusalem, king of the Germans and the Holy Roman Empire. It is illuminated with 101 historiated initials and more than 80 miniatures. The Wiener Moamin is a Latin version of an Arabic treatise on falconry, Kitab al-mutawakkili, attributed to one Moamin by the Western world. The original content was probably inspired by two oriental hunting treatises from the 8th and 9th centuries: the falcon book of al-Gitrif and the treatise dedicated to the caliph al-Mutawakkili of Baghdad, a work written by Christian scholar, physician and translator Hunayn ib Ish aq al-Ibad who resided at the court of al-Mutawakkili between 809 and 873. These two works exist only in fragments. As early as this, falconry was embraced as an empirical science as well as a sport.

The work provides an in-depth aspect of hunting with birds and dogs, formatted in five books:

The first book focuses on birds of prey.
Books two and three are devoted to diseases of birds and tried and tested methods of healing.
The last two books deal with the keeping and care of hunting dogs.

Falconry17v
Falconer treats a bird’s headache with massage.

The translation of the Arabic version was done by the philosopher Theodore of Antioch, a Syrian naturalist and interpreter, one of the most prominent cultural representatives of the court of Frederick II. This manual became one of the earliest to circulate in medieval Europe. Several copies survive. Copies translated into the vernacular began to appear soon after the first manual appeared

Frederick II (1194-1250) was a falconer of note and participated in correcting the work in 1240, during the siege of Faenz, near Bologna. A few years after the king worked on this book, he wrote his own on the subject, De arte venandi cum avibus. This manuscript was lost in 1248 during the siege of Parma, but other copies exist. For his work, Frederick II used several sources, including the manuscript here.

Frederick II, a larger-than-life figure, counted himself as a direct successor to the Roman Emperors. He was excommunicated four times during a lifelong power struggle the papacy. He took part in a crusade (the sixth, in 1238) and spoke six languages, including Arabic. He was married three times and had at least nine mistresses, with whom he had illegitimate offspring. He was also an avid patron of art, poetry, literature, and architecture.

Frederick II ruled over most of what is now Italy and Germany as well as territories around the Mediterranean (including Malta and Palestine.) He is recognized as an enlightened ruler over a multi-cultural multitude of people.  Frederick II was an enthusiast of Arabic culture and became acquainted with falconry through personal contacts with representatives of the Islamic world. One of his teachers was Fakhr ad-d’in al-F’ars’e, a Persian Sufi and advisor to sultan al-Malik al-K’amil, who stayed at the Sicilian court as a diplomat. It is probable that he gained firsthand knowledge of Arabic falconry during wars conducted in 1228 through 1229. He obtained a copy of Moamin’s manual on falconry during this time.

Falconry was a popular sport and status symbol among aristocracy in medieval Europe, the Middle East, and the Mongolian Empire. There is some evidence of its use by commoners, although that was likely unusual due to the commitment of time, money, and space. So valuable were falcons that when Charles V ceded Malta as a fief to the Knights of Saint John, the feudal rent was the annual payment of a Maltese falcon. Scholars differ on the origin of falconry. Some speculate that it entered Europe through warring Germanic tribes. The Arab world claims a two thousand year headstart before Frederick II mastered it.

Falconry31v
An elegant lady falconer giving medicine to a sick bird.

The text is laid out in one-column in a uniform script of dark brown ink with red chapter headings. The historiated initials range form 4 to 10 lines in size. The initials offer information along with the text. The initial opening the section on fol. 7v, for instance depicts the mouse chamber of the falcons. During the annual moulting in the late spring, the birds were secluded by the falconer in a specially made chamber.

Falconry7v
Falcon renewing its flying feathers.

The initials are enhanced by flower and leaf forms which spread over the parchment. The painters of the manuscript added decorative interest to scientific text and image.

Marginal notes, written in Italian, give precise instructions to the illuminator, detailing which scenes to paint in the fields of the initials written by the scribe. Written by a single scribe, the script is Gothic Textura, identified by two forms of “r” and sharp, straight, angular lines.

The facsimile is bound in a manner of a time later than the text block — a mid-century fifteenth sample — green patterned velvet covers and two metal clasps. Facsimile edition of three hundred and eighty-one, two hundred and twenty of which are reserved for the Arab Region. Rare Books copy is no. 39.

 

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Book of the Week — Instituzioni Analitiche ad uso della gioventu’ italiana

14 Monday Aug 2017

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algebra, Baltimore, Bologna, calculus, copper engravings, English, French, geometry, German, Greek, headpieces, Hebrew, historiated initials, Isaac Newton, Italian, John Colson, John Hellens, Johns Hopkins University Press, Latin, Leibniz, Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Massimo Mazzotti, Milan, Pietro Agnesi, Pope Benedict XIV, silk merchant, Spanish, vignettes

QA35-A27-1748-v.1-title

Instituzioni Analitiche
Maria Gaetana Agnesi (1718-1799)
Milan: Nella Regia-Ducal Corte, 1748
First edition
QA35 A27 1748

Maria Gaetana Agnesi was the eldest in a family of at least twenty-one children. Her father, Pietro Agnesi, a wealthy silk merchant, could afford to provide her with some of the best tutors available. A child prodigy, at an early age she had mastered Greek, Hebrew, French, Spanish, German and Latin.

She was shy, and suffered convulsions and headaches, but had strong impetus to please her father, who was focused on moving his family from its merchant class status to aristocracy. He proudly and frequently had her present at small social gatherings in which she gave discourses in Latin on natural philosophy — subjects such as the nature of tides and the origins of spring water –, mathematics, or the nature of the soul. These discourses took place in her well-appointed family home, surrounded by lush furnishings and paintings of sacred subjects.

Several of her sisters entered convents. One of her brothers became a monk. Pietro Agnesi denied Gaetana’s request to enter a convent, but eventually agreed to keep her out of the public sphere.

Instituzioni Analitiche is her momumental work, which she dedicated to Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Her objective was to give a complete comprehensible analysis of algebra, with emphasis on relatively new concepts. She wrote in Italian rather than Latin in an attempt to attract younger readers (in particular her brothers) and other readers, such as women, who were less than welcome in the world of Latin scholars. She explained elementary algebra, classical geometry, differential calculus, and integral calculus. Calculus was little understood by many intellectuals, including mathematicians, of the time — Isaac Newton had only recently died in 1727, Leibniz in 1716. This was the first vernacular textbook on calculus. And the first mathematics book to be published by a woman.

In her introduction, Agnesi states that some of the methods, material, and generalizations in her book were original to her. Her book was translated into English and French. John Hellens, editor of John Colson’s English translation, noted that Colson “found [Agnesi’s] work to be so excellent that he was at the pains of learning the Italian language at an advanced age for the sole purpose of translating her book into English, that the British Youth might have the benefit of it as well as the Youth of Italy.”

Today, Agnesi’s name is known to math students for her geometric “curve,” the witch of Agnesi, expressed as a mathematical equation.

Agnesi received her greatest recognition from Pope Benedict XIV (1675-1758) in the form of two letters. The first letter (June 1749) congratulated her on the publication of her book and was accompanied by a gold wreath containing valuable stones and a gold medal. In his second letter (September 1750), the pope appointed her to the chair of mathematics and natural philosophy at Bologna. Though she accepted the position as “honorary,” she ultimately did not teach there.

Following the death of her father, she no longer engaged in any scientific activity and spent the rest of her life in religious studies, devoting herself to the poor, the sick, the hungry and the homeless. She was all but forgotten for her treatise on calculus.

Illustrated with fifty-nine copper engraved folding plates and two folding tables. Copper-engraved title page vignettes, headpieces and historiated initials. Rare Books copy bound in early nineteenth century calf over paste paper boards, green and red gilt-lettered spine labels.

QA35-A27-1748-v.2-pg705

QA35-A27-1748-v.2-pg708

Recommended reading:
Mazzotti, Massimo. The World of Maria Gaetana Agnesi, Mathematician of God. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007, QA29 A28 M39 2007, L1, General Collection

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Another Book of the Week – AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…

15 Wednesday Jul 2015

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American, Austria, Bologna, Brigham Young, California, cattle, consul, Corsica, Domenico Ballo, Florentine, Italian Consul General in San Francisco, John Taylor, King of Sardinia, Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888), Marriott Library Advisory Board, Michael W. Homer, Mormon, On the Way to Somewhere Else, orchestra, politics, polygamy, rare books, Salt Lake City, Salt Lake Theatre, San Francisco, settlers, Sicilian, The University of Utah Press, Zanichelli


AVVENTURE DELLA MIA VITA…
Leonetto Cipriani (1812-1888)
Bologna: N. Zanichelli editore, 1934
First edition
DG552.8 C56 M67 1934

In 1852, Leonetto Cipriani was appointed by the King of Sardinia as that country’s first consul in San Francisco. Cipriani, born into a Florentine family living in Corsica, fought against Austria in 1848 and was imprisoned and then exiled. After resigning as consul, he purchased cattle in the American mid-west with the intention of selling them in California. During his cattle drive, in 1852, six years after the Mormon settlers arrived, he passed through Salt Lake City. There, a converted Sicilian, Domenico Ballo, introduced Cipriani to John Taylor. Taylor introduced Cipriani to Brigham Young. In this book, Cipriani reminisces about the Salt Lake Theatre, where Ballo conducted the orchestra, and conversations with Taylor regarding polygamy and politics.

University of Utah copy gift of Michael W. Homer.

Read more about Leonetti Cipriani here, on the Italian Consul General in San Francisco’s blog. Read an abstract of his memoirs from On the Way to Somewhere Else, published by The University of Utah Press and edited by Michael W. Homer, member of the Marriott Library Advisory Board and ever-faithful friend of Rare Books.

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Book of the Week – De la Lingua che si Parla & Scriue in Firenza…

31 Monday Mar 2014

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Antwerp, Arnoldus Arlenius, Basel, Bologna, Cosimo, Duke Cosimo I, Duke of Florence, Dutch, Filipo Giunta, Florence, France, Germany, Greek, Italian, Italy, Ivie J. and Jeanne M. Nielson, Latin, Lorenzo Torrentinus, Lyon, Netherlands, Pierfrancesco Giambullari, printer, printing, Torrentino, type foundry, typographic, Venice

Giambullari, De la Lingua…, 1551, Title Page
Giambullari, De la Lingua…, 1551, Portrait
Giambullari, De la Lingua…, 1551

De la Lingua che si Parla & Scriue in Firenza…
Pierfrancesco Giambullari (1495-1555)
Firenze: Torrentino, 1551

Printer Lorenzo Torrentinus (1499-1563) was a Dutch-Italian humanist and printer for Cosimo, Duke of Florence. He was born in the Netherlands into a wealthy family. After his studies, he began working for printers and booksellers in Antwerp, Basel, Lyon, Venice and Bologna. There, he worked as a bookseller with Arnoldus Arlenius, a well-known and well-respected Greek scholar. They imported books in Greek and Latin from France and Germany, selling them throughout Italy. They also acted as liaisons between authors and printers.

After the death of Filippo Giunta, the great Florentian pressman, printing in Florence deteriorated from an art to a trade. Duke Cosimo I brought Torrentino to Florence to improve the quality of printing in his city. In 1577 Torrentino opened his own press in Florence. He produced nearly two hundred and seventy-five editions. His work was of high quality and his reputation and business flourished. In 1562 he became director of a type foundry. His press was managed by his sons. His careful and artful typographic skills enabled him to contribute to the development of Italian languages. Like the best printers of the era, Torrentino carried equally the roles of editor, translator and commentator.

University of Utah copy gift of Ivie J. and Jeanne M. Nielson.

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