Beschreibung:

FIBONACCI, Leonardo [c.1170-c.1250]; BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius Severinus [c.480-524], GROSSETESTE, Robert [1175-1253]; [DE PULCHRO RIVO, Johannes, attrib.] A sammelband of 5 mathematical texts, in Latin, illustrated manuscript on paper, [Italy, late 15th century]. A vanishingly rare testament to the foundations of modern mathematics and algebra: a 15th-century illustrated sammelband of mathematical texts, including the most significant chapters in Fibonacci’s revolutionary Liber Abaci, owned and bound by the one of the most important figures in the history of 19th-century mathematics, Prince Baldassare Boncompagni. 217 x 158mm. v + 222 leaves + ii, complete, collation: 1-108, 116, 12-138, 14-1512, 1610, 1712, 1814, 19-2312, 19th-century foliation in pen followed here, the first four texts ff.1-102 in two columns of 28-32 lines, ruled space: 173 x 56mm, the watermark a crossbow in a circle, closest to Bricquet 739, in use in Italy from 1468; rubrics and initials in red, capitals touched in red, the Boethius illustrated with 125 diagrams in red and brown, the Grosseteste illustrated with 10 diagrams, the final text by Fibonacci ff.104-221 in a single column of c.26 lines in an Italian humanist cursive hand, ruled space: 141 x 94mm, the watermarks of a cross and a bull’s head similar to Bricquet 11806 and 1455a, both found in the Venetian region in the 1480s (opening leaf with small marginal repair and some soiling, occasional ink erosion to diagrams, some marginal staining and thumbing). Mid-19th century marbled boards (edges scuffed and rubbed). In a chemise and red quarter morocco case. Provenance: (1) Pietro Girometti (1811-1859), Roman gem-engraver and medallist. No 25 in his catalogue of Codici Cartacei e Membranacei dei secoli XIVo e XVo […], 1856, sold with 33 other manuscripts to: (2) Prince Baldassare Boncompagni-Ludovisi (1821-1894), one of the leading figures in 19th-century mathematics, a bibliophile and scholar responsible for the widespread propagation and popularisation of several key mathematical texts of the Middle Ages, including Fibonacci. His vast library consisted of some 650 manuscripts and over 20,000 printed volumes: the manuscripts alone constituting one of the largest private collections of scientific and mathematical texts. The texts in the present manuscript were assembled and bound by Boncompagni: remnants of his shelf label on spine and numbers 176 (see E. Narducci, Catalogo di Manoscritti Ora Posseduti D. Baldassarre Boncompagni, Rome, 1862, pp.74-75, no 176) and 122 (E. Narducci, Catalogo di Manoscritti Ora Posseduti D. Baldassarre Boncompagni, Rome, 1892, pp.77-78, no 122). Sold by his heirs in Catalogo della Biblioteca Boncompagni. I Manoscritti. Facsimili, Edizioni del Secolo XV. Abbachi Riviste, Rome, 1898, lot 99. (3) Robert B Honeyman (1897-1987), metallurgical engineer and bibliophile. Purchased in 1932: his shelf mark ‘Gen Sci 6 Ms23’. His sale at Sotheby’s, May 2 1979, lot 1109 to Nico Israel. Offered in cat.22, Interesting Books and Manuscripts on Various Subjects […], 1980, no 20, and purchased by: (4) J.G. Bergart, and loaned to the John Hay Library, Brown University (published in K.P. Harrington, ed., Medieval Latin, 1997, p.661 and p.31, where dated c.1390). (5) Bonhams, 22 June 2011, lot 1009. Contents: BOETHIUS, Anicius Manlius Severinus, De Institutione Arithmetica, opening ‘In dandis accipiendisque muneribus […]’, Book I ff.1-25, Book II ff.25-64; GROSSETESTE, Robert, Compotus, opening with a list of the twelve chapters on f.65, and the text proper ‘Computus e[st] sci[en]t[i]a num[era]tionis et divisionis t[em]por[um]’ ff.65-93; Tables for the comparison of Christian and Arabic years, tables of conjunction and opposition with explanatory notes, opening ‘Tabula ad inueniendum annos arabum’, ff.93v-96; [DE PULCHRO RIVO, Johannes, attrib.], Computus Manualis, opening ‘Inte[n]tio in hoc Capitulo e[st] Artem [...]’, ff.97-101; blank ff.102-3; FIBONACCI, Leonardo, Liber Radicum [chapte