B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

Year: 1564
Place: Venice
Publisher: Francesco di Franceschi
Edition: 1st
Language: Italian
Figures: two double-page figures plus many woodcuts in the
text
Binding: contemporary vellum; with ties renewed
Pagination: ff. [4], 48, 45–48, 49–141, [3]
Collation: A4A–M4M4N–2N4 Cosimo Bartoli, B 109
(Signature M repeated)
Size: 226x170 mm
Reference: Ricdi BMI I, p. 90
Cosimo Bartoli was an exponent of using Italian,
rather than Latin, for technical writing. In this book
on surveying, he essentially translates the earlier Latin
works of others (e.g., Oronce Fine, Alberti, Dürer and
Gemma Frisius), making them available to the average
literate Italian. The border of the title page is copied from
Erwin Tomash Library
Bartoli, Cosimo Bartoli, Cosimo
B 109
Quadrant, B 109
Jacob’s staff, B 109
Circumferentor, B 109
his 1550 translation of Alberti’s De Re Aedificatoria (not
in this collection), but his portrait was done specifically
for this one. The title page, portrait and all the woodcut
illustrations were used for subsequent editions of this
work.
This well-known volume actually comprises six books,
covering everything a surveyor should know about a
variety of instruments. It begins with simple illustrations
of the use of Jacob’s Staff and a quadrant with shadow
scales and progresses to the use of more complex
instruments in a wide variety of applications. The second
and third books cover practical applications of plane
and solid geometry such as finding areas and volumes
of irregular figures. Book 4 deals with cartography
and is notable for a description of the use of the device
called a circumferentor—an instrument combining a
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