BONGO, Pietro. Numerorum mysteria.

Bound with: Appendix ad ea quae de Numerorum Mysteriis egit. Bergamo, Comin Ventura, 1591 e 1599.

4to, mm. 240x190; contemporary full vellum binding, title ms. in the spine; 2 parts with Title-pages, dated 1591 and 1599; 52 leaves nn., 676 pp. (i.e. 678), 1 c., 60 cc. nn. [Index], 4 cc. nn., 77 pp., 3 pp. b. Segn.: a⁸(a8+χ²) b⁴(b4+²χ²) c⁸ \ast!⁸ 2\ast!⁸ 3\ast!⁸ blank. Copper engraving on full page with arms of the noble family Bongo, typographical devices to the two title-pages, some ornamented initials, numerical figures within the text, italic type. A contemporary signature to the Title-page.

Rare expanded edition, complete with the Appendix appeared in 1599. The book is an encyclopedia on the symbolism of numbers in key mystery and esoteric. DBI: "The basis of the work is the attempt to give the Pythagorean doctrine with the Christian ... ... The introduction highlights the difference between pure mathematics ... and the attempt of the B. and many other authors his contemporaries to reabsorb the 'science of numbers' in a metaphysics of the numbers ... This particular setting, in a sense antimatematica and unscientific, causes the B. do not worry about problems strictly numerical, and try to transform the 'interpretation of the magic number in a religious interpretation. " Smith: "It was written by a priest for the use of preachers, and it includes all of the allusions to matters longer available as the three mystic That Bungus could find in ancient literature. He takes up the various numbers from one to ten in the same way, together with a few of the interesting blackberries larger numbers. For students interested in number mysticism popular the book still remains the classic in its way. It is of much value anche in showing the nature of the Roman numerals in use in the sixteenth century. "Loria says that in a particular case the Bongo would advance Leibniz. This last and final issue, is revised, corrected and expanded: were replaced cc. A1-2, a7-8, is added a bifolio the first and second file and, in the end, the extensive appendix and the comprehensive index of 60 cc., without which the work was hardly available.

This model appears to be a variant than that surveyed in ICCU and contains two extra cards in the final part, π⁴ instead π².D.B.I., XII, pp. 71-2; Loria, St. delle Matematiche, p. 589, nota 2; Smith, Rara arithmetica, pp. 383-384; Riccardi I, 202; Biblioteca magica della Casanatese 224; Caillet 798; Thorndike VI, 458-459; Savoldelli, Comino Ventura, Annali tipografici 253; IT\ICCU\BVEE\002919.

Some slight foxing, excellent specimen intact in its original binding. Il lotto viene venduto provvisto di licenza d'esportazione.THE LOT IS OFFERED WITH A VALID EXPORT LICENCE