Divina Proportione by PACIOLI, Luca - 1509

Venice: Paganino de Paganini, 1509. Hardcover. Very Good. Folio - over 12 - 15" tall. Folio [29.25 x 19.25 cm], (66) ff., including integral blank (E10), 87 plates (unsigned). A6,b-d8,E10, a-b8, c10, (unsigned plates), including title and final leaf printed in red and black and numerous geometrical diagrams printed in margin of text section, as well as floral and criblé initials in text. Bound in 19th century red morocco (c 1849-1879) signed Trautz-Bauzonnet, with morocco ex-libris of Robert Hoe, joints worn but sound. Sympathetically washed. Repair to initial P on D1, with some letters or partial letters restored on verso; minor repair to clean tear in blank upper margin of illustration XIIII. Generally a very large and attractive copy with clear and bright impressions of the illustrations. First and only edition of one of the richest sources for studying the interplay of mathematics, art and architectural theory and typography during the High Renaissance by the mathematician Luca Pacioli, with illustrations designed by Leonardo da Vinci. For height and amplitude of margins, this is among the finest copies we have encountered in 30 years, two cm taller than the excellent Schaefer copy. A copy with a fine, and for a work of typographical interest, appropriate provenance, having belonged to the great American collector and printing magnate Robert Hoe (1839-1909), the founding President of the Grolier Club. The Divina proportione is one of the most remarkable illustrated books published in the sixteenth century. In it, the author sets forth a way of describing the visible world in terms of its common geometrical elements, what he calls the "divine proportion." Based on the writings of Plato, Euclid, and Vitruvius, and arguing his thesis by means of exegesis and the generous use of evocative illustration, Pacioli claims that this proportional element is shared by a variety of solid bodies, from human anatomy to architectural forms and even to the composition of the letter forms in the Roman alphabet. The work treats stereometry & related subjects and includes 61 remarkable illustrations by Leonardo da Vinci, which form the earliest work from the artist's hand to appear in print. "Pacioli formed a close relationship with Leonardo da Vinci when both were at the court of Lodovico il Moro in Milan. Pacioli's treatises and Leonardo's notebooks testify to their association. Pacioli knew Leonardo's work during this period in great detail," and he acknowledges that Leonardo was responsible for the designs of stereometric bodies appended to the Divina proportione. -Daly, Piero della Francesca's Mathematical Texts, p. 5. According to Marinoni, Leonardo studied Euclid under the tutelage of Pacioli in order to acquire "some deeper knowledge of geometry before undertaking the splendid drawings of solid bodies" for his book. (DSB VIII. 235)