Beschreibung:

[APPIER, Jan, dit Hanzelet, traditionally attributed to Jean LEURECHON (1591-1670)]. Recreations mathématiques composées de plusieurs problèmes plaisans et facetieux d'arithmetique, geometrie . Rouen: Charles Osmont, 1634. One of the earliest editions of the first book to refer to ‘recreational mathematics’ in the title : an influential collection of arithmetical and combinatorial problems and questions and experiments in cosmology, optics, perspective and mechanics first published in 1624 (only 3 extant copies of the first edition). ‘This work is pivotal in the history of science and mathematics. It brings together two sixteenth-century traditions, mercantile arithmetic and natural magic, and creates two new ones: recreational mathematics and popular science. […] The book was influential on early seventeenth-century natural philosophers such as Descartes, Mersenne and Leibniz’ (A. Heeffer, Récréations Mathématiques (1624): A Study on its Authorship, Sources and Influence , in Gibeciere, 1, 2006). Dozens of editions and translations were published during the seventeenth century (the first English translation appeared in 1633). As well as identifying the sources of all the problems presented in this work, Heeffer also questions its traditional attribution to the Jesuit Leucheron and makes a strong case for assigning the authorship to the printer and engraver Jean Appier dit Hanzelet, 1596 – 1647. See Tomash & Williams E18; T. H. Hall, Old conjuring books , pp.83-119; S. De Renzi, Instruments in Print: Books from the Whipple Collection 8. 3 parts in one volume, octavo (162 x 95mm). With many woodcuts in the text (small hole in the titlepage, which has been gently washed, some faint waterstaining at the lower outer portion). Early 20th-century morocco, panelled spine filleted and lettered in gilt, gilt turn-ins. Provenance : Kenney Collection (printed label; sold Sotheby’s 1966).