PECHAM, Johannes;

Perspectiva Communis.

      Paris ? 1505 In-folio de 18 ff.ch.; maroquin bleu glacé janséniste, filets intérieurs dorés (Zaehnsdorf) Cf. Brunet, III, 534, Durling, 3579, Becker, 291.2; Mortimer, 367; Essling, n°1427 pour d'autres éditions; Smith, History of Mathematics, II, p. 341. La Perspectiva Communis est un des premiers traités modernes de perspective et d'optique. Bonne édition donnée par Luca Gaurico. Elle reproduit l'édition de Sessa, Venise, 1504, est illustrée du même beau bois sur le titre, mais ici une fleur de lys remplace l'écusson au chat sous la gravure; figures géométriques dans le texte et dans les marges. The work on which Pecham's fame has chiefly rested is the Perspectiva communis, probably written between 1277 and 1279 during Pecham's professorship at the Papal Curia. In the first book Pecham discussed propagation of light and colour, the anatomy and physiology of the eye, the act of visual perception, physical requirements for vision. In book II he discussed vision by reflected rays... Book III was devoted to the phenomena of refraction, the rainbow and the milky way (...) The perspectiva Communis was one of the most widely used of all optical texts from the early fourteenth century until the close of the sixteenth century [influencing Leonardo da Vinci and Johannes Kepler among others], and it remains today the best index of what was known to the scientific community in general on the subject. (D.S.B.). Bel exemplaire.