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KIRCHER, Athanase.
Tariffa Kircheriana, id est inventum aucthoris novum Expeditâ, & mirâ arte
combinatâ methodo, universalmen Geometria, Arithmeticaae practicae summam continens.
Rome,
Nicola Angeli Tinassi, 1679.
2 volumes in-8 (136 x 88 mm) de 2
ff.n.ch. (premier blanc, faux-titre),
III pp., 8
ff.n.ch., 316 pp., 2
ff.n.ch(errata, et dernier blanc), 24 planches gravées sur bois (la plupart
dépliantes) pour le volume I ; 202
ff.n.ch.pour le volume II ; vélin rigide, dos à nerfs avec titre
manuscrit, tranches mouchetées
(reliure italienne de l’époque).
5 000 / 6 000
€
Backer-Sommervogel, IV, 1070 ; voir Vagnetti, EIIIb42 (pour les ouvrages d’optique) ; Merill, Athanasius
Kircher, 28.
Édition originale avec le texte révisé par Benedetto Benedetti.
“
The
Tariffa
, perhaps the rarest of all Kircher’s works and his least characteristic, is entirely mathematical
” (Merill).
L’ouvrage le plus rare d’Athanase Kircher (1602-1680), le
Tariffa
propose de nombreuses solutions
à des problèmes d’arithmétique et de géométrie. Le premier volume est essentiellement consacré à la
trigonométrie, le second volume contient des tables pour faciliter les calculs vectoriels, des surfaces,
et des formes géométriques. Le premier volume est richement illustré de 24 planches gravées sur bois.
“
The
Tariffa Kircheriana
offered a detailed description of the miraculous Kircherian combinatorial art that
would quickly allow all the princes and nobles of Europe – and presumably anyone else “occupied by more
important business” who could read Latin – to master all of geometry and arithmetic. In fact, Kircher himself
seems to have become exactly that sort of person by 1679 – at least this was how his associates described him
rather than acknowledging that he was no longer capable of completing his own books. Kircher consigned
the final preparation of the
Tariffa
to Benedetto Benedetti, professor of mathematics at la Sapienza, who
described how “new occupations of great moment” had obliged Kircher to offer him the privilege of becoming
his editor
” (Paul Findlen,
Athanasius Kircher. The last man who knew everything
, p. 4).
Bel exemplaire, bien conservé malgré quelques feuillets légèrement brunis.
First edition, published by Bendetto Benedetti, professor of arithmetics at La Sapienza. Volume one,
with a universal method of geometry and arithmetic after Kircher’s own invention, is lavishly illustrated
woodcuts on various subjects (architecture, land surveying, music, clock making, perspective,
projection, etc.). The second volume contains extensive tables for the calculations of vectors, surfaces,
triangles, squares, cubes, pyramids, etc.
Tariffa Kircheriana
is Kircher’s rarest title.