CALANDRI, FILIPPO. - [ONE OF THE FIRST PRINTED ARITHMETICS.]
Aritmetica (Arimethrica). In Italian.
(Florence, 1518) - Colophon: Impresso nella Excelsa Cipta di Firenze per Bernardo Zuchetta anno M.D.XVIII. A di.XX. di Luglio. Small 8vo. (14,4x10,5 cm.). A little later full vellum with small repairs to top edge and part of front hinge. On back in faint ink "Aritmetics". 86 leaves (of 104). Lacks 18 leaves of the first 3 quires (of A8-D8, of which only 7 are present and loose, from here the book is complete). The 7 loose leaves slightly frayed in margins. 3 leaves with small repairs without loss. Last leaf with loss of lower right corner causing loss of some letters on F 104 r. Some leaves with woodcut borders, 16 geometrical diagrams in the text and 37 small woodcut illustrations (illustrating the arithmetical problems). In general fine and clean with only a few smaller brownspots.
¶ The extremely scarce second edition, which seems to follow the first ( from 1491) page by page and having the same illustrations from the same blocks allthough it has another printer. It is one of the first books at all to teach commercial calculation and it is the first Italian printed arithmetic with illustrations. It gives the leading rules for integers and for lire, soldi and denari, and likewise puts division down in examples. Calandri is the first to give long divisons in the modern form, known to the Italian writers by the name "a danda". "Indeed Calandri gives only the 'a danda' method, omitting the galley forms, and is therefore fully a century ahead of his time." (David E. Smith). - In Augustus de Morgan's bibliography: Arithmetical Books from the Invention of Printing to the Present Time, 1847, Calandri's Arithmetic is listed as the first. - David E. Smith in his "Rara Arithmetica" pp. 47-49 describes this second edition as a quarto, indicating that he has not seen it himself. - Only one copy at international auctions in the last 50 years (Honeyman Collection No. 568). - Brunet I:1468 (ed. 1491) - Klebs: 236.2.
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