Elementorum.

Accession number: 
PML 330
Author: 
Euclid.
Published: 
Venice : Erhard Ratdolt, 25 May 1482.
Description: 
[138] leaves ; 32 x 22.5 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from incipit (leaf a2r): Preclarissimus liber elementorum Euclidis perspicacissimi: in artem Geometrie incipi qua[m]foelicissime:.
Colophon (leaf r7v): Opus elementoru[m] euclidis megarensis in geometria[m] arte[m] In id quoq[ue] Campani p[re]spicacissimi Co[m]mentationes finiu[n]t. Erhardus ratdolt Augustensis impressor solertissimus. venetiis impressit. Anno salutis .M.cccc.lxxxii. Octavis. Calen[das]. Jun[ii].
Printed in types 1:109R, 3:91G, 4:56G, 6:76G, and 7:92G.
Collation: a¹⁰ b-r⁸: 138 leaves, leaf r8 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio
Incipit (leaf a2r) printed in red.
At least seven copies have the dedication printed in gold in a variant typesetting (BL, C.2.c.1; Paris BN (2, 1 on vellum, 1 on paper); Munich BSB (2); Budapest Univ; Augsburg SStB). Copies are known with leaves 2-9 in variant typesetting (see GW Anm. 2). For stop-press variants see C. Bühler in Gb Jb 1966, pp.102-104.
Euclides is the author of the first 13 books, Hypsicles of the 14th while the 15th belongs to the school of Isidorus Milesius (Hillard).
Woodcut border to first page, and initials; geometrical designs on margins, done from metal dies.
Translated by Adelardus Bathoniensis. Edited by Johannes Campanus. With dedicatory letter by Erhard Ratdolt to Giovanni Mocenigo.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 31 x 21 cm.
PML copy missing 1 leaf: r8 (blank).

Binding: 
17th/18th-century vellum over paper boards (32 x 22.5 cm), sewn on 4 supports; rebacked and repaired by Duprez Lahey. Modern plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; plain endbands; sprinkled edges. 2 ties, wanting.
Variant Title: 

Elementa geometriae

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication not required. Annotations: Contemporary notations on leaves a1-2 and b5r, in a German(?) hand.

Provenance: 
Joannes Michael Bernhold (1736-1797), inscription, "Phil & Med. Dr., 1787" (leaf a1r); William Horatio Crawford (1815?-1888), of Lakelands, Cork, bookplate (front pastedown); his sale, Sotheby's, 12 March 1891, lot 1167, to Bernard Quaritch for £8.5.0 (not in Quartich's Lakelands sale catalogue of 1891); William Morris (1834-1896), Kelmscott House, Hammersmith, booklabel (front pastedown); Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front pastedown); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Department: