La prospettiva di Euclide, Nella quale si tratta di quelle cose, che per raggi diritti si veggono & di quelle, che con raggi reflessi nelli specchi appariscono Tradotto dal R.P.M. Egnatio Danti Cosmografo del Seren. Gran Duca di Toscana. Insieme con la Prospettiua di Eliodoro Larisseo

Firenze: Nella Stamperia de' Giunti, 1573 First Italian edition of Euclid's Optica (La prospettiva di Euclide), together with a translation of the spurious Catoptrica (Gli specchi di Euclide). La prospettiua di Eliodoro Larisseo follows, first in the Italian, and then in the Greek and Latin versions, in parallel columns. Contemporary vellum over stiff boards, title in manuscript on spine. . Small quarto. Geometrical diagrams in text. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, decorative initial letters, tail-pieces, and other vignettes. Separate title-page for La Prospettiva di Elidoro Larisseo, with small typographic vignette. Covers soiled, with a few (truncated) stains, one wormhole at spine, light worming to pastedown endpapers. Dampstain at top edge and fore-edge in first and last few leaves, first few leaves closely cropped at top edge, grazing a few words, but not affecting legibility. A little light foxing and toning, and a few additional small stains. One inch tear at fore-edge of blank between the two works. A good, sound copy. Euclid's Optics is a work on vision written around 300 BC. The earliest surviving manuscript of Optics is in Greek and dates from the 10th century AD. It focuses almost completely on the geometry of vision with little reference to either the physical or psychological aspects of sight. No Westerner had previously given such mathematical attention to the subject of vision. Euclid's work influenced many later Greek, Islamic, and Western European Renaissance scientists and artists. Heliodorus of Larissa (fl. 3rd century?) first propounded the axiom that light on being reflected always chooses the shortest way. (Inventory #: 16485)